Air Date: Week of October 10, 2025

Cash Daniels is a 16 year old from Chatanooga, Tennessee who started participating in Roots and Shoots last year. (Photo: Eric Guzzetta / JGI)

Members of the late conservationist Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots youth organization and the Living on Earth crew share memories of her and gratitude for her enduring gifts to the world.

Transcript

BELTRAN: Jane Goodall inspired so many people across generations, and we’d like to share some of their memories of her with you now. We’ll start with our own Explorer-in-Residence, Mark Seth Lender.

LENDER: In 1960 when Jane Goodall was only 26 years old, she saw a chimpanzee, David Graybeard, using and later making tools. And then she went on to show the chimpanzees had emotions and an inner life and relationships just like us. And in doing that, she broke down the wall. We had been laboring under the misconception since Aristotle that we were somehow fundamentally, you know, superior and different. And she showed that we and the animals are very much the same, and this extends to other species, and that’s what my work has been about. And I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I wouldn’t have been able to stand up to the critique, if not for her. I will, I will miss her. I will miss her for the rest of my life.

CURWOOD: Through her youth organization Roots and Shoots, Jane made an impact on many young people during some of the most formative moments of their lives.

BELTRAN: Cash Daniels is a sixteen-year-old from Tennessee who’s been involved in Roots and Shoots for the past year.

DANIELS: I think the world should remember her by the good work that she did, not just conservation, but spreading kindness, and all that, I think in the world that we live in, that is definitely something that we need a whole lot more of.

CURWOOD: 26-year-old Stewart Massey participated in Roots and Shoots for 4 years and is now interning with a wildlife center in Wisconsin. His admiration goes way back.

MASSEY: When I was little, I listened to Jane Goodall tapes on repeat. I had a little recorder that I carried around everywhere with me. Listen to it for hours on end. I knew exactly the names of every Chimp, just from the noise that it made. I knew how they were all related to each other, like I knew everything. And I was obsessed with this thing. So, Jane Goodall has kind of been with me since I was, I mean, a little bitty kid.

BELTRAN: The young people we talked to said Jane was larger than life yet generously shared her time with each person she met. Oona Spaeth is a freshman at Columbia University who has been involved in Roots and Shoots for more than five years.

SPAETH: Even though, like, she had just given this whole talk, and she must have been so tired, she could have just like said hi, taken the picture and left, she took the time to shake all of our hands and to learn our names and speak to us, you know, she actually cared about connecting with us.

BELTRAN: Jane Goodall led the way for young women in particular. Jessie Wahlers is a 22-year-old recent graduate from the University of Tampa with a degree in Marine Science and Biology, and she says Jane is everywhere in her field work.

WAHLERS: “Like, I'm in the mangrove forest, collecting crabs, studying crabs, so I'd be lying if I didn't say that there'd be sometimes, I'm like, Oh my God. I'm just like Jane!

CURWOOD: The young people Jane Goodall made an impact on include our former Living on Earth intern, Anne Flaherty.

FLAHERTY: Being part of Roots and Shoots taught me that even as a young person, I had the ability to make a difference in some way. And I think that autonomy and that confidence that Roots and Shoots and the staff at the Jane Goodall Institute instilled in me was so important because I carried on that even small actions make a change.

CURWOOD: And Anne credits Jane Goodall with helping her find her path. Currently she works at a farm that helps enrich the lives of people with disabilities.

FLAHERTY: I'm also in graduate school for social work, and I hope to become a therapist someday. And one of the things I hope to do as a therapist is help young people cope with climate anxiety and depression in our changing environment. And I really have to thank Jane for inspiring me to pursue a helping profession. I think she'll always remain an inspiration for me in my life.

CURWOOD: Last but not least, Amanda Ketterer met Jane Goodall as an 8-year-old, and she shared one memory in particular from a Jane Goodall Institute fundraiser with major donors when she was 14.

KETTERER: Jane came in and immediately looked around at everyone, and very again, with that gentle, gracious politeness, asked everyone to take off their shoes. So, we were all on the same level. Because, you know, everyone's in these, like stilettos or fancy shoes or dress shoes. Everyone, really, you know, pulled up in their best for this event. But by doing that, it brought everyone down. I mean, physically, of course, like because if you took your heels off, but it brought everyone to the same level. And everybody was on the same page. We're all just people, feet on ground and almost like a very grounding exercise. And she did it in like a very silly, polite way. But it really, it actually completely changed the energy in the room and made everyone feel a lot more comfortable interacting with one another.

CURWOOD: Virtually everyone we spoke to mentioned that Jane Goodall had a wonderful sense of humor and was a bit of a “prankster”! Amanda shared one such memory from a Roots and Shoots conference held at Windsor Castle in the UK.

KETTERER: One morning, Jane came down with a pitcher of ice water, and she just slowly started walking around the room, and she was pouring water on people's heads just to be, and she was like, good morning. It's time to wake up. This is your wake-up call! Just a little bit – nothing too crazy. And the last morning we were there, we all came down in shower caps. So, she couldn't, she couldn't get us.

CURWOOD: And when Amanda faced some of the hardest moments of her life, Jane Goodall was there, with deep kindness and care.

KETTERER: She was the first person who called when my dad passed. The icon was incredible and will continue to be an incredible legacy. The person also is someone who, sorry, we will deeply miss, sorry.

CURWOOD: Amanda remained close friends with Jane until the end.

KETTERER: I had the most incredible conversations with her about grief and loss and and love and something that I carry now it's been almost 10 years since I lost my dad, But how something she said was, how lucky are we to miss people we loved so dearly, which I now have been saying every day. I've been saying that every day since Jane has passed.

CURWOOD: There will never be another Jane Goodall, and perhaps the best way to describe her is as a gift. Her brilliant determination and generosity of love gave the Living on Earth audience and production crew much encouragement and joy that is so needed in this realm of journalism, and because of her, the world will never be the same. We and the countless other people she inspired can only say thank you as her legacy lights the way forward.

 

Links

Learn more about the Jane Goodall Institute

Learn more about the Roots and Shoots program