WEBVTT

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All right.

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I'm going to come
over here first.

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I love your sense of humor.

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Thank you.

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That's very kind.

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So actually, I want to focus
on focusing on the punch line.

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So which comedians
kind of influenced you?

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Oh my gosh!

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That's such a great question.

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Comedians!

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I don't know.

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You know, I went to see
Paula Poundstone when

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she was in Flagstaff.

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And I really think
she's super funny on--

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what's the show that she's on?

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Wait Wait-- Don't Tell Me!

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Thank you.

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And I think if she's not on
it, I don't listen to it.

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If she's on it, I do.

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But then this is I've been
thinking about humor so much.

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And I think one thing I get
away with that I'm probably not

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that funny, but that people
don't expect that I'm

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going to be funny, right?

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And so I feel like when your
expectations are really low--

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and this is true for everything.

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Your expectations
are really low.

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Ooh, that's pretty funny!

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So Paula Poundstone, when
I go to see her in person,

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I'm expecting super funny.

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And she's like,
eh, pretty funny.

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But on Wait Wait--

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Don't Tell Me when
everybody around her

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is not quite as funny as she
is, she's incredibly funny.

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And a lot of it comes from--

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so the last reading I did was--

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well, a couple of
readings ago it

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was in Salt Lake City, Utah
at the University of Utah.

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And Bhanu Kapil was there, the
poet and nonfiction writer.

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We get there to the reading.

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She and I hang out in advance.

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But she goes straight up
to the organizer and says,

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can I have a shovel?

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Do you guys have a shovel
here at the Poetry Center

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if I had requested a shovel?

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It's Utah, though.

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So yeah, they have a shovel.

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So they go out.

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And she she's like, thank you.

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And she digs up
like a pile of dirt

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and carries it in and
drops in on the floor.

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And she says, I just want
us to feel grounded tonight.

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And I mean-- so to
me, the idea of humor

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I think comes in those
spontaneous moments

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where they're not expected.

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And so everybody I've ever
loved in terms of humor

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has been along
those lines where I

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don't think it's
going to happen,

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don't think it's going
to happen, and then does.

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And it's also, I
think, rare for women

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to have that
opportunity to be funny,

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to nod to Paula Poundstone
and Jane Curtin,

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and just this history of like
Saturday Night Live type women

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who live in my soul,
like Jane Curtin.

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Picture her with her blonde bob.

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She doesn't look like
she's going to be funny.

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And then she is.

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So that's, I think, the kind of
people that I gravitate toward.

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That's awesome.

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Thank you.

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So I don't know.

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I have a little more
insight into your life

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than some other
people in this room.

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But do you feel better about
buying the paper towels

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when you drive the
little Honda to Sam's

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Club versus the giant
four-wheel drive Toyota truck.

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All right, all right,
Jesse Sensibar.

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Or does it not matter?

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So some people have been
planted in the audience

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to bring up the hard questions.

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Look.

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Erik bought that fricking
truck after I wrote the book.

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And I'm like, you
can't buy a truck.

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I just wrote a book
about sustainability.

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I was like-- it was impossible.

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He's like, oh my god, I
only drive four miles a day,

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which is true.

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He does not drive very
far in the truck of doom.

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But it's a huge thing.

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And he's like, look, I
can fit it in the garage.

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And four hours later,
he's like-- er er--

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and he has to pull up
and put one of the tires

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alongside the stair,
and then you can fit.

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If you notice from the
essay about paper towels,

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I don't have a lot of
control over that man.

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But he promises he
doesn't drive it much.

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And he has some
other sustainable--

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oh!

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But I have been
thinking about this.

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This is a system I'm trying
to spread around the universe.

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It's called the personal
cap and trade program.

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And so Erik Sather, who does
drive this gigantic Toyota

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Tundra that gets maybe
12 miles a gallon.

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Again, he only drives
four miles a day.

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But he uses that much
carbon in his life.

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But he doesn't travel very much.

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He never flies.

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He hardly ever
goes crazy places.

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He rides his bicycle.

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He is a great gardener
and planter of trees.

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I'm thinking that
maybe we can all

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invest in that sort of
cap and trade program.

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So everybody has their
peccadilloes, right?

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Like, I really love
steak, or I really love--

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I really, really,
really, really love

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to just sit in the backyard
and burn a lot of carbon.

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I love coal.

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Coal is my favorite.

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But then I'm like,
but then, look.

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I've got a solar panel
on my phone charger.

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No.

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OK, I'm being sarcastic.

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But that sense of there's only
so much individuals can do.

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And I think one of the most
ridiculous things that's

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been happening with any attempt
to get people to change,

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to make climate
change stop, is full

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of guilt, full of this idea of
saying, no, you can't do this.

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Don't do this.

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Don't do this.

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Which as I said,
humans are really

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bad at saying no and stopping
doing what they want to do.

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So there's got to be a way
then that you say, OK, I

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can stop certain things.

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There are parts of me that--

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I could never use plastic again.

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Plastic does not
seem that necessary.

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It's made of petroleum.

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Let's give that up.

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I don't need to fly to
Bangkok three times a year.

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I can go once a year.

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These little things.

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I don't know if that's going
to make the difference.

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But I think it's that
kind of conscientiousness

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that will make the difference,
that kind of attention

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to the little
things that you can

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do that say, I'm not going to--

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it's not all or nothing.

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Either I'm going to be
sustainable or I'm not.

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I feel like you can be
sustainable in this department

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and not in this
other department.

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It's a good question.

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Erik loves that this book is
written about him, by the way.

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He's like, thank you
very much for that.

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Oh, sorry, sorry.

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And I'm supposed to be
repeating the questions.

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OK.

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I'll repeat them now.

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The previous question is,
where does humor come from?

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No.

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The first question.

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The previous question was
about the Toyota Tundra.

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Now, this question
from Haley is:

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I've known you to write
a lot about animals.

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And it seems to hold true for
you for this book as well.

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So I'm just curious
if you started

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reflecting on the lives of the
animals due to climate change

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first, or if you
considered your own life,

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and then how your life
impacts the animals.

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That's really smart.

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So Haley is asking about,
do animals come first

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or do humans come first?

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Or in my writing, who
do I consider first?

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And I mean, again,
this book is also--

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the darker parts of this
book are about suicide.

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And they're about
what kind of suicide

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are we making happen as
we sort of run roughshod

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over the planet and how
that's connected to, I think,

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some of the ways we
think about suicide.

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They say that suicide
happens actually

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in more developed countries,
more industrialized countries,

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because--

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well, this is one
theory about it.

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When you live in a world
where almost everything is

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made available to you, when
you could be succeeding

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if you would just
get it together,

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that that sort of guilt and
that self-blame that happens

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from not being able to get it
together is one of the things

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that causes people
to kill themselves.

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And in countries
where it's obvious

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that it's the system that
is not working for them,

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they're less likely
to commit suicide.

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So this is a long way around to
that question, which is humans,

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they seemed like a
good idea for a while.

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And it's not that I think
animals are better, or purer,

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or more interesting,
or anything like that.

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But I feel like
animals really don't

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get in the way of
themselves in the same way

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that humans sometimes
do, and the way that--

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I was talking to
somebody the other day,

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and the way humans sometimes
underthink things and overthink

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things.

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But the middle
ground is very rare.

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The right amount of
thinking about things

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does not ever-- it does not
normally seem to happen.

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Whereas animals just
do what they do.

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So the next book
I'm working on is

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about how animals might have
better communication skills

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than humans in a lot of ways.

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And so there's these prairie
dogs that live in Flagstaff.

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And they can tell the
difference between somebody

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wearing a red shirt, like their
buddy who brings them snacks.

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Ooh, red shirt guy is coming.

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[CLICKING] And they'll send
these little prairie dog

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sounds.

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And they'll say,
ooh, red shirt guy.

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And they'll all pop up, and
they'll wait for red shirt guy.

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But if yellow shirt
guy is coming, nuh-uh.

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They're like, ooh,
yucky yellow shirt guy.

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He doesn't bring us any snacks.

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Always throwing stones at us.

00:09:35.888 --> 00:09:36.930 align:middle line:90%
We hate yellow shirt guy.

00:09:36.930 --> 00:09:40.740 align:middle line:84%
And they'll communicate
yellow shirt guy is coming.

00:09:40.740 --> 00:09:44.070 align:middle line:84%
But to me, the idea that
they are collectively

00:09:44.070 --> 00:09:46.570 align:middle line:84%
trying to make an
argument about red shirt

00:09:46.570 --> 00:09:50.310 align:middle line:84%
guy versus yellow
shirt guy in pursuit

00:09:50.310 --> 00:09:54.450 align:middle line:84%
of some sort of survival to me
is interesting compared to I

00:09:54.450 --> 00:09:55.980 align:middle line:84%
think along those
lines of the way

00:09:55.980 --> 00:09:58.630 align:middle line:84%
that humans sort of
overdo it sometimes.

00:09:58.630 --> 00:10:01.240 align:middle line:84%
So I would say always
think of animals first,

00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:04.210 align:middle line:84%
and then I try to give
humans a break, like,

00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:08.430 align:middle line:84%
OK, I guess humans probably have
some skills like the animals

00:10:08.430 --> 00:10:09.633 align:middle line:90%
occasionally.

00:10:09.633 --> 00:10:18.810 align:middle line:90%


00:10:18.810 --> 00:10:19.380 align:middle line:90%
Is that it?

00:10:19.380 --> 00:10:19.880 align:middle line:90%
OK.

00:10:19.880 --> 00:10:20.690 align:middle line:90%
Well, thank you very much.

00:10:20.690 --> 00:10:21.720 align:middle line:90%
You guys are awesome.

00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:22.672 align:middle line:90%
Thank you so much.

00:10:22.672 --> 00:10:23.255 align:middle line:90%
Thanks, Patri.

00:10:23.255 --> 00:10:23.940 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:10:23.940 --> 00:10:24.440 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:25.610 align:middle line:90%
Thank you [INAUDIBLE].

00:10:25.610 --> 00:10:29.560 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:34.000 align:middle line:90%