ENDANGERED TALES PODCAST

Mongabay: What inspired you to start the Endangered podcast?

Graham Sibley: My wife and I had twins is the short answer. But the pandemic is also a huge piece of my inspiration.

Early on in the pandemic, I remember holding our boys, looking out our window in the living room, and asking them “What are you guys going to do? How are you going to make this world a better place?”. Then I began asking that same question of myself and couldn’t come up with a good answer.

The boys were still napping twice a day at this point and I had become fascinated with forgotten endangered animals. I would read about them during nap time and after we put the boys down for the night. I enjoyed discovering the parallels between the more obscure species and our humanity. So, I decided to write short stories. I was interested in putting a storytelling spotlight on some of the more obscure species before it’s too late.

Then, as the movement surrounding George Floyd’s murder took hold, I was forced to open my eyes to my own privilege and I felt this burning desire to do something that I deeply believed in — and celebrating our amazing human diversity and having these animals reflect that felt really right to me.