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The AIH Transcript for May 24, 2017

Hosts: Carol Off and Jeff Douglas

STORIES FROM THIS EPISODE

Prologue

CAROL OFF: Hello, I'm Carol Off.

JEFF DOUGLAS: Good evening, I'm Jeff Douglas. This is As It Happens.

[Music: Theme]

CO: Highly sensitive. After the trauma of a Manchester suicide bombing, Britain continues its investigation, which now includes looking outside to determine why U.S. officials are leaking inside information.

JD: Junk food. Eight years ago, photographer Chris Jordan discovered that the stomachs of albatrosses on the island of Midway were full of plastic. And he is still documenting how our garbage dominates the majestic bird's life and death.

CO: Outside chance. Amid claims that foreign money given to third parties played a role in the last election, a former Chief Electoral Officer says it's time Canada take steps to ensure we're kept safe from external interference.

JD: A lot of holes in his story. A Colorado man is doing the rounds with some round things when his donut delivery car attracts the attention of an ill-tempered would-be consumer: a hungry black bear.

CO: Victory flaps. If you usually sweat like a squeezed water balloon when you exercise, prepare to see holes punched in the fabric of your reality in the form of perforated workout gear with flaps and bacteria built in.

JD: Yeah and… what's with the second degree? Well, the first was an MBA for a California man who just graduated. And the second was the one he arranged for his most helpful study partner to get, even though she wasn't officially enrolled: His mother. As It Happens, the Wednesday edition. Radio that knows every graduate's pride is obvious, but his is a parent.

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Part 1: Manchester bombing: leaks, foreign funding election, quadriplegic parent MBA

Manchester bombing: leaks

Guest: Shashank Joshi

JD: Today, information about the Manchester suicide bombing continues to break. It also continues to leak. And, much to the frustration of British authorities, the leaks are coming from the Americans. It was anonymous U.S. officials who first said the explosion was a suicide bomber. And it was anonymous U.S. officials who shared the identity of the suspected bomber, Salman Abedi. Here is what British Home Secretary Amber Rudd replied when the BBC asked about the U.S. leaks earlier today.

SOUNDCLIP

AMBER RUDD: British police have been very clear that they want to control the flow of information in order to protect operational integrity, the element of surprise. So it is irritating if it gets released from other sources. And I have been very clear with our friends that should not happen again.

JD: But it did happen again. Today, the New York Times published detailed photographs of the remnants of the bomb. Photographs that British officials had not yet made public. Shashank Joshi is a senior research fellow with a security think tank Royal United Services Institute. We reached him in London.

CO: Mr. Joshi, what was your reaction when you learned that the New York Times had received and published these photos of the bomb material?

SHASHANK JOSHI: Well, I think it's part of a pattern of leaks to the US press about an ongoing investigation. The Home Secretary in the UK, Amber Rudd, has specifically said that she is frustrated by these leaks and that she needs to stop. And my concern is that although the reporter who broke the story, C.J. Chivers, is a very experienced reporter, who's covered IEDs and improvised explosive devices for many years that it could give worrying knowledge and assistance to a bomb maker who may still be on the run because the British authorities are still looking for potential accomplices. And so for me, it's disturbing that this information would have been published without a little bit of delay, without a little bit more redaction and perhaps with without a bit more consultation with the U.K. authorities. It’s possible that consultation was there, but I haven't seen much evidence of it.

CO: Let's just describe what’s in these photos because they're very specific and very disturbing. There is a picture of what appears to be what they're saying is the detonator that was in the hand of the man. There is a blown up battery power source that was perhaps a backup for the bomb. There were the nuts and bolts, bits of a backpack and there's a diagram of the bomb blast direction, which indicates perhaps that it was a backpack as opposed to a vest. A lot of very detailed information what could that reveal to somebody? Let’s say if the police are trying to find out who might have contributed to the bomb making. What does that reveal?

SJ: Well, I'm not an expert on IED specifically, but from my perspective the worrying thing is it could allow the bomb makers to think what aspects of the bomb worked as they should have done, such as the battery or anything else? What could have been improved? Whether the bomb was worn and detonated properly to maximize damage and whether that could be changed to create a more appropriate blast zone to injure more people and kill more people. And it could also include things like what was a destructive force? You know does it require more explosives or fewer? Can it be made more efficient if there's a limited supply of material and more than one device is being made? So there are a range of things that that information could tell you. As I say, it isn't necessarily all revealing and overly sensitive. It's possible that the sources in question who may have been very expert in this technology pointed the reporter to what could and could not be published. But I think that we should view this in the context of a series of leaks, some of them mundane like casualty counts and some of them much more serious like the name of the suspect, which was published I think by some of the U.S. cable news outlets. And I think in that context it's very important that all news outlets exercise discretion. Not that they can't publish this, but I think they have to be very careful how they proceed.

CO: That was when you mentioned the British Home Secretary Amber Rudd and the remarks she made we played that just down and her warning that this is very frustrating. It damages the element of surprise when these things are revealed. Now, she said that before this these photos were published. Who should have heeded that advice? Who do you blame for these leaks I guess is what I'm asking you?

SJ: Well, I think the U.S. national security establishment is very, very large. You know it's an order of magnitude bigger than the UK or Canadian establishments and there are any number of people within the intelligence agencies. Look, the U.S. has 17 intelligence agencies all of whom could be actually useful partners to the U.K. in investigating different aspects of this. The U.S. laboratories has years of experience dealing with IDS in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and they're much bigger and better resourced than their British counterparts. So it could be anyone from those organizations or could be someone from the New York Police Department who would also be in contact with British authorities. Could be someone from the FBI. It could be someone from the Attorney General's office for example who may be looking at potential legal aspects of this. The U.S. system is simply too big to make any kind of informed speculation as to who was responsible. What I will say is in this particular case, the New York Times specifically cites at least one British law enforcement source. So it's unfair to blame only Americans because clearly there were British individuals who also gave information out in this particular case.

CO: All right, so the leaks are coming from all over the place. But what about the agencies themselves I mean these are big organizations not blogs or something? And we were just checking our own policy at the CBC. I'm told that our practice is not to use information about active police operations which would be likely to obstruct the operations or compromise police or public safety. So what responsibilities do the agencies themselves have?

SJ: Well, you know they have a responsibility to give out information that may be newsworthy, that may expose, wrongdoing that may expose inconsistencies and may educate the public. But on the whole, they have to be very careful in asking. First of all, what's the public interest? Second of all, what damage might this do? And third of all, if it does damage would it be lessened by waiting a little while? By waiting a day or two, giving investigators a chance to complete their work, giving them a chance to chase up leads before say associates of a suspect can be tipped off and publishing their story, but just doing so on a slightly slower timeline. But of course what we face now is a completely internationalized media environment where I can read the CBC or I can read CBS News or I can read the Times of London in about the space of five minutes. And the level of competition that drives is absolutely intense. And so I wonder if the cat is out of the bag and in the future it will simply have to be the case that leakers are really taught to understand the damage that their actions can do in these situations.

CO: And now what effect do you think it will have on the sharing of information between countries? Between intelligence agencies like those of the UK and the United States?

SJ: Let's get one thing straight is unfeasible for the U.K. to stop sharing intelligence with its most important security partner. The tradeoff would be so huge the US bring such resources to bear such expertise, particularly in the realm of things like signals intelligence where it can intercept communications on a far bigger scale than anyone else on the planet. Even if these leaks do damage, it is still in the U.K. interest to keep sharing. The question is how they may try and manage that sharing? They will try and push back at U.S. officials responsible and tell the heads of the agencies to say clamp down on your staff a little bit. And I think they will try and keep information within more tightly controlled channels. So perhaps sharing information with agencies that do not leak is much like the National Security Agency and perhaps less so with more open bodies that maybe have a history of talking to reporters slightly more.

CO: All right. We'll leave it there, Mr. Joshi. Thank you.

SJ: You're welcome.

JD: Shashank Joshi is a senior research fellow with the security think tank Royal United Services Institute. We reached him in London.

[Music: Ambient]

Foreign election funding

Guest: Jean Pierre Kingsley

JD: Joan Crockatt has yet to release her report, but already it is the talk of Ottawa. The former MP is accusing third parties of use in forcing foreign money to influence the last Canadian election. We asked Ms. Crockatt for an interview yesterday, she declined. Nor would she give us her report. But one former Chief Electoral Officer says he has heard enough to know that in order to keep Canada's elections safe from outside influence, our rules need to be tightened up. We reached Jean Pierre Kingsley near Clarence, Ontario.

CO: Mr. Kingsley, as you know, we have only a fragment of this document as reported by the Calgary Herald. So what you've seen so far do you have concerns?

JEAN PIERRE KINGSLEY: Well, I have concerns and have expressed them with the fact that organizations, which seem to have a lot of foreign money are registering as third parties and intervening in the electoral process.

CO: But here's what we read from the law — the Canada Elections Act — no person who does not reside in Canada shall during an election period in any way induce electors to vote or refrain from voting or vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate. So doesn't that make it illegal for foreign funding to be part of election funding?

JPK: Well that'll have to be demonstrated. I mean it will depend on who are the principals that were registered as the third parties. Third parties must register if they intend to spend more than $500 and they must tell us who their principles are. When the election is over, or the referendum, they have to tell us the sources of funding. And so what if all of those things are Canadian, but at the same time, you find out that there's you know a bunch of foreigners that are behind all of this then that's going to be a question for a judge to decide.

CO: From what you have seen so far what's your understanding as to who the foreigners are who are contributing funds to perhaps influence this election?

JPK I don't have sufficient information to even gather a guess about that. I don't know these organizations. All I'm doing is expressing a concern that should there be foreign money somehow involved. Even if it's all Canadian money that was spent for the for the event. If this can be demonstrated you know a certain point in time if an organization is funded very significantly by a foreign source then it is foreign-controlled. And this is what the judge will have to take into account.

CO: As far as we know because we haven't got the full complaint and it's not clear why Joan Crockatt, the former Conservative MP, who made the complaint why we can't get the entire document, but she lost her seat in Calgary Center and that was one of 29 seats across the country that an organization called LeadNow was targeting. And LeadNow was one of the Canadian third parties to get money from the United States from an organization called Tides. So what does that say to you if that's the money trail? What concerns do you have with that?

JPK: Well, the concern that I would have is to what extent did that American money because you're talking about Americans here. To what extent did that American money determine what was going to be happening or what the third party was going to be saying? What influence was it was exercised? Now it may be that it was all only Canadian money that was spent and it's going to be quite a stretch to be able to demonstrate that even if there were a third party that illegally preformed that it swayed an election. The judges of the Supreme Court have established very stringent tests about that at the previous election.

CO: We have some idea what LeadNow, the activist group that had some U.S. money. And as you point out, it's hard to separate what's a U.S. dollar from a Canadian dollar when it comes to this kind of spending? But they had their own report entitled “Defeating Harper” and their objective was to go into strategic riding's and to do whatever they could to make sure that that someone other than a Conservative won that seat and they were successful in the vast majority of the 29 seats that they targeted. But that is perfectly legal, is it?

JPK: Well, number one, they claim that they were successful. It is going to be another matter to demonstrate that they actually had an impact even though one may say that. It may well be a fact that it is going to be difficult to prove that in a court of law and I want to make that point again. It may well be very legal. It may be that this is a matter that has happened which had not happened before to the extent that it happened this time. I'm not even sure it happened at all. But you know people may have found a way to meet the letter of the law. But I'm saying even if that is the case, we must look at this strengthen the law to prevent this type of thing happening again.

CO: And do you regard this as a loophole?

JPK: Well, it would have to be reconsidered loophole if it has happened and if the foreign money is a significant factor that was behind it, yes. And you know whether or not we're able to demonstrate that, I think because the matter has been raised I think we need to address it now. That canary has just flown into the mine and has told us something.

CO: But why did you not notice this before? You were the Chief Elections Officer.

JPK: Well, for the simple reason that you cannot foresee everything. I mean I left in 2007, and this is occurring now. So I would have had to have that kind of vision and frankly, I did not. Even though we spent a lot of energy on the third party regime — I even produced a special report on that. And we thought we had pretty well covered it. And we thought that putting in the provision of Canadian monies would handle it. We never thought that it would be you know that kind of thing that we've been discussing. It's as simple as that.

CO: So if I understand even if LeadNow is found to not have used foreign money in its campaign what you're saying is that under the law, as it stands, it's possible for foreign money to influence our elections. And that has to change?

JPK: This is what I'm saying because we now know that it could happen and if it didn't so much the better. We now know it could and therefore let us be smart enough to address it before it happens big time. Mr. Kingsley, thank you.

JPK: It's a pleasure.

JD: Jean Pierre Kingsley was Canada's Chief Electoral Officer from 1990 through 2007. LeadNow sent us a statement and the statement reads in part quote, “No international money went towards our 2015 election campaign. We have filed and submitted an electoral activity report and campaign audit with Elections Canada. We are in compliance with all laws. We are proud of our work in the 2015 election in support of progressive democratic environmental and economic reforms.” Unquote.

[Music: Jazz]

Quadriplegic parent MBA

Guests: Marty O’Connor, Judy O’Connor

JD: For most young students, going to university usually means leaving your childhood home and exploring your newfound freedom, without your parents. But for the past two years, Marty O'Connor went to every single class with his mom. In 2012, Mr. O'Connor was in an accident that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. When he decided to pursue a master's degree, his mom Judy had to help him take notes. Well, this past Saturday, Mr. O'Connor graduated from Chapman University with a Master's of Business Administration. And to his mother's surprise, she found that she would also be leaving with her own MBA. We reached Marty O'Connor and his mom, Judy, in Orange, California.

CO: First of all, big congratulations to both of you, Marty and Judy.

MARTY O’CONNOR: Thanks

JUDY O’CONNOR: Thank you so much.

CO: And Judy, did you have any idea — any clue — that you were going to be getting this honorary MBA on Saturday?

JO: I had no clue whatsoever. I was doing my best to get Marty pushed across the stage and in position to receive his diploma and take pictures. And all of a sudden the Dean took my arm and I heard my name on the speaker and oh my goodness, I was blown away.

CO: Marty, I understand it wasn't a surprise for you. You had a hand in this?

MO: Oh, absolutely. I had met with the president of the university months back and you know I wanted to take that opportunity to make him aware of what a big part of my success that she was and I took that opportunity to say I don't know what the process is, but I just formally want to nominate my mom for an honorary MBA because you know she was so deserving. She was there in the trenches with me throughout the whole process.

CO: Now, I just want to take you back. This graduation comes almost five years since you had your accident that left you paralyzed. If you don't mind, can I ask you what happened that day?

MO: Yeah, you know it was just a really long day out in the heat. I started out early morning golfing with my dad and straight from there, I'd gone to a birthday party and then straight to an Angels baseball game and then straight out to the bars with friends. And I think my body was just dehydrated, so I sat down on the fire escape stairs. But when I stood up, I blacked out and took a dive and that was that.

CO: And you fell down the stairs?

MO: Yup.

CO: I’m quite aware that it changed your life, but how did it change the life of your family?

MO: It really changed the whole dynamic. I think at first, we were all just in such denial that this could happen. I mean I was on the snowboard team in college and you know I've fallen down hundreds of staircases. The fact that just five or six stairs could do this to me it was just it was crazy, but it really brought us closer together.

CO: And Judy, how did things change for you?

JO: Wow, aside from just devastating emotionally, we had to make it work logistically too. Marty was raised here in California, we have three daughters as well, but my husband and I had moved for his job right after Marty had graduated from high school. So we were in Florida when the accident happened. It made it very difficult. I'm a teacher, it happened three days before I was to report to my classroom that you know you just don't even want to believe what's going on, but then as time went on, it started sinking in. My husband wound up staying out in California with him and I stayed back and worked. So we'd have some insurance and income and I was traveling back and forth as often as I could. But honestly, it was killing me to be in Florida while my son needed me. So as soon as I could, I went ahead and just retired early from my teaching job and came out here to be Marty's caregiver. And as it evolved, I turned into his scribe at school.

CO: Marty, you had an undergraduate degree. How did you come to decide that you wanted to go back to school and get your MBA?

MO: It really was about a two year process .After I'd gotten hurt, I was just dedicating myself to physical therapy nonstop. And you know after about two years, I realized that therapy wasn't the answer and I needed that mental challenge and I wanted to add some professional value to myself. So I decided to pursue an MBA program. I'm just so happy that I did.

CO: Judy, Did you describe yourself as the scribe here. What did you actually do? How did you contribute to your son's work in class and his studies?

JO: Well, at school we kind of kept the mother-son relationship on the down low. And I would just introduce myself as Marty's assistant. So I would just wheel him around campus, get him set up at his desk and then, because he cannot use his hands, I took all of his notes. When we were at home, I got him set up with his technology, I would put together study guides for tests and you know do any writing that he needed to do. There were times when Marty was ready to throw computer through the window because it wasn't responding to his voice and I'd have to come in and click, click, click and get is squared away. So yeah, I was pretty much just setting him up at home all the time as well because he had to put in a lot of time at home.

CO: Marty, do you think you could have done your course? You could have done your studies for the MBA without your mom or someone like your mom helping you the way she did?

MO: No way. Yes, she was just such an integral part of my success. You know we were able to achieve some great things together. I was nominated by the business school for the James L. Dodi Outstanding Graduate Student Award, which is like a top recognition. And I also was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society, which are things I just never dreamed that I could achieve. And there's no way that would have happened if it wasn't for our working together and all the effort that she put in.

CO: But your mom said she tried to keep a low profile. What was it like to have your mom with you in class every single day for two years?

MO: Yeah, you know at first, I think just being you know a guy in my 20s I didn't ever envision going back to college with my mom. So that was just a little initially on the back of my mind, but I think everyone in the program just made me feel so comfortable and everyone was so accommodating. All of that anxiety just went right away.

CO: What are you going do with this degree?

MO: Yes, so I plan to work for an action sports and entertainment startup that was founded by my old college roommate. It's called DiVERTcity. They use the values you learn from action sports to help empower the individual and then have individual go back and help transform the community as well. It combines everything that I love in action sports and philanthropy and I just couldn't be happier.

CO: And Judy, what are you going to do?

JO: Well, I will continue to be Marti's caregiver. We also have a family foundation, The Marty O'Conor Foundation for Progress, and I am going to up my game on fund raising and trying to make people aware of the need for spinal cord injury research and maybe some private tutoring. One thing I would like to say I mean this has been therapeutic for me as well. As a parent, when something like a spinal cord injury happens to your child, there's no fixing it and you feel really helpless and angry at him just don't know what to do. And being able to do this for my son was really rewarding for me. And to see him create a new life after his injury has been so rewarding to me that I was so happy to be a part of it.

CO: And what were your thoughts and feelings as you saw him get his degree?

JO: I was just absolutely bursting with pride because I knew how much he had gone through to get that degree. And I just felt so wonderful because of the bright future that he has now after this horrible injury.

CO: And Marty, your thoughts and feelings as you saw your mom get her honorary MBA?

MO: It was amazing. It was just the culmination of two years of hard work, late nights, early mornings, you know the frustration the celebrations from the good things and she is just so deserving. And to be able to see her get recognized and then to see the crowd's reaction as well like it was just one of the most overwhelming moments in my life. And I'm just so happy that you know we can make that happen.

CO: I admire you both.

MO: Thank you so much.

JO: Thank you.

CO: Thank you. This is a great story and good luck with everything in your futures.

MO: Appreciate that.

JO: Thank you very much.

CO: Bye bye.

JD: That was Marty O'Connor and his mom, Judy O'Connor. We reached them in Orange, California.

Back To Top »

Part 2: Plastic-eating albatross documentary

Plastic-eating albatross documentary

Guest: Chris Jordan

JD: When photographer Chris Jordan first went to the island of midway in the North Pacific, he couldn't believe what he saw. So he took a lot of photographs. Mostly of dead albatrosses, their decaying bodies revealed all the pieces of plastic waste they had consumed. Now, eight years after he was first inspired to go to Midway, Mr. Jordan's new film, “Albatross”, is set to premiere in the US. We reached Chris Jordan in Seattle.

CO: Chris, first of all, what drew you to explore this island atoll called Midway?

CHRIS JORDAN: Well, for many years I have been making artworks that are about facing the enormity of our mass consumption. And when I learned about this tragedy that's happening in Midway, you know these birds whose stomachs are filled with handfuls of our waste. I just felt drawn there magnetically as soon as I learned about it.

CO: When you first arrived — the first time you were there — what was your immediate impression of the place?

CJ: Well, the first time I went all of the live albatrosses were off the island. It was a time of year when the island was basically empty. And so it was this lonely, desolate place covered with the bodies of tens of thousands of baby birds, whose stomachs were filled with plastic.

CO: This is very disturbing. The photos are so unsettling when you see them. It's hard to do justice to what you have been able to capture in your photographs and radio. But can you describe what you photographed?

CJ: Each of the images, the way I framed them, is the camera is looking straight down on the body of a dead bird. The carcasses of the birds were mostly decomposed. You can see bird skeletons and a few feathers left where their body used to be. And right where their stomach was is a handful of plastic bottle caps and cigarette lighters and toothbrushes and assorted shards of plastic.

CO: Where did the birds consume the plastic?

CJ: Well, the albatrosses make their base there on Midway Island. But they're some of the world's most efficient and sophisticated flying machines. So they fly out over the entire Pacific Ocean collecting food. They zoom across the surface of the water with very sharp eyes looking and whenever they find something small enough to gulp down then they just grab it. And this is what they've been doing for tens of millions of years and they've never had to be able to distinguish what they should eat from what they shouldn't eat. Because up until very recently, everything that floated on the surface of the water was organic.

CO: This Island, Midway Island, or atoll is just thousands of kilometers away from any continent. I guess in the middle of nowhere as you might say. And it is a sanctuary we thought for these kinds of animals. This is a place where they would not be touched by humans and their garbage. But this is very close to what’s called the Pacific garbage patch, isn't it?

CJ: Yes, Midway is right in the very middle of the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by 60 million square miles of open sea on all sides. For many years, there was a U.S. military base on that island. But the military recently turned the island over to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and they made it into a national wildlife refuge. By all of those measures it ought to be this incredibly pristine, beautiful sanctuary for the birds. And yet, like all creatures, they have to navigate a polluted world. And the albatross's is particularly susceptible to picking up plastic because of their feeding habits.

CO: The photos, as we just mentioned, are so disturbing, but there's a kind of terrible beauty to them because you see these colorful plastic, all these objects like the bottle caps and the cigarette lighters and everything. In an abstract way it has a kind of beauty to it. But how did you feel when you are photographing and seeing those birds?

CJ: Well, it was really a devastating experience. And I came back from that trip I think in a state of depression and my team I think all had that experience. We were just shocked and devastated by the horror of it and by the power of the symbolism you know what it says about the health of our world.

CO: But you went back?

CJ: Yeah, what happened to me is I wanted to publish that work as a book and I wanted it to be helpful you know to be inspirational. I don't want to have people feel depressed or shocked or filled with horror. And everybody I showed the images to all have all those bad feelings. And so I went to my friend, the writer and poet Terry Tempest Williams, and I asked her to write an introduction to my book that would be hopeful. And so we met and I showed her the photographs and we cried together and she said I can't write anything hopeful about this. This is the most hopeless thing I've ever seen. And she said the only thing she could think of was that maybe there was more to the story. And she said you have to go back to that island and look again, see what you haven't seen. And I'll never forget the experience the second time I went to Midway of stepping off the plane and meeting a million of these magnificent, enormous, spiritual beings that are the albatross. They’re as big as eagles. And there are so many of them on the ground. You know like to walk between them you have to very carefully step so that you don't step on them. And the astonishing thing is they have no fear of humans. As you walk among them, not only do they not run away and fly away. They actually come toward us and nibble on our shoelaces and look right at us out of curiosity.

CO: You went back when there were birds there — living birds — as opposed to all the dead ones that you encountered the first time.

CJ: Yes, that was the antidote for the horror: the tremendous beauty and grace and elegance of these creatures. And when we were there, the biologists told us oh, you have to come in February when 350,000 baby albatrosses are hatching from their eggs. And so we went back again and we were able to get up so close to them we could actually put our camera lenses in the nest as the baby is hatching from the egg and the mother is standing there tending to her baby and the lens to the edge of the lens is actually touching her and she was completely OK with it. They accepted our presence.

CO: Disturbing the nests that didn't have an effect on the mother's relationship with the birds?

CJ: Well, they don't experience it as a disturbance. You know we have to be a little careful like if you walk up and loom over them then they get agitated. They get scared. It took us a while — it took us a few trips — to develop a kind of relational ability to move in really slowly and be down near the ground and to not make eye contact with them to just sort of very slowly move towards them with our cameras and to monitor their agitation. And after a while, we developed this ability to get in really, really, close to them without them being at all agitated or scared of us. And then they would just keep right on feeding their baby and cooing and we were able to get this astonishingly intimate footage.

CO: But if you say this was the antidote — was seeing these beautiful birds alive and thriving like that. But you then when you're looking at them do you imagine that they are, in fact if not full of plastic now, that they will be?

CJ: Well, that's the really awful part. The biologists on the island who are studying them are finding that they all have plastic inside them. But it's varying levels and nobody knows exactly why? Some of them are completely full and as they feed it to their babies and the babies completely filled with plastic until they literally can't get anything more down their throat. And they starve to death even though their stomach is full. But others of them have less plastic and some of them have very little. And so while many of them are dying from the plastic, the population of albatrosses, at least for now, is actually increasing. The albatross's actually don't need us to save them. You know they're not going extinct. And so in that way what's happening on Midway can be something that we receive as a message for ourselves.

CO: But you said that you went back because you wanted to create something that didn't shock people or fill them with horror. Why not shock and fill them with horror if that means confronting the fact that this is garbage that we have produced?

CJ: I'm not against shock and horror, in fact, I really believe in facing the dark realities of our time as the first step in coming out of denial. So we have to look you know into the darkness. It's just that that's not the whole story. You know like there's all this bad news about the environment and about social injustices and wars around the world. Like every day there's this tidal wave of bad news and we tend to kind of focus on the bad news. And I think the source of a lot of hopelessness and depression is that it begins to look like that's the whole picture. But if you kind of can widen out the perspective and be able to contain all of the bad news. Contain the horror then the sadness and anger that we feel the world is still a miracle. And there's so much beauty and it we can feel our love for the world and we still get to be happy. The real challenge is to develop the capacity to hold it all. To simultaneously feel hopeless and hopeful and to feel horror and be connected with beauty and loss.

CO: Your film called, “Albatross”, is going to premiere this week. And then what will you do? Will you go back? Do have another project because I know this is not the first that you have done that about the garbage of the world and its effects on nature. What are you planning next?

CJ: Well, the “Albatross”, film is going to have a least a year of making tours of screenings around the world. I'm going to go to a bunch of festivals screening it. I want to give the film as a gift — as a public artwork — rather than to treat it as a commercial film because that's how it came to me. You know the whole story of Midway came to me as this tremendous gift of healing and I wanted to just pass right through me to whoever wants to experience it. And also there's something that feels wrong about making profit from the suffering of the birds that I love. And then as a next project I'm not sure yet. But one thing I know is that I'm just really passionately in love with the oceans. So I'm thinking I want to get out somewhere out into the ocean again sometime soon.

CO: All right, Chris. We're going to give people a link so they can see these images and the film. And I appreciate speaking with you, thank you.

CJ: Thanks so much for having me on your show. Cheers.

JD: Chris Jordan is a photographer based in Seattle, Washington. His film, “Albatross”, premieres this week at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado. And you can find more on this story, including some of Mr. Jordan's still photos and video: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Jazz]

BC graduate

JD: You may have heard her story on As It Happens before. In 2011, Rumana Monzur’s husband brutally attacked her. The attack left her blind. In an interview, she told us that he attacked her in part because he did not want her to return to school. Ms. Monzur was a masters student at the University of B.C. at the time. And her case garnered international attention and she returned to Canada. She finished her masters. Then she enrolled in law school. And today, she graduated and gave a speech to her class at UBC. Here is part of what Ms. Monzur had to say.

SOUNDCLIP

RUMANA MONZUR: It is hard to believe for me that I will not be a student at UBC anymore. My journey with UBC began in 2010 in Dhaka, Bangladesh with a Google search. I fell in love at the campus and chose UBC to pursue my Master's Degree in Political Science. The following May, in 2011, I ventured back to Bangladesh for the summer. I had to collect data for my thesis. I also needed to settle some personal matters. At that point, I was determined to get a divorce. Within just 20 days of my return, my husband attacked me. As a result of that horrendous attack and life threatening attack, I became blind. I never saw the world again. After that, it is the passion, compassion and energy of UBC under the leadership of Stephen Toope, who was the president at that time, that brought to me, my parents and my 5-year-old daughter from Dhaka to Vancouver. I'm proud to say our Dean, who was at that time the president's adviser, played an integral and key role to make it happen. UBC gave me direction when I was lost.

JD: That was Rumana Monzur, speaking earlier today at a graduation ceremony at the University of British Columbia.

[Music: Ambient]

Frankie Paul obit

JD: Frankie Paul had a very vivid memory of one particular day in 1975. When an interviewer asked him about it, he said, quote, “It was a wonderful day. It was raining a little in the morning.” And if that seemed surprisingly specific that is because it was the day Stevie Wonder visited Mr. Paul's School, which was a Salvation Army school for the blind in Kingston, Jamaica. Frankie Paul himself was born blind. And although an operation and some superstrong glasses did give him limited sight later on. During that visit, he sang for his idol, Mr. Wonder, who told him he should pursue a career in music and he did. If you were pursuing his pursuit, you had a lot of pursuing to do. He once estimated he had recorded 5,000 songs over his career. Not because he had a particularly important political or social message to deliver. Generally he did not, but because he loved it and because he sang so beautifully. Frankie Paul died last week of complications related to kidney failure. He was just 51-years-old. Starting with his first recordings in 1980, when he was just 15-years-old, his songs provided an important bridge between the spiritual and the political concerns of reggae and the lighter stuff of the dancehall music of the time. He leaned very heavily toward that lighter stuff, mostly singing about love in an astonishingly elastic voice. He was also an accomplished musician who could play multiple instruments. And he used all that talent to lift people's spirits. To be to his fans what Stevie Wonder had been to him.

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Part 3: Bear attacks car, workout gear, endangered porpoise

Bill Wilson

JD: Bill Wilson has some harsh words for the stalled inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. Those words carry weight because Bill Wilson is a hereditary chief. He pushed for Indigenous rights to be written into the Canadian Constitution. And he is the father of Canada's Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould. Last month, the inquiry officials announced that they were postponing a series of initial advisory meetings, which were supposed to determine the issues covered in formal hearings. Well, here is what Bill Wilson had to say about that delay in an interview with Chris Hall, host of CBC Radio's “The House”.

SOUNDCLIP

BILL WILSON: People have been sitting on their hands for eight months. Spending a good time and money and they haven't done a doggone thing. And we should remember when the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the residential school, stuff started. They went through exactly the same thing and eventually the people either had to be fired or they resigned. I think some of them took the noble way out and resigned. But the people they started with were there when Murray and the rest of them led on with the inquiry. And this one seems to have done the same thing. But I have no idea what they're doing. I mean you know the chairperson tells me they were counting rooms in the Yukon for heaven's sakes. That’s not the job of a commissioner.

CHRIS HALL: But why is that? I mean there's enough experience now with various inquiries at least the appointed by the federal government for people to understand how these things should work. So what do you think happened here? How did it go so badly off the rails?

BW: I think the government, if not the government, whoever appoints these people was looking more to kind of a popularity contest. You know political correctness let's get a certain number of women with a high profile and that will sell. Rather than people who know how to do these kind of things and the reality is that there are a lot of a lot of Native Indian people, women or otherwise, in the Indian business who really haven't done anything. And it's obvious we've got a few of them in this one.

JD: That was Bill Wilson, father of the Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, speaking to CBC Radio’s Chris Hall. And you can hear the whole conversation on “The house’s” mid-week podcast, which will be available for download tomorrow.

[Music: Rock]

Bear attacks car

Guest: Todd Robertson

JD: When Goldilocks followed the delicious smell of porridge and committed her now infamous break-in, she left some evidence behind: a dented cushion, a dirty spoon and, due to her sudden exhaustion,

Of course, she did leave herself. But when the shoe was on the other foot, or Paw perhaps, the damage can be much more significant. Todd and Kim Robertson own a café, a donut café, and that bakery smell permeates pretty much everything they own, including their car. And human beings are not the only ones to notice that smell. We reached Todd Robertson at his cafe in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

CO: Todd, when he came out of your house yesterday morning, what did you see?

TODD ROBERTSON: Well, I got in the car and it’s still dark when I get up because I do deliveries in the morning. And I noticed when I was getting in my truck that my wife's car, which she does deliveries on my off days, the bumper was hanging off of it. And I thought she had been in an accident or I didn't really know what had happened? Hit and run possibly? So I went to wake her up to find out if there was an issue with her car the previous night and she said no, everything was fine. No problem at all. So we walked out and noticed that there was some material around the car and I was looking for tire tracks or whatever else as some clues to what had happened. And really couldn't find anything.

CO: So when you came outside with your wife and looked at it. What did where did the car look like? Describe the condition it was in.

TR: Well, it's a newer vehicle, so it should be in pristine condition. But the bumper is hanging on the sidewalk and there are wires out of it and there's this material around the car. And you know it looked like it was a pretty good impact and that it broke a bunch of plastic and scattered it around the car. So that's the reason we couldn't figure out what was going on. But there weren’t any tire tracks or like you know major hit marks or anything on the car. So that's the reason we were confused as to what was going on.

CO: Now this is a Ford Focus, this car?

TR: Yes, it's a newer Ford Focus 2015, maybe 30,000 miles on it.

CO: So if you figured someone who is trying to break in they wouldn't be going for the bumper. They'd be going for the door, right?

TR: Exactly.

CO: So you called the police, right?

TR: Yes, because I thought it may have been a hit and run. So we called the police to get a report on that.

CO: And what did they have to say about it when they saw the condition of the car?

TR: Well, they basically said the same thing. They're kind of walking around it and said there's not really any impact. And they noticed the smell of donuts and that's when they started asking do you have any food in the car or anything else? Well, no, but it has been used for deliveries the previous day. So yeah, there's definitely the smell of donuts and then when he got up next to me he's like oh my gosh, you smell donuts as well. That was always kind of the joke and that's when he was saying well, I'm glad this is an animal that did this. Maybe this will take some of the donut jokes off of the police department and put those on the bears.

CO: So he was suspecting a bear had tried to get at your donuts?

TR: Yes, so he is the one that actually noticed that there was a bear because it was kind of muddy where the damage was. He's the one that noticed the bear print on the paint in with the mud.

CO: The evidence!

TR: Yes.

CO: The fingerprints!

TR: Exactly.

CO: You didn't have doughnuts in the car?

TR: No, like I said, our closets smell like donuts. When I go to the bank and make a deposit, the tellers are always like oh my gosh, it smells so good because everything absorbs that that donut odor. So we don't even notice it anymore because we're around it so much, whenever I go somewhere everybody is like oh my gosh, something smells so good. I should start selling some donut cologne. I think that would get a lot of people some compliments because it definitely rings true as far as people noticing.

CO: Well it might be surprising that this is the first time that the bear has come visiting looking for your donuts.

TR: That's our fear now. I'm glad that they didn't actually get anything because once they're fed they come back to that same feeding spot. So I don't think we have issues again since they didn't actually have anything to eat. it was only the aroma. So I think we're going to be OK, but only time will tell.

CO: What are your customers saying about your encounter?

TR: Oh, that's been the talk of the town for sure. There’s people making wisecracks all day long about being good enough for wildlife and it must be a great donut. And are you were you trying to lure the bears into the trunk of your car and hijack them away? Or what were you trying to do? So yeah, it's been all day long with the jokes and people come by asnd taking pictures of the vehicle and taking pictures of the front of the building and all that. So we've had our five minutes of fame, so to speak.

CO: Well don't be surprised if that bear comes back.

TR: I wouldn't be surprised one bit. I don't know if it was the same bear, but I saw a pretty good sized black bear less than a mile away from our place when I was out doing donut deliveries one morning and he was just crossing the road at that point. But definitely close enough to have found us without a doubt.

CO: And don't forget that it's the smell of the doughnuts they’re after. You’re baked!

TR: I'm going to have to be careful because I like to go hiking and mountain biking and all that sort of thing. So I might have to take showers and wash clothes in a different place.

CO: And keep looking over your shoulder.

TR: Yes, nervously looking over the shoulder because that could be an uncomfortable trail hike for sure.

CO: Todd, it's great to talk to you. Thanks.

TR: Thank you very much.

JD: Todd Robertson and his wife Kim own the Moose Watch Cafe. We reached him in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

[Music: Folk]

Workout gear

Guest: Wen Wang

JD: When I train, well things get pretty intense. I mean while I'm feeling the burn everyone else is seeing me feeling the burn, with the gasping and the sweating and the red face. But in my defense, I sometimes do up to five minutes on the treadmill — straight — no breaks. And I feel like my workout gear doesn't really breathe. Well it seems like some MIT researchers want to help people like me and perhaps you. They have created ventilated workout gear. On the back of the top, there are flaps and open and close and all it took was some ingenuity and some bacteria. The project is detailed in the journal “Science Advances”. When Wang is the lead author. We reached her in Singapore via Skype.

CO: Ms. Wang, I know you have tested this gear and so how did it feel when you worked out in it?

WEN WANG: It feels great because the garment itself can help you to ventilate. So when you start to sweat, you actually feel not really hot, but cool because the sweat can be easily removed away from the skin. And also when we retested it in the gym, we've got lots of attention because it looks really beautiful.

CO: What did these cells that are actually allowing the heat to leave. What do they look like on the shirt? Describe the back of it.

WW: So you won't be able to visually see the cells because they are so tiny. The flaps is pretty big. Our technology is limited in the lab, so the size is from the nail size to the finger size. So the flaps can open up when we start to work out and sweat and close down. So it's just like the shark fin or the fish scale.

CO: And so what are these flaps made of then?

WW: So the flaps were made of bacteria. They call it the Bacillus subtilis natto. It was used for making Japanese natto been — soybean — for thousands of years. The bacteria can sense that change of the humidity and change the size. And when you start to sweat, the bacteria change the size and the whole flap can open up.

CO: So tell us a bit more about this bacteria and how you made it into something you could actually weave into the fabric of a shirt?

WW: So the bacteria is very small as I mentioned. So we culture it in a reactor. So basically we give the food to the bacteria and let it grow overnight. So one bacteria can become billions of them just overnight when we are at the optimum condition. So after we get the bacteria we purify it by washing it using water and other media. And, in the end, we kind of make a suspension and utilize a bio-printer to extrude the solution on the fabric, so the bacteria has a really high attachment with the fabric and can be coated on the fabric. In the end, we had a sandwich structured bio-film. So both sides are coated with bacteria and the side on your skin is a kind of actuator that can sense the humidity and your sweat.

CO: If these flaps are made from something organic like a food substance. What happens when you wash them? Don't they just disintegrate?

WW: So at this moment, we're haven’t washed our prototype yet. So in future we hope to further create a chemical bonding between the bacteria and the fabric, so you won't be able to wash it away. But another question I want to ask is why we want to wash the clothes all the time? So the common thing is that we want to wash our blood, wine or some dust or some food. But imagine if you have living clothing that eat up this material and also maybe create some nice smell out of it and you don't need to wash your clothes anymore.

CO: So you're proposing that if we had this shirt, we probably wouldn't wash it. It would be some kind of self-cleaning?

WW: Yeah, that's our vision. And also it will be our future work. So basically the bacteria will eat up all those stains and also utilize them as the food and produce something we need such as a nice vanilla smell or a rose smell.

CO: Well, you're in Singapore, and if you're running in Canada, you'd find quite often you run into rain. I mean heavy rain and snow or some kind of precipitation. So what happens when you're wearing the shirt and you're out in the rain?

WW: So I think this bacteria is very resilient and is not that sensitive to a high temperature change. So we hope that in the future we can use certain bacteria that can be used in harsh conditions such as in the rain or a cold environment. But if you lower the temperature below like minus 10 minus 20 degrees Celsius I think that bacteria has some difficulty to survive. However, if you just want the flap to open you don't need to use live bacteria. Even dead bacteria or the proteins inside the bacteria can also make the fabric to be functional. So in the other words, using living bacteria is one option and you can also use non-living materials, which can sustain a harsh condition.

CO: You've experimented with putting this in running shoes as well. How does that work?

WW: So because of the excess sweat, your feet may have some problem like warts. So we hope to create these ventilation flaps to help the sweat remove from your feet, especially the bottom of the feet. So once you start to sweat, the flaps opens up and the sweat well be removed from the soul of the shoe. We're also kind of engineer the bacteria with a glowing function. We hope that in future once you start to sweat, not only does it help you remove that, it also start to glow so people can see you in the dark.

CO: You developed this at MIT's Media Lab, but did you have corporate sponsors?

WW: Yes, so MIT had many sponsors during the time where were study and researching. New Balance was the sponsor of the research. And we were so grateful that they helped us to kneel down ideas from the very beginning to the end of the product.

CO: And New Balance is a sports equipment manufacturer. Are they interested in producing and marketing your breathable wear?

WW: So at the time they sponsored our project, we were making garments and not really shoes. So the team who sponsored we're focusing on the shoe study. So at this moment, we're also in contact with other sportswear companies to further develop the technology.

CO: All right, we'll leave it there. Ms. Wang, thank you.

WW: Thank you.

JD: Wen Wang is the lead author of a new paper on “ventilated” workout gear. She's a former research scientist at MIT Media Lab and Department of Chemical Engineering. We reached her in Singapore. And you can see what this ventilated, bacteria-riddled workout gear looks like. You can find photos on our website: www.cbc.ca/aih.

[Music: Orchestral]

Endangered porpoise

Guest: Andrea Crosta

JD: The vaquita is a rare species of porpoise. It's only natural habitat is the Gulf of California. And soon, it may vanish entirely. An undercover investigation has revealed that vaquitas are being killed in the process of catching another endangered fish, the totoaba. The totoaba’s swim bladder is sold as a high priced delicacy on the Chinese black market. The investigation was conducted by the Elephant Action League. Andrea Crosta is the group's executive director and co-founder. We reached Mr. Crosta in Amsterdam.

CO: Mr. Crosta, can you, first of all, describe the vaquita porpoise for us?

ANDREA CROSTA: Yes, the vaquita is the smallest and rarest porpoise in the world. They live only in the upper part of Baja, California and Mexico. And we don't know much about this species. It is even difficult to see. You know the way they don't get out from water like other dolphins for example. And they are highly threatened. The current number we estimated that there are only 28-30 left in the whole Baja, California.

CO: And as we're just mentioning the reason why they are so reduced is because they are getting caught in the gill nets that are being used for another endangered fish. Can you tell us about that?

AC: Exactly. The Vaquita are basically the bi-catch of fishermen trying to catch another other fish, which is the totoaba. And they catch the Totoaba because the bladder of the totoaba is actually a delicacy and is highly sought in the Chinese market for the traditional Chinese medicine. So they get these fish, they take out the bladder or they dry up the bladder and then they smuggle it into China.

CO: So this bladder of the totoaba is being sought for as a rare delicacy or I guess for some medicine. So what is it worth for those pirates who are getting those bladders?

AC: Yes, so that the current price that we estimated with our recent undercover investigation in China is a little over 20,000 U.S. dollars per kilo. And unlike other illegal wildlife products, maybe you buy a little you know a ring of ivory or a piece of it. In the case of this bladder, you buy the whole thing otherwise you're not sure that you are buying the real thing from a quality point of view. So there are people you know that are spending thousands and thousands of dollars just to buy this bladder.

CO: This is like drugs?

AC: Yeah, even more and that's why it's called liquid cocaine. One of the ways they call this is liquid cocaine.

CO: So this is for the bladder the totoaba, which is before we get back to the other one, how endangered is that fish?

AC: It’s highly endangered and is fully protected as a species. So you cannot fish it, but already a couple of decades, when in you know the fish was declared illegal there were very little left. With one single bladder of the totoaba, a fisherman makes probably half of what he usually makes selling legal fish.

CO: So in addition to this, what's happening to the totoaba. The Vaquita, porpoises, you said that there were only 28 of them left. So how close to complete extinction are these animals?

AC: Extremely, I would say one or two years — maybe even months — I don't know.

CO: This fishing these porpoises and these fish are being caught is in the Gulf of California. Is the Mexican government doing anything to stop the pirating?

AC: Not enough actually. The gill nets are illegal, so they say that in theory they have all the possible tools to crack down on these illegal fishing with local fishermen. The local fishermen are very powerful. There are multiple sources saying that even the drug cartels in the area are involved. So we're talking about something you know very, very delicate. People able to corrupt everyone, including the Mexican government of course, so it's not easy.

CO; So any thought? In your investigation did you determine anything that might be able to be done to save these porpoises?

AC: Last resort rough resort would be to try to catch the majority of these vaquitas and put them in a pond in Baja, California and protect them. And so just to remove them from you know the danger of being caught in as bi-catch. To do that, in theory, the plan would be to use technology belonging to the U.S. Navy because there's no other way you can you know round them up and put them on site. As you can imagine, there are a lot of risks. You can injure those vaquitas, you can kill them. They are very nervous animals. And once you put them in the pond probably they will have huge problems in breeding. So I'm not sure if that is what they need. The main thing is that along the entire supply chain, so China, U.S. and Mexico they have to get serious in enforcing the law. If they don't get to that point then the vaquita is gone. There's no more and there's no hope for this species.

CO: All right, we'll leave it there. Mr. Crosta, I appreciate you telling us about this story. Thank you.

AC: Thank you. Bye bye.

JD: Andrea Crosta is the co-founder and executive director of the Elephant Action League. We reached him in Amsterdam.

[Music: Ambient]

From Our Archives: flamingo record

JD: Back in the 60s, when visiting Florida, Cindy Dunlow fell in love. The object of her affection had a prominent schnozz, a reddish-pink complexion, a love of shrimp and long slender, legs. But Ms. Dunlow couldn't just grab an actual flamingo, so she started grabbing flamingo stuff — lots of flamingo stuff. Since 1999, she has run a custom framing store in Ocala, Florida that doubles as quote, “The Official Florida Flamingo Museum.” She's got flamingo towels, flamingo toilet paper… look, I'm going to skip the list and just say she has it all. All the flamingo things, including, now, a world record for the largest collection of flamingo things on earth. As officially certified by Guinness. Last year, when the Guinness team recognized her collection, she had 793 such items. All painstakingly itemized and photographed. Now, she has 865, which means that the former record holder doesn't have a leg to stand on. Speaking of which, it's confirmed we now know why flamingoes stand on one leg: to save energy. Scientists from two universities in Georgia have found that when they're in that common pose, flamingos are expending no effort at all. That's because of the leg’s design, which the study calls a quote, “passive gravitational stay mechanism.” This mechanism kicks in automatically. In fact, and this part is really phenomenal, they found that flamingo cadavers can stand on one leg once the mechanism is engaged. Their leg becomes a kind of chair. This resolves a long standing debate, one we examined on this program back in September of 1991. Dr. Simon Pickering of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, talked flamingoes with our former host Michael Enright. Here's part of their conversation, from our archives.

SOUNDCLIP

MICHAEL ENRIGHT: Dr. Pickering, of course a question that has been bedeviling generations of people and that is why do flamingos stand on one leg? In fact, I've never asked myself that question in my life, but I want I want to know the answer?

SIMON PICKERING: Well, I mean it is the number one question visitors to Slimbridge ask to our wardens. I mean if they are feeling particularly sort of devious that day they just say well, you know If they lifted the other one up they’d fall over. Sort of a witty answer to that one. There has been lots of speculation as to why flamingos stand on one leg, including it actually reduces heat loss. If you’ve got one leg tucked up nice and warm into your feathers, you're only exposing one leg to the cold conditions.

ME: What is your favorite theory? What one do you think will stand up to scientific scrutiny?

SP: I just think it's a comfort thing. I'm standing on one leg, well with one leg on a chair while I’m talking to you on the phone and I just think it’s a comfort thing.

ME: Do they do everything on one leg? I mean that is to say do they eat and procreate and recreate?

SP: No,no,no, I mean obviously they can't do everything on one leg and they do use two to walk around. And when they're flying the don’t really need to use their legs.

ME: That's amazing. You're a grown up scientist and I'm asking you why flamingos stand on one leg? Aren't you glad you had all that schooling?

SP: I am indeed.

ME: Dr. Pickering, thank you for joining us tonight.

SP: Thank you very much.

ME: We will have at least 100,000 phone calls from people who have their theories and we'll give them all your home phone number.

SP: Jolly good. Thanks a lot. Well it's a good job that I’m just going out to the picture.

ALAN MAITLAND: Dr. Simon Pickering is with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, England. Slimbridge is one hundred kilometers as the flamingo hops from Reading.

JD From our archives, Alan Maitland, and before him Dr Simon Pickering in conversation with our former host, Michael Enright in September of 1991. The subject: flamingos and why they stand on one leg. Dr. Pickering's theory because: it's comfortable.

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May 24, 2017 episode transcript

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