In our last episode, we spent time with the extraordinary Dr. Jane Goodall, primatologist, writer, speaker, and conservationist. Dr. Goodall previewed today's episode, featuring the three recipients of the Wildlife Intelligence Project, a $2.7 million joint initiative between National Geographic Society and Templeton World Charity Foundation designed to support "three early-career scientists…whose passion for and discoveries in wildlife field research have the potential to illuminate unknown wonders of our world.” We're proud to be in conversation with cognitive ecologist and bee researcher Dr. Felicity Muth, primatologist Dr. Tiago Falótico, and behavioral ecologist and biologist Dr. Mauricio Cantor.

These three National Geographic Explorers all study animal cognition, but how they do it, and their objects of study — bees, capuchin monkeys, and dolphins — varies. What that shows, as you’ll hear about today, is that intelligence can take many forms, and it’s only once we look past our anthropocentric definitions of intelligence that we can truly understand and appreciate the complexity and beauty of nature.

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• Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

In today’s episode, we hear from leader and luminary Dr. Jane Goodall, who has, for decades, made significant contributions to not only the scientific world, but to, arguably, the entire planet.

When 26-year-old, British-born Jane Goodall began field studies of primates in Tanzania in July 1960, she was the first researcher to observe chimpanzees in the wild, and she remains the world’s foremost expert on chimpanzees. Her rigorous and creative approach quickly gained the attention of the National Geographic Society, which awarded her first grant, and has passionately championed her work in the decades since. Despite never getting a college degree, Dr. Goodall was accepted at Cambridge University, earned her PhD in ethology in 1966, and spent decades in the Gombe Stream National Park studying chimpanzee communities, eventually becoming the only human to ever be accepted into a chimpanzee society.

Today, at the age of 90, Dr. Goodall is a legendary conservationist, galvanizing educator, UN Messenger of Peace, and an inspiring writer and public speaker. Her curiosity, empathy, wisdom, protective heart, and unshakeable hope reflect the best of humanity, and even though today’s conversation is short, you’ll hear all of those exemplary characteristics embodied in her voice and story.

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• Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation

Today we bring you a follow-up story about revolutionary education in Northern Ireland, this time exploring the impact of teaching young children to not just tolerate difference and diversity, but to seek it out, embrace it, and celebrate it.

Our episode explores the history and legacy of Lough View Integrated Primary and Nursery School, a school founded 30 years ago to intentionally create a space where diverse points of view and religious and social practices could come together, and what’s remarkable is that this vision came to life fully five years before the Good Friday Accords birthed a fragile national peace.

Lough View was established in Belfast by a group of parents who didn’t want to send their children to a segregated school that would perpetuate the bias and prejudice that had fed the decades of violence between Protestants and Catholics, but instead, created a totally different paradigm for their children, and their children’s education.

Today we’ll hear from students and educators at Lough View, who tell us how this radical education has impacted classroom culture and individual lives, and how it might contribute to peace-building across the nation, and potentially, the world.

• Read the transcript of this episode
• Listen to our first episode on integrated education in Northern Ireland
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• Share your comments, questions and suggestions at info@storiesofimpact.org
• Supported by Templeton World Charity Foundation