Over much of the past three decades, ive been an investor. The highest calling of mankind, ive often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. I watched your interviews, so i know how to do some interviewing. [laughter] ive learned from doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. Jeff i asked him how much he wanted. He said 250. I said fine. I did not negotiate with him, and i did no due diligence. David i have something i would like to sell. [laughter] and how they stay there. You dont feel inadequate now being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right . [laughter] one of the most admired people in the world is dr. Jane goodall. About 60 years ago, she moved to africa to study chimpanzees, and what she learned revolutionized our understanding of what nonhumans can do. Today, she is devoting herself to inspiring young people around the world to do more to protect the climate and the environment for animals in africa and all over the world. I had the chance to sit down with dr. Jane goodall recently and learn firsthand why this woman, 89 years old, is still so admired and dedicated to helping make the planet a better place. Thank you very much for coming here. We are going to go through a lot of what you have done and the things that make you so popular. On your last name. That kind of describes everything. Good all. You ever thought of changing it to good for all because you are doing so many things or great all . Dr. Goodall [laughs] we have on our website good for all news because i truly believe that we need to know the doom and gloom, we do, but why dont we give more time to amazing people and wonderful projects around the world that you read and people say, wow, they did that . Well, we can do it, too. David you have inspired a lot of people. No doubt a lot of people here have read about what you have done. You grew up in london or in england . Dr. Goodall england. David when you were one year old, you were given a book about chimpanzees . Is that true . Dr. Goodall it was my father. Who i really did not know because it was just be world war ii and he signed up before war was declared. He gave me a stuffed chimpanzee who was named for the first chimpanzee born in the london zoo in a jubilee of queen george and mary, i suppose, but i took him everywhere. But people have the misapprehension that because of that i studied chimpanzees. It was not true. The chimpanzee interest i finally saved up money. I had to be a waitress. We had no money in my family, and i could not even afford university, so i did this boring secretarial course, and i got invited to kenya by a school friend, so i worked as a waitress to save up the fare. And so, i would have studied any animal. I was 10 years old when my dream was, i will go to africa and live with wild animals and write books about them. Why . Because i was in love with tarzan. [laughter] david you did that at 10yearsold. You told your mother you would like to go to africa and see the chimpanzees. Dr. Goodall not the chimpanzees. I would have studied anything. David what did she say . Anything . Dr. Goodall my mother put that down to the wise way she brought me up, she was supportive. Everybody laughed at me. They told me africa is far away, you dont have money, it is dangerous, and you are just a girl. Remember, this is going back 70 years now. My mother said, if you really want to do this, you will have to work really hard, take advantage of every opportunity, and if you dont give up, hopefully, you find a way. David you saved your money, you told your parents that you are really going to africa, and they did not say, well, that was nice to talk about, but you cannot do it . Dr. Goodall my father was away. They divorced. It was my mother. She said, stick to it if you want to do it. Do you know how many people have written to me and said, jane, i want to thank you because you did it, and i can do it too. David you do this at the age of 23. How did you pick which part of africa . Tanzania, for example. Dr. Goodall my friends parents had bought a farm in kenya. While i was there, i met the famous paleontologist, louis leakey, and he gave me an opportunity to study not just any animal, but the one most like us, the chimpanzee. I would have studied a mouse if i could be out in the african bush. [laughter] david leakey was the famous paleontologist who came up with the theory that humans pretty much evolved out of Southern Africa and was famous for that. Did you get to know him . Dr. Goodall very well. I told you i had to do that boring secretarial course. When i heard about him and went to see him, his secretary had just left, and he needed a secretary. There i was. [laughter] im right now surrounded by people who could answer my questions about the animals and birds and everything. David at one point, you said, i really want to go live with the chimpanzees. Dr. Goodall no, i didnt. [laughter] david ok. As i said, you did not say that. What did you say . Dr. Goodall i told him i really wanted to study animals. David ok. Dr. Goodall for some reason, although i had not been to college, he believed i could do it. He had been looking for someone for 10 years he told me to help them study not just any animal but our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees. David so, he said how long had you worked for him before you said you could do this . Dr. Goodall a year. David did he just give you guidance or tell you where to go . Dr. Goodall no. He did not have money. It took him a year to get the money. Tanzania, where the chimps were and are, was still part of the british protectorate, and the british authorities said, we wont take responsibility for this young girl, but leakey never gave up. They said she cannot come alone, so who volunteered . That same amazing, supportive mother. David your mother came to africa to help you study the chimpanzees . Dr. Goodall well, she did not do the study. She looked after the camp. [laughter] david you are supposed to live with them, right . Dr. Goodall live with them. And learn from them. David do you get a tent or something . Dr. Goodall a tent. David was it dangerous . Were you worried they might attack you . Dr. Goodall for me, we had an old exarmy tent, mum and i between us. I would go happily up into the mountains every morning following my dream. Mum would be left in the camp. And if you wanted air in the tent, you rolled up the side flaps and tied them with tape, and in came air but also scorpions, spiders, snakes, which i did not mind about, but poor mum. [laughter] [applause] david you set up a tent. How did you engage the chimpanzees . How did you get close to them . How did you not worry about their attacking you . How did you befriend them . Dr. Goodall with great difficulty. [laughs] remember, i had money for six months. For four of those months, they ran away as soon as they saw me. And, you know, i knew given time i could win their trust, but did i have the time . Days turned to weeks turned to months. It was wonderful because what mum did, she boosted my morale. She said, jane, with your binoculars you are seeing how chimps Wander Around by themselves in small groups, big groups. You are learning about the foods they eat, how they make nests at night, so she really helped boost my morale. David you were not trained as a scientist. Dr. Goodall no. David so, you use your powers of observation to see what they were doing . Dr. Goodall yes, and my inborn love of animals, my curiosity, my fascination. Leakey told me nothing. He never even visited. David when you go to see the chimpanzees, you first engage them. Do you give them food or something . Dr. Goodall no, i just tried to get them used to me. Eventually it was very sad, because it was just two weeks after mum left, that i saw this one famous chimpanzee, david graybeard, and he was the first to lose his fear. On this day, i saw him using grass stems to fish termites. David does it get lonely out there, just you and the chimpanzees . No cell phones, no anything. Did you get lonely . Dr. Goodall we did not even have lab computers at that time. Lonely. David all day, what did you do . What did you do, look at the chimpanzees, try to get close to them . Dr. Goodall tried to get close. Watched them with my binoculars. If they nested, i would go back to have supper with mum and go back out so i could be near them in the morning, and i was scared of leopards. I would hear them at night when i was up there alone with my little blanket. And i would hear the leopards hunting song, and i would pull that blanket over my head. [laughter] david did you ever say to yourself, how did i get myself into this, or did you always say, i am glad im doing this . Dr. Goodall no, i was following my dream. They were the best days of my life. David so, eventually, you go back to dr. Leakey and give him a report on what you learned and, in that report, you kind of changed the perception around the world of chimpanzees. Because people thought at that time, as i understand it, that chimpanzees are not capable of making tools. Only humans can do that. Dr. Goodall right. David you discovered they make tools for what purpose . Dr. Goodall fishing for termites. Crumpling leaves to get water from a tree because they could not get it with their lips. David did you ever eat termites . Dr. Goodall i had to eat one just to say i had done so. [laughter] david do people say how can this woman not trained as a scientist come up with a discovery that we famous scientists did not know about . Is that the essence of the problem . Dr. Goodall they were extremely arrogant, most of them. [laughter] they were saying things like, well, she is just a girl. She is straight out of england. Why should we believe her . One of them even said maybe she taught the chimps to use tools. [laughter] as they were running away at the time. David eventually, National Geographic decides to get a photographer to come over. Dr. Goodall National Geographic came after dr. Leakey approached them and they said they will fund janes research. David National Geographic was able to get people interested because of what reason . Dr. Goodall the scientists said the geographic is giving her money because they can put her on the cover because shes got nice legs. [laughter] if that would happen today, there would be a lawsuit. [laughter] back then it was a different world back then. I just thought, well, if my legs have got me the money to do what i want to do, then thank you, legs. [applause] david National Geographic sent the photographer, they took the pictures, it became a famous article, and then you became pretty well known. Did you decide to go back to england and do Something Else . Get your phd . Dr. Goodall no, leakey wrote to me and said, i picked you because you have not been to university and your brain was not, you know, cluttered up with the very arrogant way scientists treated animals back then, as mere things. But he said, now i want you to be respected by other scientists, so you must get a degree. But we do not have time for an undergraduate degree. I got you a place in Cambridge University in england to do a phd in ethology. I did not know what ethology meant study of behavior. David so you skip the undergraduate part and got a phd . Dr. Goodall i was very nervous. You can imagine. I had never been to college. Just imagine what i felt like when i was told by the scientists, well, first of all, you should not have given the chimpanzees names. If you are a proper scientist, you give them numbers. Then they said, you cannot talk about their personalities, their minds, or their emotions. Those are unique to us. They also said, you must not have empathy with your subjects because a good scientist is objective, and if you have empathy, you cannot be objective, which is rubbish. David so, you got your phd. Did you say now im going to teach at cambridge, or did you decide to go back to africa . Dr. Goodall i was going back in between because i was still learning. We are still learning after 63 years. David chimpanzees, as you discovered, are not quite as nice as you want them to be. They kill each other from time to time, is that right . Dr. Goodall the males are territorial and if they see an individual from a neighboring Community Communities are normally about 50 and that individual will probably die. David when you go away and you come back, go away and come back, they recognize you . Dr. Goodall oh, yeah. David do they bring you a gift or something . Dr. Goodall i never wanted that kind of relationship. Diane fosse with the gorillas, she did. I wanted to watch their behavior as it is without me being in the picture. David for many years, you are living in africa. No electricity, no cell phones, no television. None of the important things you need in life to get by, right . Dr. Goodall no. They are not important at all. [applause] david obviously, they can talk to each other, but is it possible that humans can convey some type of language to the chimpanzees or teach them how to add . Wasnt that something you were working on at one point, teaching them addition or words, and how did that work out . Dr. Goodall i never have, but chimpanzees have been taught sign language and can learn up to about 700 words that deaf people use. From that, you can learn fascinating things. For example, some chimpanzees love to paint or draw. Not all of them, and these are captive ones, of course, but one young chimpanzee she was four years old, and she used to fill her page with lovely lines of different colors. On this occasion, she made a drawing like that, so her teacher handed the paper back and signed finish, so the chimpanzee looked at him and handed it back and said finish. This went on about two times, and then the teacher had the brains to say what is it, and the chimpanzee signed back, a ball. A human is doing a ball, right . What has the chimp done . The bounce. That gives you a whole new feeling of looking at the world through the eyes of a chimp. She is drawing the movement. David wow. Why do you think people are so fascinated by what you have achieved in your life . I mean, when you were doing this, you were not doing this for world acclaim but because you are interested in it. But it turns out the world is fascinated by what you have done with your life. Why do you think that is . Is it people like chimpanzees or the dedication you have shown, or they just admire youre doing this . What do you think it is they why do you think you are so beloved . Dr. Goodall i think you should ask somebody else. [laughter] some people are fascinated by the chimps, especially children. Some people love it that i was a woman. I think of myself as a human. I dont care about the male female bit. David really . Do you think a man could have done this better than you did this . No. Dr. Goodall well, there are amazing male people studying apes, but it just happened it was me. David a lot of people, when they turn 89 want to chill out a bit, relax, maybe spend time with the grandkids. You are not slowing down any . Dr. Goodall i truly feel i was put on this planet with a mission, and right now, the mission is to give people hope. Super excited to open up my diploma from Southern New Hampshire university. Im nervous, im excited. [man] okay, lets see it. Lets see it. Oh my gosh. Jesus suarez, i did it and its here. group cheers [narrator] next term starts soon. Visit snhu. Edu. Visit snhu. Edu. Give into the rhythm of the islands and delight in a caribbean state of mind. Visit sandals. Com or call 1800 sandals. Dr. Goodall that started in 1997 and some students by then, i had a Little Research station, and four of my students were kidnapped, and everything shut down. Some friends of mine said, lets start an institute so this research could carry on, bless them. That was 1977, and it was set up to study, conserve chimpanzees and other animals, and educate. It has developed since then. Weve got 27 jane Goodall Institutes around the world. And then i realized at some point that the African People living in and around chimpanzee habitats right across africa were struggling to survive. It was crippling poverty, lack of health and education, moving deeper into the forest, being exposed to diseases like ebola and hiv from the chimpanzees and vice versa. Suddenly, it hit me. If we dont help these people to find ways of making a living without destroying their environment, conservation wont work. David you have devoted a large part of the Goodall Institute to Climate Change and conservation. Is that right . Dr. Goodall yes, absolutely. Right now, i mean, you know, we face these two existential threats, do not we . Climate change, which is a change of weather patterns all around the world. We had the flooding yesterday, day before yesterday, and then loss of biodiversity. What people dont realize we are not only part of the natural world, even though with our cell phones and virtual reality, we feel divorced from nature, but we depend on it for food, water, clothing, everything, but what we depend on is healthy ecosystems, and an ecosystem is this magical mix of plants and animals, each one with a role to play. If you think of it as a beautiful tapestry, every time a species goes from that tapestry, it is like pulling a thread until the tapestry hangs in tatters, and then the ecosystem will collapse, and it is happening. David you have a fairly exhausting schedule. You are going from event to event, but how frequently do you get back to africa . Every couple of weeks . Dr. Goodall twice a year because my family is there partly, and we also have a big sanctuary for orphan chimps in congo. We have another one in south africa. There is one we are involved with in uganda. I need to go back. I need to, you know, give support to the staff there. My family and my grandchildren can come with me. David if you go back now and want to look for some chimpanzees, would you find some that already knew you and would they recognize you still . Dr. Goodall there is just one mother and her daughter that i knew. You know, since i only go back two or three times a year, i dont know the new ones, their children and the young ones, but one of them i knew intimately. David you are Public Information 89 years old, is that right . Dr. Goodall 89, right. David a lot of people, when they turn 89, they want to kind of chill out a little bit and relax, maybe spend time with their grandkids or something, great grandkids. [laughter] you are not slowing down at all. You are not sitting on the beach anywhere or going to palm beach or something . Dr. Goodall how can i . This may sound weird to you, but i truly feel that i was put on this planet with a mission and right now, the mission is to give people hope because if you dont have hope, you give up. You become apathetic and do nothing and then we are doomed. If our young people give up, we are doomed. I dont know how many years i have left, but when i was young, i had this time, and now im coming up towards whenever the end is. Could be one year, could be five years, could be 10, 20, i dont know, but im moving closer, so i have to speed up because there is still so much i have to do. Her uncles unhappy. Im sensing an underlying issue. Its tmobile. It started when we tried to get him under a new plan. But they they unexpectedly unraveled their price lock guarantee. Which has made him, a bit. Unruly. You called yourself the uncarrier. You sing about price lock on those commercials. the price lock, the price lock. so, if you could change the price, change the name its not a lock, i know a lock. So how can we undo the damage . We could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. Their connection is unreal. And we could all unexperience this whole session. Okay, thats uncalled for