What we can learn about being balanced humans through the lives of our fellow social mammals (chimpanzee, mountain gorillas and wolves)? I’ve been studying and observing these wild families for 15 years and we share more commonalities that we can learn from. There is great wisdom in the lives of these wild families, we just have to listen.

A look at the complex relationship between humans and wolves through the wolf experience in two regions of North America - Yellowstone National Park and the Canadian High Arctic. For the vast majority of human history, we lived alongside the wolf as a fellow hunter. Later, we welcomed them into our homes and they became part of our families. Wolves are neither good nor bad - value is a human construct - and they are a mirror to how modern humans treat the natural world.

Leadership has evolved out of a need that all social mammals share in order to succeed as a group. The idea is simple, how to achieve together what we cannot alone. Yet leadership is a dynamic element of societies - both in humans and in chimpanzees. Not all leaders are the same because leaders are individuals. Leadership drives culture, innovation and success in the human world and in the wild world. 

I was a two-time felon at the age of 13. Fast forward and I’m now a National Geographic Storytelling Fellow and Explorer who spends months in wild places documenting stories about out fellow social mammals for National Geographic. What led me to commit felonies and what changed? What did I learn from that experience? In this presentation, I will share my experience as a wild child to living a wild life traveling the world for National Geographic. This talk is geared towards an audience age between 10-25.