2024-02-07
54 分钟Ami Vitale is a renowned National Geographic photographer and documentarian with a deep commitment to wildlife conservation and environmental education. Her work, spanning over a hundred countries, includes spending a decade as a conflict photographer in places like Kosovo, Gaza, and Kashmir. She joined Tyler to discuss why we should stay scary to pandas, whether we should bring back extinct species, the success of Kenyan wildlife management, the mental cost of a decade photographing war, what she thinks of the transition from film to digital, the ethical issues raised by Afghan Girl, the future of National Geographic, the heuristic guiding of where she'll travel next, what she looks for in a young photographer, her next project, and more. Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video. Recorded November 1st, 2023. Other ways to connect Follow us on X and Instagram Follow Tyler on X Sign up for our newsletter Join our Discord Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu Learn more about Conversations with Tyler and other Mercatus Center podcasts here.
Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems.
Learn more@mercatus.org dot for a full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links, visit conversationswithtyler.com.
hello, everyone, and welcome back to conversations with Tyler.
Today I'm chatting with Amy Vitale.
She is a National Geographic photographer, writer, speaker, and documentary filmmaker.
She's been a wartime conflict photographer for about ten years.
She is an important figure in the animal conservation movement, and she's traveled to more than 100 countries.
She's author of the 2018 bestselling book Pandalove, and she is founder and director of a new nonprofit for arts education around the world called Vital Impacts.
You can see her work on her homepage if you google her.
That's Amy, a m I, Ami vitaly, and also on Instagram.
Amy, welcome.
Thank you, Tyler.
It's wonderful to be with you today.
Why is it that human panda keepers dress up as pandas?
Well, the thinking was that pandas should never be comfortable around humans because humans are one of the biggest threats to most wild animals.
And in this case, these were captive born pandas who were being trained to go back to the wild because after one generation in captivity, they do not know how to survive in the wild.
And so the lucky pandas that were chosen to be a part of this program, they didn't want them interacting with humans.
And the main point about it is that these costumes, it was more pandas go by smell, not sight.
So the panda costumes were actually scented with panda urine.
The thought was that they should not know that humans were around them.