WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.580 Imagine abandoning the sterile, brightly lit, 00:00:06.059 --> 00:00:08.160 completely predictable corridors of a United 00:00:08.160 --> 00:00:10.199 States Children's Hospital. Right, a totally 00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:13.460 safe environment. Exactly. And leaving all that 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:17.559 to live in a freezing, muddy, incredibly remote 00:00:17.559 --> 00:00:20.300 camp in the mountainous jungles of Central Africa. 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:23.199 It is an extreme pivot. It really is. And now 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:26.920 imagine that choice ending in your brutal, unsolved 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.390 murder. Yeah. Like, how does a healthcare worker 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:33.250 caring for kids become, you know, a militant 00:00:33.250 --> 00:00:36.409 misanthrope and eventually a target for assassination? 00:00:36.689 --> 00:00:39.630 I mean, it is one of the most drastic, jarring, 00:00:39.770 --> 00:00:42.049 and ultimately fatal life pivots imaginable. 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:44.350 You don't just wake up one day and decide to 00:00:44.350 --> 00:00:46.630 wage a one -woman war against humanity in the 00:00:46.630 --> 00:00:50.289 middle of the jungle without some profound psychological 00:00:50.289 --> 00:00:52.270 tectonic shifts happening beneath the surface. 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:54.149 And that is exactly our mission for this Deep 00:00:54.149 --> 00:00:56.409 Dive. We are unpacking the fascinating, highly 00:00:56.409 --> 00:01:00.500 controversial and tragic life of conservationist 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:03.140 Diane Fossey. Yes, and we have a really incredible 00:01:03.140 --> 00:01:06.400 source for this. We do. For you listening, we 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:10.000 are relying on a really specific, powerful stack 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.099 of information surrounding the 1987 biography 00:01:13.099 --> 00:01:16.079 called Wolf in the Mists. Written by the Canadian 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:18.680 author and conservationist Farley Moet. Right, 00:01:18.859 --> 00:01:21.500 but we need to set expectations immediately here. 00:01:21.900 --> 00:01:25.200 If you are picturing a sanitized saintly biography 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:28.420 of a pristine nature hero. The kind where birds 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:31.120 just land on her shoulders while she sings. Exactly 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:32.959 that kind. If that's what you're picturing you 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.180 need to throw that image out the window. Who's 00:01:35.180 --> 00:01:37.939 far out the window? Moet's book is vital because 00:01:37.939 --> 00:01:41.760 it refuses to look away from the messy reality 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:43.719 of conservation. Yeah, it's not a fairy tale. 00:01:43.879 --> 00:01:46.400 Not at all. We are talking about dark corporate 00:01:46.400 --> 00:01:49.840 intrigue, massive government friction, and personality 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:53.260 so intense, so rigid and uncompromising, that 00:01:53.260 --> 00:01:55.819 she ended up alienating almost every single person 00:01:55.819 --> 00:01:57.900 who tried to work with her. I am just naturally 00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:00.379 curious about how a radical life shift like this 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:02.180 even happens in the first place. Right, where 00:02:02.180 --> 00:02:04.560 does it start? Yeah, because you don't just accidentally 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:07.400 end up in the mist -trouted mountains of Rwanda. 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:11.060 If you're working a safe, secure job in the U 00:02:11.060 --> 00:02:14.900 .S., what triggers that kind of total transformation? 00:02:15.620 --> 00:02:17.699 To understand that, we really have to look at 00:02:17.699 --> 00:02:20.439 the sheer force of her will. Because the origin 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:22.960 story is where the friction really begins. Okay, 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:25.759 as you mentioned in the late 1950s Fossey was 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:27.900 working in a children's hospital in the u .s. 00:02:28.139 --> 00:02:30.340 She wasn't an established field researcher didn't 00:02:30.340 --> 00:02:32.400 have the academic better great She had absolutely 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:34.840 no formal background in zoology or anthropology, 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:39.039 but she develops this this overwhelming fixation 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:41.939 on wanting to become a field anthropologist wait 00:02:42.060 --> 00:02:43.919 I need to pause you there. Sure. Because if you 00:02:43.919 --> 00:02:46.379 have zero field experience, you don't just like 00:02:46.379 --> 00:02:48.479 walk into a jungle and start doing high level 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:50.659 observational science. No, you definitely don't. 00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:52.520 So how did she even get her foot in the door? 00:02:52.699 --> 00:02:55.659 She practically forced the door open. The major 00:02:55.659 --> 00:02:59.810 catalyst comes in 1960. She manages, through 00:02:59.810 --> 00:03:02.750 just sheer persistence, to land an interview 00:03:02.750 --> 00:03:05.509 with Louis Leakey. Yeah, and for context, in 00:03:05.509 --> 00:03:08.569 the 1960s, Leakey wasn't just a scientist. He 00:03:08.569 --> 00:03:11.590 was an absolute kingmaker in the world of anthropology. 00:03:11.789 --> 00:03:14.189 Like, if he pointed at you and said, go to Africa, 00:03:14.729 --> 00:03:18.030 your life changed forever. Exactly. And he is 00:03:18.030 --> 00:03:20.509 the one who ultimately encourages her to go study 00:03:20.509 --> 00:03:23.210 the mountain gorillas of Central Africa firsthand. 00:03:23.530 --> 00:03:26.530 And she just goes for it. She does. But the sources 00:03:26.530 --> 00:03:29.990 note... She does this entirely against the wishes 00:03:29.990 --> 00:03:32.509 of her friends and her family. Like, they are 00:03:32.509 --> 00:03:34.650 practically begging her not to do this. Yeah, 00:03:34.689 --> 00:03:36.930 they were terrified for her. And she just tunes 00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:39.030 them out completely. It's like leaving a secure, 00:03:39.330 --> 00:03:42.210 predictable desk job to become a frontline soldier 00:03:42.210 --> 00:03:44.270 in a wilderness war zone. That's a great way 00:03:44.270 --> 00:03:47.069 to put it. It defies all conventional self -preservation. 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:49.969 So what was it about her underlying character 00:03:49.969 --> 00:03:52.189 that allowed her to just casually ignore all 00:03:52.189 --> 00:03:53.889 those warnings from the people who loved her 00:03:53.889 --> 00:03:56.729 and just completely abandon her old life? What's 00:03:56.729 --> 00:04:00.009 fascinating here is how Farley Mowat interprets 00:04:00.009 --> 00:04:03.610 that exact decision in the biography. He asserts 00:04:03.610 --> 00:04:06.849 that this leap, this cold willingness to just 00:04:06.849 --> 00:04:10.689 cut ties, ignore every red flag, and walk into 00:04:10.689 --> 00:04:13.610 the absolute unknown against everyone's advice. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:16.800 It perfectly illustrates the immense strength 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.379 of character that defined her. Right. It is the 00:04:19.379 --> 00:04:22.819 very trait that made her a global icon. But Moa 00:04:22.819 --> 00:04:25.500 is very careful to point out that this exact 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:28.879 same rigid, unyielding strength of character 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:31.500 is the mechanism that likely sealed her doom. 00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:33.949 Because if you have the kind of personality that 00:04:33.949 --> 00:04:36.949 can just ghost your family's concerns, you probably 00:04:36.949 --> 00:04:39.050 aren't great at compromising in other areas of 00:04:39.050 --> 00:04:41.250 your life either. Precisely. You can't be that 00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:43.129 headstrong without breaking things along the 00:04:43.129 --> 00:04:45.050 way. Yeah, that makes sense. Initially, though, 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:46.750 it didn't look like a tragedy in the making. 00:04:47.110 --> 00:04:48.970 At first, the sources note she seemed destined 00:04:48.970 --> 00:04:51.250 to follow a path very much like Jane Goodall's. 00:04:51.490 --> 00:04:54.290 Because Leakey famously backed Goodall as well, 00:04:54.329 --> 00:04:57.199 right? Exactly. Fossey was on track to become 00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:59.920 a highly successful traditional scientist doing 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:02.560 this groundbreaking impartial observational work 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.300 with the gorillas. By systematically alienating 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:07.399 everyone though, she didn't stay a traditional 00:05:07.399 --> 00:05:10.519 impartial scientist. No, she really didn't. Okay, 00:05:10.660 --> 00:05:12.959 let's unpack this. Because she transitions from 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:14.560 an impartial researcher, someone who's taking 00:05:14.560 --> 00:05:18.220 notes on a clipboard, to this fierce, completely 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:21.639 dogmatic conservationist. A total radicalization. 00:05:21.740 --> 00:05:24.779 Yeah. The sources say she made absolutely no 00:05:24.779 --> 00:05:27.160 attempt to disguise her hatred and contempt for 00:05:27.160 --> 00:05:30.399 poachers and hunters. How does someone go from 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:33.660 just observing animals to actively hating the 00:05:33.660 --> 00:05:36.899 humans around them? It happens when observation 00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:40.180 is no longer enough to protect what you're observing. 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:43.100 Ah, right. She wasn't just watching these gorillas, 00:05:43.240 --> 00:05:45.500 you know, she was living with them, bonding with 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:48.009 them. They were her family. Basically, yes. And 00:05:48.009 --> 00:05:49.910 then she was watching them get slaughtered by 00:05:49.910 --> 00:05:52.990 poachers. So the shift from scientist to militant 00:05:52.990 --> 00:05:55.730 is fueled by immense grief and rage. It's personal 00:05:55.730 --> 00:05:58.269 now. Highly personal. The text is very clear 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:01.569 on this. Hatred and contempt are the exact words 00:06:01.569 --> 00:06:03.689 used. She stopped gathering data and started 00:06:03.689 --> 00:06:06.209 fighting a literal ground war. But she wasn't 00:06:06.209 --> 00:06:08.529 just fighting poachers, was she? I mean, pop 00:06:08.529 --> 00:06:12.069 culture paints Fosse as this pure environmental... 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:14.779 the hero who just loved the animals. But the 00:06:14.779 --> 00:06:18.279 sources suggest her biggest battles were actually 00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:21.259 with her own research team. They absolutely were. 00:06:21.470 --> 00:06:25.250 Publishers Weekly highlights her recurial personality. 00:06:25.949 --> 00:06:28.029 And Mowat's book does not hide the fact that 00:06:28.029 --> 00:06:30.910 she had a stubborn and difficult personality. 00:06:31.089 --> 00:06:33.329 Not at all. And this is where the reality of 00:06:33.329 --> 00:06:37.250 her daily life in the camp becomes so, so jarring. 00:06:37.750 --> 00:06:40.370 Yeah. She pushed people away constantly. She 00:06:40.370 --> 00:06:43.829 had no intimate friends. She became deeply, deeply 00:06:43.829 --> 00:06:47.290 bitter. Just totally isolated. Exactly. Reviewer 00:06:47.290 --> 00:06:50.009 Stefan Konfer, writing for Time Magazine, notes 00:06:50.009 --> 00:06:53.750 that Moet is scrupulously fair in his portrayal, 00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:56.829 precisely because he shows Fossey actively antagonizing 00:06:56.829 --> 00:06:59.810 her own co -workers. She wasn't just difficult, 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:02.490 she was volatile. Konfer writes that she lurched 00:07:02.490 --> 00:07:05.189 from tantrum to euphoria and back again. Think 00:07:05.189 --> 00:07:08.509 of her personality like a biological immune system 00:07:08.509 --> 00:07:10.750 that's just in complete overdrive. Oh, that's 00:07:10.750 --> 00:07:12.290 an interesting way to look at it. Yeah, it was 00:07:12.290 --> 00:07:14.649 so fiercely protective of the gorillas that it 00:07:14.649 --> 00:07:16.699 started attacking the hell— cells around it. 00:07:17.019 --> 00:07:19.220 Her own colleagues, the local community, the 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:21.560 government officials, literally anyone who tried 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:25.779 to help her. And Time magazine goes so far as 00:07:25.779 --> 00:07:29.439 to outright call her a misanthrope. Someone who 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.079 actively dislikes humankind. And if we connect 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:34.920 this to the bigger picture... It highlights an 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:37.519 incredible tragic paradox of conservation work. 00:07:37.639 --> 00:07:39.839 Which is? You have someone who loves a single 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:43.259 species so intensely with such fierce devotion 00:07:43.259 --> 00:07:46.540 that she completely alienates her own species 00:07:46.540 --> 00:07:49.980 in the process. A profound self -imposed isolation. 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:53.160 Exactly. And we should point out that it makes 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:55.620 perfect sense that Farley Mott was the one to 00:07:55.620 --> 00:07:57.920 write this unvarnished account. Oh, because of 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:00.300 his background. Right. He is the author of Never 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:03.579 Cry Wolf. He spent time in the absolute wilderness. 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:06.100 He understands the psychological toll of that 00:08:06.100 --> 00:08:08.019 kind of isolation. Right. He knows what happens 00:08:08.019 --> 00:08:10.139 to the human brain when you are separated from 00:08:10.139 --> 00:08:12.379 society for that long. He really does. He could 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:15.220 have easily written a fluffy protective tribute 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:18.019 to a fallen colleague. but he chose to tell the 00:08:18.019 --> 00:08:19.959 truth about her tantrums and her bitterness. 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:22.660 He recognized that her flaws were the actual 00:08:22.660 --> 00:08:25.420 agent of her story. Her intense feelings were 00:08:25.420 --> 00:08:28.120 real, but so was her hostility. It's complicated. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:31.540 Very. If you are a young researcher sent to her 00:08:31.540 --> 00:08:34.360 camp, and your boss is lurching from euphoria 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:37.600 to screaming tantrums, you aren't going to stay, 00:08:38.159 --> 00:08:40.179 and you aren't going to protect her. And that 00:08:40.179 --> 00:08:43.110 extreme isolation wasn't just sad on a personal 00:08:43.110 --> 00:08:46.049 level, it had terrifying physical consequences. 00:08:46.210 --> 00:08:49.129 It really did. By systematically alienating the 00:08:49.129 --> 00:08:51.730 local Rwandan staff, her fellow researchers, 00:08:51.909 --> 00:08:54.049 and government officials, Fossey didn't just 00:08:54.049 --> 00:08:56.990 lose friends. She dismantled her own early warning 00:08:56.990 --> 00:08:59.389 system. That's exactly what happened. Because 00:08:59.389 --> 00:09:02.309 in a remote jungle, your relationships are your 00:09:02.309 --> 00:09:05.870 security detail. Without alliances, anyone could 00:09:05.870 --> 00:09:08.289 walk into her camp, which is exactly what happened 00:09:08.289 --> 00:09:11.409 in December 1985. Which brings us to the brutal 00:09:11.409 --> 00:09:14.730 reality of her death. In December 1985, Diane 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:17.669 Fossey was murdered in her African camp. Here's 00:09:17.669 --> 00:09:19.690 where it gets really interesting though. Yeah. 00:09:19.850 --> 00:09:21.529 Because when you hear about a conservationist 00:09:21.529 --> 00:09:24.029 being killed, you immediately assume it was a 00:09:24.029 --> 00:09:26.529 local poacher who was angry she destroyed a snare. 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:29.029 That's the natural assumption, yes. But the sources 00:09:29.029 --> 00:09:31.950 show this escalated from local conflicts in the 00:09:31.950 --> 00:09:34.730 mud to what sounds like a full -blown international 00:09:34.730 --> 00:09:38.429 geopolitical thriller. It absolutely did. The 00:09:38.429 --> 00:09:40.889 circumstances around her death remain incredibly 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:44.009 dark and heavily debated even today. Right. The 00:09:44.009 --> 00:09:46.169 book doesn't claim to solve the case with a smoking 00:09:46.169 --> 00:09:49.470 gun, but Mowat heavily speculates on the mechanics 00:09:49.470 --> 00:09:52.070 of the murder. He suggests that an ex -worker 00:09:52.070 --> 00:09:54.250 may have been hired to carry out the assassination. 00:09:54.610 --> 00:09:57.769 Hired by who? I mean, who has the money to fund 00:09:57.769 --> 00:09:59.769 a hit in the middle of the Rwandan mountains? 00:10:00.009 --> 00:10:02.370 larger corporate interests. You have to look 00:10:02.370 --> 00:10:05.169 at the economics of Central Africa in the 1980s. 00:10:05.269 --> 00:10:07.269 Go ahead. The mountains where the gorillas lived 00:10:07.269 --> 00:10:10.389 weren't just pristine nature reserves to everyone. 00:10:10.809 --> 00:10:13.169 They were massive sources of potential revenue. 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:14.970 Oh, of course. We are talking about lucrative 00:10:14.970 --> 00:10:18.570 tourism routes, agricultural expansion, and highly 00:10:18.570 --> 00:10:21.570 organized, well -funded poaching syndicates. 00:10:21.750 --> 00:10:24.029 So she wasn't just a nuisance to local hunters. 00:10:24.330 --> 00:10:28.139 She was a literal roadblock. to millions of dollars 00:10:28.139 --> 00:10:31.279 in profit. A huge roadblock. By fiercely protecting 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:33.279 the gorillas and demanding just your own human 00:10:33.279 --> 00:10:35.840 interference, she was standing in the way of 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:39.139 massive economic engines. And Time Magazine goes 00:10:39.139 --> 00:10:41.940 even further into the state -level GIGO politics 00:10:41.940 --> 00:10:45.279 of it. They point to convincing accusations of 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:48.340 government -sponsored assassins. Government -sponsored 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.820 assassins? Let the weight of that sink in for 00:10:50.820 --> 00:10:53.700 a moment. It's chilling. Her militant conservation 00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:56.519 work was disrupting systems of power and profit 00:10:56.519 --> 00:10:59.639 so significantly that it may have triggered a 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:02.899 coordinated state level or corporate level assassination. 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:05.820 Wow. She wasn't just a scientist anymore. She 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:08.460 was treated as an enemy of the state or an enemy 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:11.320 of commerce. But then time makes a concession 00:11:11.320 --> 00:11:14.919 that is just it's chilling, honestly. They concede 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:17.840 that Fossey's misanthropy essentially made her 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:20.100 an accessory to the crime of her own murder. 00:11:20.330 --> 00:11:22.409 And this raises an important question for you 00:11:22.409 --> 00:11:26.049 to consider as you listen. Did her complete inability 00:11:26.049 --> 00:11:29.330 to play politics, her utter refusal to maintain 00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:32.529 alliances, ultimately cost her her life? That's 00:11:32.529 --> 00:11:34.330 the million dollar question. If she had built 00:11:34.330 --> 00:11:36.269 bridges with the local government, if she had 00:11:36.269 --> 00:11:38.690 compromised even slightly to allow some regulated 00:11:38.690 --> 00:11:41.110 tourism, would she have had the institutional 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:43.610 protection she needed to survive? But instead 00:11:43.610 --> 00:11:46.649 she pushed everyone away. She did. When you alienate 00:11:46.649 --> 00:11:48.909 your coworkers, when you have no intimate friends 00:11:48.909 --> 00:11:52.230 to watch your back, you dismantle your own safety 00:11:52.230 --> 00:11:56.370 net. Yeah. Her absolute dogmatic nature was her 00:11:56.370 --> 00:11:59.149 greatest superpower. I mean, it's the only reason 00:11:59.149 --> 00:12:01.389 the mountain girl has survived when no one else 00:12:01.389 --> 00:12:03.629 was fighting for them. True. But it was also 00:12:03.629 --> 00:12:07.019 her fatal flaw. It left her entirely alone in 00:12:07.019 --> 00:12:09.899 a remote cabin surrounded by enemies she had 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:12.759 openly, verbally, and physically despised. She 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:15.620 made herself a barrier to profit, and through 00:12:15.620 --> 00:12:18.580 her own psychological rigidity, she ensured she 00:12:18.580 --> 00:12:21.039 was a barrier standing completely by herself. 00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:23.899 She made it incredibly easy for her enemies to 00:12:23.899 --> 00:12:26.399 reach her. It is such a violent, dark end to 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:28.840 her life. With her life ending so abruptly, we 00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:31.019 have to look at how history and literature have 00:12:31.019 --> 00:12:34.340 judged her legacy since that night in 1985. Right. 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:36.820 Which brings us to the reception of Mowat's biography 00:12:36.820 --> 00:12:40.159 itself, which came out in 1987, just two years 00:12:40.159 --> 00:12:42.899 after her murder. The timing of the book is crucial. 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:45.419 The wounds were still incredibly fresh in the 00:12:45.419 --> 00:12:47.440 scientific community, and you might recognize 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.139 the title format. Mowat called his biography, 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:53.360 Woman in the Mists. Which is a direct play on 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:56.039 Fosse's own 1983 book, Gorilla's in the Mist. 00:12:56.360 --> 00:12:59.240 Exactly. And for most people, That title probably 00:12:59.240 --> 00:13:01.639 rings a bell because it inspired the very famous 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.799 1988 film starring Sigourney Weaver. Right, a 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:08.320 huge movie. But the movie, while powerful, often 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:11.850 leans into that Hollywood hero narrative. Mawit's 00:13:11.850 --> 00:13:13.970 book, according to the reviews we have, is a 00:13:13.970 --> 00:13:17.149 much grittier experience. It absolutely is. When 00:13:17.149 --> 00:13:19.190 it was released, Publishers Weekly described 00:13:19.190 --> 00:13:22.809 it as a gripping story from beginning to gruesome 00:13:22.809 --> 00:13:25.929 end. Gruesome ends. Wow. Yeah, they specifically 00:13:25.929 --> 00:13:28.850 highlighted that it wasn't a dry scientific text. 00:13:29.169 --> 00:13:32.070 It was filled with drama, intrigue, and even 00:13:32.070 --> 00:13:34.509 love affairs. It reads like a novel. It does. 00:13:34.769 --> 00:13:37.669 They argued that her highly volatile, mercurial 00:13:37.669 --> 00:13:39.870 personality is exactly what elevates the book. 00:13:39.929 --> 00:13:42.190 It gives it a much wider audience than you would 00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:44.289 typically find in the standard nature adventure 00:13:44.289 --> 00:13:46.389 genre. Because it's a psychological thriller 00:13:46.389 --> 00:13:49.210 as much as it is a biology book. Frank Reiser, 00:13:49.409 --> 00:13:51.490 writing in the Library Journal, called the book 00:13:51.490 --> 00:13:54.490 essential reading. But he said it's essential 00:13:54.490 --> 00:13:58.350 for a very specific, profound reason. He wrote 00:13:58.350 --> 00:14:00.789 that it is essential for all who understand the 00:14:00.789 --> 00:14:03.529 sacrifice of self for the preservation of other 00:14:03.529 --> 00:14:06.990 species. Sacrifice of self. That is an incredibly 00:14:06.990 --> 00:14:08.830 heavy phrase, especially given how she died. 00:14:09.049 --> 00:14:11.809 So what does this all mean? If you are listening 00:14:11.809 --> 00:14:14.110 right now and you are deeply passionate about 00:14:14.110 --> 00:14:16.169 a cause, whether it's environmental, political, 00:14:16.330 --> 00:14:20.929 or social, why does Fosse's specific messy story 00:14:20.929 --> 00:14:24.080 matter to you? It matters because it perfectly 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:27.259 synthesizes the dual themes of any grand, consuming 00:14:27.259 --> 00:14:29.620 crusade. OK, unpack that a bit. Well, on one 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:32.200 hand, you have the undeniable, objective importance 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:34.899 of preserving the mountain gorillas. That was 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:37.419 a cause that Moat himself deeply believed in, 00:14:37.419 --> 00:14:39.820 and it is a battle that Fossey definitively helped 00:14:39.820 --> 00:14:41.799 win. Right. The gorillas are still there because 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:44.080 of her. But on the other hand, you have the devastating, 00:14:44.340 --> 00:14:46.700 often ignored, personal toll it takes on the 00:14:46.700 --> 00:14:48.879 individual fighting that battle. The human cost 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:52.649 of extreme activism. Yes. Looking at multiple 00:14:52.649 --> 00:14:56.370 perspectives, seeing Fossey as a literal savior 00:14:56.370 --> 00:14:59.830 to the gorillas, but simultaneously as a terror 00:14:59.830 --> 00:15:02.690 to her colleagues and a militant misanthrope, 00:15:02.889 --> 00:15:06.029 it enriches our understanding of what real boots 00:15:06.029 --> 00:15:08.190 -on -the -ground activism actually looks like. 00:15:08.350 --> 00:15:11.029 It's not a Disney movie. No, it is almost never 00:15:11.029 --> 00:15:14.269 clean. It is rarely polite. It's definitely not 00:15:14.269 --> 00:15:16.830 a sterile children's hospital corridor. Far from 00:15:16.830 --> 00:15:19.110 it. It requires you to get your hands dirty, 00:15:19.269 --> 00:15:21.460 and sometimes it requires a level of obsession 00:15:21.460 --> 00:15:23.799 that most of us can't even fathom. But as we've 00:15:23.799 --> 00:15:26.100 seen, that level of obsession has a terrifying 00:15:26.100 --> 00:15:28.679 dark side. When you stop seeing the humanity 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:31.240 and the people around you, you lose the very 00:15:31.240 --> 00:15:33.559 connections that keep you grounded, and more 00:15:33.559 --> 00:15:35.860 importantly, keep you safe. And that brings us 00:15:35.860 --> 00:15:38.220 to the core of what we've uncovered today. We've 00:15:38.220 --> 00:15:40.940 been tracing the incredible, completely contradictory 00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:43.899 life of Diane Fossey through the lens of Farley 00:15:43.899 --> 00:15:46.259 Mollett's Woman in the Mists. A really wild journey. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:49.899 We started with a woman who defied every expectation, 00:15:50.419 --> 00:15:52.539 leaving the safety of a hospital to go save a 00:15:52.539 --> 00:15:55.299 species in the African jungle. She did exactly 00:15:55.299 --> 00:15:57.899 what she set out to do. She did. But in the process, 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:00.960 her passion curdled into a bitter war against 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:04.509 humanity itself. She made powerful enemies of 00:16:04.509 --> 00:16:07.789 poachers, massive corporate interest, and her 00:16:07.789 --> 00:16:11.889 own peers. Yeah. And ultimately, she paid the 00:16:11.889 --> 00:16:14.230 absolute ultimate price for that self -imposed 00:16:14.230 --> 00:16:18.009 isolation in December of 1985. She successfully 00:16:18.009 --> 00:16:19.809 saved the mountain gorillas from extinction, 00:16:20.210 --> 00:16:23.090 but she systematically destroyed every mechanism 00:16:23.090 --> 00:16:24.929 that could have saved herself. Which leaves us 00:16:24.929 --> 00:16:26.710 with a lingering thought for you to mull over 00:16:26.710 --> 00:16:29.809 long after this deep dive ends. Think back to 00:16:29.809 --> 00:16:31.649 that quote from Frank Reiser in the Library Journal. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:35.620 He praised Fossey's sacrifice of self for the 00:16:35.620 --> 00:16:37.759 preservation of other species. It's a powerful 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:40.100 quote. On paper, that sounds incredibly noble. 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:42.899 It sounds heroic. But looking closely at her 00:16:42.899 --> 00:16:45.639 tragic end, looking at her total lack of intimate 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:48.029 friends... the bitter isolation she built around 00:16:48.029 --> 00:16:50.450 herself, and the fact that she was murdered alone 00:16:50.450 --> 00:16:52.789 in the dark. Oh, you mean murdered alone in the 00:16:52.789 --> 00:16:54.909 dark. Right, exactly. At what point does a noble 00:16:54.909 --> 00:16:57.669 sacrifice of self morph into a self -destructive 00:16:57.669 --> 00:17:00.509 obsession, an obsession that might actually endanger 00:17:00.509 --> 00:17:03.230 the longevity of the very cause you are fighting 00:17:03.230 --> 00:17:06.049 for? If you alienate everyone who could carry 00:17:06.049 --> 00:17:09.670 on your work, where exactly is the line between 00:17:09.670 --> 00:17:12.690 world -changing passion and fatal obsession? 00:17:13.180 --> 00:17:15.059 That's the question you have to ask yourself. 00:17:15.740 --> 00:17:18.019 Because stepping out of the safe, sterile corridors 00:17:18.019 --> 00:17:20.839 of a normal life to fight for what you believe 00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:23.859 in can absolutely change the world. But if you 00:17:23.859 --> 00:17:26.279 aren't careful, if you burn every bridge to the 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:28.420 people around you, the wilderness you run into 00:17:28.420 --> 00:17:29.480 might just swallow you whole.