Poaching, and We Don't Mean Eggs #507

January 04, 2019

We all know poaching elephants for their ivory and pangolins for their scales is wrong, right? Then why do people keep doing it? We speak with Rachel Nuwer, author of the book "Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking", to find out, and figure out what can be done to stop it. And we'll talk with Vincent Nijman about why, when scientists find a new or rare species, they might want to keep that exciting information to themselves.

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This episode is hosted by Bethany Brookshire, science writer from Science News.

Guests:

  • Rachel Nuwer
  • Vincent Nijman

Guest Bios

Rachel Nuwer

Rachel Nuwer is an award-winning science journalist who regularly contributes to the New York Times, Scientific American, Nature and many other publications. Her reporting for the New York Times broke the news globally about the MDMA Phase III clinical trial and was highlighted by Michael Pollan, Ezra Klein, and Tim Ferriss, among other thought leaders. In 2022, Nuwer was among the inaugural recipients of the Ferriss–UC Berkeley Psychedelic Journalism Fellowship. She holds master's degrees in applied ecology and in science journalism. Her first book, Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking, investigated the multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife trade. She lives in Brooklyn.

Vincent Nijman

Vincent Nijman's research programme focuses on assessing the impact of human-induced disturbances (logging, fire, fragmentation, wildlife trade) on vertebrates, with primates as one of the model groups. He is furthermore interested in biogeography, hotspot analysis and conservation area selection, and phylogeny and DNA-barcoding.