♪ david: this is, uh, my kitchen table and also my filing system. over much of the past three decades, i've been an investor. the highest calling of mankind, i've often thought, was private equity. [laughter] and then i started interviewing. i watched your interviews, so i know how to do some interviewing. [laughter] i've 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 don't 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 non-humans 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 have done 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 don't we dedicate 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? dr. goodall: it was my father. who i really did not know because he signed up for world

war ii when 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 10 years old. you told your mother you would like to go to africa and see the chimpanzees. what did you say when you said you wanted to study 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 told me africa is far away, you don't 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 don't 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 just 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: a friend's 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] i'm 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 didn't. [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 won't take responsibility for this young girl, but leakey never gave up. they said she could not 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. 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 ex-army 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 used 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, never. 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. 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 i'm 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. a leaf, digging hollow of a tree for water 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 agreed to fund my 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 she's 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. [laughter] 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 i'm 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? wasn't 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 it 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 you're doing this? what 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 don't 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. ♪

david: most of your life you devoted to chimpanzees but recently you started institute. what is that designed to do? dr. goodall: everything shut down and so some friends of mine said let's start in institute so that this research can 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. we've 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 don't help these people to find ways of making a living without destroying their environment, conservation won't 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 don't 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 don't 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 don't 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 don't know how many years i have left, but when i was young,

i had this time, and now i'm coming up towards whenever the end is. could be one year, could be five years, could be 10, 20, i don't know, but i'm moving closer, so i have to speed up because there is still so much, i have to do. ♪

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hannah: would you like to turn back your biological clock? look younger and live longer? i know i would. and so, i am lying inside this small glass tube, breathing high-pressure oxygen in a bid to rejuvenate my cells.