Just fascinating!

Energetic presentation. Fascinating topic which totally held my attention. I will be seeing animals with a different perspective.

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Very interesting and eye opening

This was a very intimate and revealing Expose into Koko's life. Ioved it! ya

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Gorilla Musings

Very interesting science adjacent story. Very well told by the author. Are animals legitimate study subjects and how might they be studied legitimately. We

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Exceptional story telling in a casual format

I loved the flow and pace of this story and how much I learned. The author is a clear speaker, although a couple scenes are busy, she apologized and prefaces those scenes whot some humor. she did a great job placing the reader in her own shoes as a writer in several moments.

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Not the Koko Story You Are Expecting

This is the story of Koko, the gorilla that learned sign language and touched the hearts of people across the world. Unlike the story you think you know, it’s a tale of abuse and isolation and an appalling lack of science. Reading it depressed me. We may never know what was really going on in Koko’s head, but the author, Lauren Ober, appears certain that her owner and caretakers were looking out for their best interests, not hers.

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Very Poor Journalism

This podcast, Fine Gorilla Person. is highly questionable journalism. Lauren Ober is cynical and opinionated. She picks and chooses the “facts” that support her point of view. She focuses most of her attention on a former employee who worked at the Gorilla Foundation for only two of the more than forty years of the project’s existence. This employee’s perspective is presented in the podcast as factual. Lauren Ober has a limited sense of history as she seems not to realize that the 1970’s were a very different time than the 2020’s. The work of Dr. Patterson is trivialized and criticized despite the enormity of the projects success. This podcast criticizes contemporary accounts for commenting on young Penny Patterson’s appearance, and then criticizes Penny Patterson for looking old when she appeared at a conference in 2019 and throughout the podcast continuously implies that Dr. Patterson got her way by using her looks and charm on unsuspecting men. Lauren Ober is highly critical of the manner in which Koko was housed and fed. She criticizes The Gorilla Foundation for giving Koko too many supplements, and then criticizes them for not giving Ndume enough. She criticizes the staff for finding totally usable but discarded produce to feed Koko in the early days of the project by calling it dumpster diving, and then criticizes Penny for later over sanitizing the ape’s food. Lauren Ober criticizes The Gorilla Foundation for using celebrities to further Penny Paterson’s evil agenda, while this podcast makes a point of interviewing William Shatner who knew Koko for one hour. Because I worked at the Gorilla Foundation for many years with Koko, Michael and Ndume, I was asked to participate in this podcast and I agreed as long as this podcast did not have a particular pre-determined agenda. Lauren Ober told me, “We don't have a point of view as this is a 360-degree look at the life and times of Koko. This is a journalistic project..” This was false. From the very beginning of the first of the eight episodes of this podcast, it is clear that Lauren Ober disapproves of the Gorilla Foundation and its work. I was interviewed for many hours but was only quoted briefly out of context for sensationalist effect. Penny Patterson devoted her life to her work with Koko. When she began her project there were several language projects going on. Each of these ended badly for the apes involved when the projects were ended the apes sent to various facilities. Dr. Patterson NEVER abandoned Koko and the work of The Gorilla Foundation. Penny Patterson built a beautiful and spacious home for the gorillas. The apes were never abandoned or lonely or sad and miserable prisoners as this podcast would have you believe. Before Koko, it was believed that Man was the only animal capable of conceiving of things remote in time and space. Because Koko learned to communicate, we know for a fact that animals are capable of much more than was previously thought possible. This podcast would have you believe that Koko was abused sexually, and placed at physical risk, even though Koko lived a long ,healthy, happy life. Lauren Ober somehow thinks that Dr. Francine Patterson is some kind of Elizabeth Holmes bilking the public out of billions of dollars to support her own lavish lifestyle. Although the podcast makes clear that the Penny lives in a rented home and has worn the same lab coat for 50 years. When I asked Lauren Ober about the many inaccuracies of this podcast she said, “The facts are unimpeachable.” Many of her facts are demonstrably wrong. Although Project Koko was not without flaws, Dr. Patterson is brilliant and her work is extraordinary. This podcast is trying to sully that reputation and make a lot of jokes at the expense of this great life’s work.

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