The Splendor of Nature, Now Streaming

Summary

Critics at Large | The Splendor of Nature, Now Streaming

Release Date: January 30, 2025

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Critics at Large from The New Yorker delves deep into the evolving landscape of nature documentaries in its episode titled "The Splendor of Nature, Now Streaming." Hosted by Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz, the trio explores the transition of nature documentaries from mere showcases of Earth's beauty to powerful commentaries on environmental degradation and human impact. This comprehensive summary captures the essence of their lively and insightful discussion, complete with notable quotes and timestamps for reference.

Introduction to the Episode

The episode kicks off with the hosts’ personal reflections on nature documentaries, framing the discussion around David Attenborough's enduring influence and the genre's recent resurgence on streaming platforms.

Vincent Cunningham [09:08]: "I have always been weirdly comforted by nature documentaries. Whenever they kind of show up on my TV screen, they bring me to a world I don't have access to, and most of the time a world that I don't even know."

David Attenborough’s Enduring Legacy

The conversation transitions to David Attenborough, celebrating his monumental contributions to nature documentaries and examining how his work has shaped public perception of the natural world.

Vinson Cunningham [05:13]: "One example of what we're going to talk about today is 'Mammals,' a BBC documentary voiced by David Attenborough himself."

Alex Schwartz [14:40]: "First of all, the footage is extraordinary. It's breathtaking."

From Zoo Quest to Mammals: Evolution of the Genre

The hosts compare Attenborough’s early work, like Zoo Quest, with his more recent series, highlighting a shift from exploration-focused narratives to more urgent, environmentally conscious storytelling.

Nomi Fry [24:20]: "It's Bali. It's Bali."

In reflecting on Zoo Quest [22:10], they note:

Alex Schwartz: "We're seeing this kind of journey. They're looking for this orangutan."

Contrastingly, in Mammals [30:18], the discussion points to a heightened political and scientific focus:

Vinson Cunningham [27:37]: "Here he is coming in saying that it's very, very real."

The Streaming Gold Rush: Proliferation of Nature Documentaries

The podcast examines the surge of nature documentaries across streaming services, attributing it to advancements in filming technology and changing audience demands.

Vinson Cunningham [35:22]: "There's been a huge explosion of these big-budget documentaries. It's been referred to as a gold rush or even a stampede."

Alex Schwartz [35:45]: "Did you guys see 'The Octopus Teacher'?"

Nomi Fry [38:12]: "These documentaries present us with a vision of a different world."

Impact on Viewers: Education, Emotion, and Activism

The hosts discuss how nature documentaries educate and emotionally engage viewers, fostering a deeper connection to the environment and encouraging activism.

Alex Schwartz [11:06]: "We learn best, probably through stories."

Nomi Fry [12:21]: "I gravitate towards the animals that I have sympathetic feelings towards, and that's kind of what I retain."

Vincent Cunningham [16:54]: "We've discussed this trajectory from happy observer of nature to much more forceful political commentator."

Alex Schwartz [34:21]: "The series strikes a balance between exposure to the splendors of nature and the degradations it faces because of man-made climate change."

The Modern Nature Doc: Balancing Beauty and Urgency

The episode highlights the dual role of contemporary nature documentaries in showcasing Earth's beauty while urgently addressing environmental crises.

Vincent Cunningham [40:42]: "One reason that this stuff is becoming so popular is the legalization of marijuana. People want to get high and not just think about whales."

Nomi Fry [40:44]: "These documentaries provide a level of escapism and comfort."

Attenborough’s Activist Transformation

Attenborough’s evolution from a naturalist to an environmental activist is a focal point, demonstrating how his documentaries have become platforms for advocating planetary stewardship.

Alex Schwartz [27:04]: "David Attenborough has added hugely to the human condition, understanding ourselves in the context of the globe."

Vinson Cunningham [43:42]: "What's behind the so-called gold rush of nature documentaries, critics at large. We'll be right back."

Conclusion: The Future of Nature Documentaries

In their concluding remarks, the hosts emphasize the importance of nature documentaries in inspiring the next generation of environmentalists and scientists. They advocate for the preservation of these visual records as crucial testimonies of Earth's natural splendor and the urgent need to protect it.

Alex Schwartz [45:19]: "I think the legacy of them is that we, as a public, feel more committed to our planet's future."

Nomi Fry [44:56]: "Does it make us more involved members of society, of planet Earth? I think it could."

Vinson Cunningham [45:55]: "I think we should be deeply glad to have them and treasure them."

Notable Quotes

• Vincent Cunningham [09:08]: "I have always been weirdly comforted by nature documentaries. Whenever they kind of show up on my TV screen, they bring me to a world I don't have access to."

• Alex Schwartz [14:40]: "First of all, the footage is extraordinary. It's breathtaking."

• Nomi Fry [24:20]: "It's Bali. It's Bali."

• Alex Schwartz [11:06]: "We learn best, probably through stories."

• Vinson Cunningham [35:22]: "There's been a huge explosion of these big-budget documentaries. It's been referred to as a gold rush or even a stampede."

• Alex Schwartz [34:21]: "The series strikes a balance between exposure to the splendors of nature and the degradations it faces because of man-made climate change."

• Alex Schwartz [45:19]: "I think the legacy of them is that we, as a public, feel more committed to our planet's future."

Final Thoughts

Critics at Large provides an engaging exploration of how nature documentaries have transformed into vital tools for environmental awareness and activism. Through thoughtful analysis and passionate discussion, the hosts convey the profound impact these films have on both individual viewers and broader societal attitudes toward nature conservation.

Transcript

[Alex Schwartz]

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[Nomi Fry]

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[Vincent Cunningham]

Hello Vincent here. A quick announcement before we get into the episode. First, we're working on something really fun and we need you listeners to help us out, especially if you are a fan of the genre known as Romantasy. Right now, Alex Nomi and I are deep in preparation for an episode all about this absolutely huge genre. We've recently become acquainted with terms like Acotar. I myself am dipping into a series called Fourth Wing, which I've heard referred to as the Horny Dragon Books. We're trying to understand what Romantasy is all about and we need your help. Here's the assignment. If you yourself have fallen down the Romantasy rabbit hole, we want to hear all about it. Tell us about what you read and importantly, why it pulled you in. Getting this to us is really easy. Just pull out your phone and record your message using your Voicemails app. Then email it to [e-mail] themalewyorker.com with the subject line Critics. Now onto this week's show. If you follow the work of international treasure David Attenborough, you might know that his new BBC series is now available in the us.

[David Attenborough]

Of all the wonderful places in the world, one continent holds More riches than any other. It covers almost a third of the land on earth.

[Vincent Cunningham]

It's called Asia. And the first episode just aired this past weekend. It felt like a good time to resurface an episode of Critics at Large that is all about Attenborough's work and the mark he's left on the world of nature documentaries broadly. It's from last summer when his show Mammals had just come out. This is one of my favorite episodes of our show and I really hope you enjoy it now.

[Alex Schwartz]

Welcome to Critics at Large, a podcast from the New Yorker. I'm Alex Schwartz.

[Nomi Fry]

I'm Nomi Fry.

[Vincent Cunningham]

And I'm Vincent Cunningham. Each week on this show, we make sense of what's happening in the culture right now. Excuse me, I'm so sorry. Too much, Attenborough.

[Alex Schwartz]

Too much.

[Nomi Fry]

Oh, God.

[Vincent Cunningham]

What's happening in the culture right now? How we got here? How are you guys doing?

[Alex Schwartz]

Sir David, are you in the room?

[Vincent Cunningham]

I'm sort of in the room.

[Nomi Fry]

Oh, that's not bad, Vincent.

[Alex Schwartz]

That was pretty good.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah.

[Vincent Cunningham]

I have always been weirdly comforted by nature documentaries. Whenever they kind of show up on my TV screen, they bring me to a world I don't have access to, and most of the time a world that I don't even know. Even when I'm in nature, I don't know to look for it. Sure, right. They render them in gorgeous images. The deep blue of the ocean, the green and yellow of the savanna. These documentaries have, like, never, by the way, been more advanced. Isn't it amazing? Like some of the, like just the scenes and shots.

[Alex Schwartz]

Incredible.

[Nomi Fry]

It's actually crazy underground.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Mind blowing with the mole rat.

[Alex Schwartz]

Mind blowing?

[Vincent Cunningham]

How is it possible?

[Alex Schwartz]

It's extraordinary.

[Nomi Fry]

I mean, the glint on those mole.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Rat teeth, those chompers, those big vertical horrible teeth.

[Alex Schwartz]

I love mole rats.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Do you?

[Alex Schwartz]

Always have. Always will.

[Nomi Fry]

Very cute.

[Alex Schwartz]

The naked mole rat is my favorite. But I will go in for other.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Mole rats, mole rat gerbil, this kind of thing I don't want to see. Can we get back to the majesty of the whale?

[Alex Schwartz]

Why are we looking at this rodent? It's all about the diversity of the Earth's creatures.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Well, that part can just stay underground. But anyway, one example of what we're going to talk about today is called Mammals, a BBC documentary voiced by David Attenborough himself.

[David Attenborough]

Before dawn arrives, these wily coyotes retreat into the shadows. It's the adaptability and ingenuity of these mammals, indeed of all nocturnal mammals, that has enabled them to become active in.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Conditions that we avoid we'll also be looking at nature documentaries more broadly. This is obviously a tried and true kind of old genre that in recent years has experienced a resurgence. Streaming services are pouring huge amounts of money into this kind of nature programming. I've seen this moment talked about as a nature docs gold rush. We'll also talk about how our deepening despair over climate change creates a new, uneasy context for the nature doc. What at some point was, for many people a form of escapism has, especially over the past few decades, become, quite literally documentary, a way of acknowledging that these beautiful species, complex ecosystems are disappearing before our very eyes. Can we really enjoy an art form whose main job is to record how things on our planet look now before it all changes for the worse? So that's today on critics at large. Changing world of nature documentaries. Do you guys. We're all New Yorkers here, but do you guys also consider yourselves at all in any sense to be nature people?

[Alex Schwartz]

I love nature and I appreciate nature. I can think of some people in my immediate acquaintance who know vastly more than I do.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Okay. Are you often on, like, hikes or camping trips with those people in your immediate acquaintance?

[Alex Schwartz]

No. Okay.

[Nomi Fry]

But she loves it.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Not me. Nature person.

[Nomi Fry]

I would say that I'm absolutely not a nature person. To everyone's surprise and shock, I'm sure. I love observing nature from a constructed environment.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Some of our listeners might not know that Nomi, to me, famously, has allowed Opossum to, like, become a member of her household.

[Nomi Fry]

I know, but that is within the built environment.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah, right, right.

[Nomi Fry]

I mean, I didn't invite him in. He came in.

[Vincent Cunningham]

He came in. But then you were like.

[Nomi Fry]

But then I was like, you welcomed him. Come in, sir.

[Vincent Cunningham]

He was a running character on your Instagram.

[Nomi Fry]

I don't know what you're talking about. So, okay, so the story is, I live in Brooklyn and I have two cats. So there's a cat door. You know, we're sitting on the couch and we saw a whiskered, pointy snout suddenly poke itself into the domestic space.

[Alex Schwartz]

An unfamiliar visage.

[Nomi Fry]

He came in, and little by little, you know, because he was quite insistent, he would come to the stoop outside the door, and we would be like, oh, there he is again, this little guy who we named Biden.

[Vincent Cunningham]

I was waiting for you to divulge.

[Nomi Fry]

This was in 2020. And so he started coming to visit. We would give him cat food, and eventually he just went away. They're itinerant creatures, as I read on.

[Alex Schwartz]

Wikipedia, so we may never see his kind Again, no, he's a rolling stone.

[Nomi Fry]

You know, he's, he's much like the answer. He's blowing in the wind. He came in through the bathroom window and off you went.

[Vincent Cunningham]

We know what we think about nature itself, but what about nature documentaries? So for me, I will admit nature documentaries have always, I've always really loved them, but as what people now call kind of ambient tv, something to have on, pay attention to very closely at some moments, but then kind of retreat from, putz around, clean, let's face it, smoke weed, do something else and just kind of hang out while it's on. Adoring the images, but not like not paying as close attention to it as I would like a movie or whatever.

[Alex Schwartz]

Right.

[Vincent Cunningham]

How about you guys?

[Nomi Fry]

I like nature documentaries. It's interesting because we were watching Mammals, the new David Attenborough series for today and I realized I don't seek them out, but when I watch them I always remember that they're great.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah.

[Nomi Fry]

What are they? This is what a world, you know? Do you know what I mean? Does that make sense?

[Alex Schwartz]

Absolutely. It makes total sense. I mean, the splendor of the world and the diversity of the world and its environments and its species is stunning and it's mind blowing. And I did watch Mammals with a different kind of attention because I knew we were going to be discussing it and I found that that kind of attention paid off hugely.

[Vincent Cunningham]

That's right. So yes, Mammals is a new series. This is not directed by Sir David. He is simply the beautifully organ toned presenter. What is the relationship between the nature doc and learning? Because even when I, as I'm listening to the facts, I know that they are slipping right out. I never pretend that I'm gonna, like, I don't think I've ever retained a single fact from a nature documentary is what I'm saying. I just don't have, for whatever reason, it's just like water over a stone. Stone being my smooth ass brain.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yeah. I mean, I think part of it is just if you go in, right. Like we tend to learn, I think the three of us in this room, I'm just gonna make a general statement about how we might learn best, probably through stories.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yes.

[Alex Schwartz]

Like if you were to sit there and watch a History channel documentary about the Roman Empire, like you might glean some stuff. But are you going to remember, you know, the dates of Vespasian's reign? I kind of don't think you are upon leaving, but I do think that is one reason and I'm sure we're gonna Discuss this, that documentaries like Mammals and other documentaries in the Attenborough mold tell stories about the animals that are. That they're featuring so that we can kind of remember, almost like remember the animals as characters to try to learn something of what their behavior is. And this time I did focus in more on that.

[Nomi Fry]

Right? I mean, I think, yeah, Alex, I agree with you completely about the kind of, like, the narrative. Narrative's ability to help us learn and help us retain knowledge. I think with mammals, I, at least, and I don't know about you guys, gravitate towards the animals that I have sympathetic feeling towards, and that's kind of what I retain.

[Alex Schwartz]

Howler monkeys. Were you into the Howlers?

[Nomi Fry]

I like the howlers. I was thinking specifically, I was thinking about the otters in Singapore. Oh, yes, One of the otters. It's a pack, because they live in packs. And this particular pack goes kind of like running around the city. And one of them is left behind after the whole family crosses a road except him.

[David Attenborough]

His cools are drowned out by the sounds of the city. He revisits places along the family's regular route, but he's always too late. Even his family's scent is masked by the smells of city life.

[Nomi Fry]

And so, of course, I was like, will otter find mommy? I mean, there's the story. I will remember this because I felt sympathetic towards Mr. Otter, who was, you know, looked sleek and intelligent, but also a bit helpless. And so I think with nature documentaries, you know, there's the question of anthropomorphizing these creatures and kind of gravitating towards, like, are you a cheetah or are you an antelope?

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah, you know.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah, yeah.

[Vincent Cunningham]

But what you said, Nomi, like, it's so true to me, too, like, the way that they're able. And I think this is just because of, first of all, the amazing way that these cameras move and everything to immediately give a sort of protagonism to an animal and to like, follow their story like a drama. It's kind of terrifying.

[Alex Schwartz]

Well, there are dramas, though, you know. Okay, so first of all, I just want to say I loved this series. I loved it. Like, if you guys didn't love it, tell me about why you didn't love it. But I was totally into it.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Right.

[Alex Schwartz]

I mean, it had all the hallmarks of things that I come to nature documentaries for. First of all, the footage, as you were saying, Vincent, is extraordinary. It's breathtaking. It's blended.

[Nomi Fry]

It's stunning. It's stunning. There's Moments where I was like, is this cgi? Which, of course it isn't.

[Alex Schwartz]

It isn't. And what's cool is that at the end of each episode, they show you. I love some of how they made the episode. And, you know, for instance, there was a really amazing sequence where they show this crazy thing, which is that bottlenose dolphins and this other species of dolphins called false killer whales because they look a bit like orcas. Their skull is kind of similar to the skull of orcas, have actually formed an interspecies friendship, which is very, very, very rare.

[David Attenborough]

These two groups are old acquaintances.

[Nomi Fry]

In.

[David Attenborough]

The waters around New Zealand. They are almost always found together.

[Alex Schwartz]

And then we see this amazing thing where the bottlenose dolphins start to herd a school of tiny fish up to the surface of the ocean so that they can eat them. And they're, like, forming this big, gorgeous ball as they swim higher and higher. And the dolphins are having a field day eating them.

[David Attenborough]

But despite helping, the whales don't appear to feed for them. The Kahawai are just the bait.

[Alex Schwartz]

They are in it for the bigger fish that those little fish lure. And then at the end of the episode, we see how this was all filmed. The scientists are out in their boat. First they have to look for the group of whales. They're like, finally, they find them. It's very exciting. Oh, my God.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah, I've seen a stumpy nose.

[Alex Schwartz]

They're trying to stick a camera on one using this kind of like. It's like one of those things that you use at the supermarket to, like, get the toilet paper from the upper shelf. They use this kind of long branch.

[Nomi Fry]

The bounty roll.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yes. Like, they use this bounty roll branch to stick this sensor on the false killer whales. And that's how we learn for the first time ever that they share their food. All this stuff.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Ease my way over towards them. Wait. Okay, this is it. We did it. We did it. We did it. Well done.

[Alex Schwartz]

That very long example, honestly, made me feel, and maybe this is the bigger point, that humans have this huge responsibility, but also ability to be custodians to nature as well.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah. I do think what you're leading us to, Alex, is talking about the political angle of the show. Right. Because over the years, it hasn't always been the case that these types of shows were, like, trying to tell us something about what we should do. What kind of custodians should we be to planet Earth? But recent years, of course, because of the hastening, you know, potential demise of this planet, has kind of changed the attitude of nature documentaries towards this topic, you know, and the urgency of it, and this show does show us ways in which the environmental situation has been affecting these animals. But I agree with you that even just the fact that this is still, this kind of documentary is still being shot and these resources are still being kind of earmarked for the benefit of such shows. And of course, these shows are moneymakers as well. You know, they're entertainment, they're popular. But the commitment of the people involved, which we can see in these segments towards the end of the episodes, where it shows how hard it is to get this footage and the knowledge and perseverance it takes to capture these things so we can learn more about the world, is really kind of hope making and inspiring.

[Vincent Cunningham]

In a minute, a message for our dolphin friends. That's in a minute.

[Alex Schwartz]

That just rolled off your tongue.

[Nomi Fry]

That was amazing.

[Vincent Cunningham]

I'm semi fluent. How did you know I studied abroad?

[Nomi Fry]

Hi, I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor of the New Yorker. Each week on the Writer's Voice podcast, New Yorker fiction writers read their newly published stories from the magazine. You can hear from authors like Colson Whitehead.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Turner nudged Elwood, who had a look of horror on his face. They saw it. Griff wasn't going down. He was going to go for it. No matter what happened after.

[Nomi Fry]

Or Joy Williams, her father, was silent. Slowly he passed his hand over his hair. This usually meant that he was traveling to a place immune to her presence, a place that indeed contradicted her presence. She might as well go to lunch, listen to news stories or dive into our archive of great fiction. You can find the work of your favorite fiction writers and discover new ones. Listen and follow the Writer's Voice wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Vincent Cunningham]

Okay, I think one thing that we might want to talk about is just kind of how the tone and the aim of nature docs has changed over the decades. So I'm gonna play for us some old school Attenborough, some OG Attenborough take us back.

[David Attenborough]

After an hour, I found on the forest floor the rinds and cores of durian fruit, which I knew was the favorite food of the orangutan. I showed it to the dayak who'd come with me, and he confirmed what I had hoped. The way in which it had been chewed showed that it had been eaten by an orangutan. One must have been here early this morning.

[Alex Schwartz]

Okay, so we're seeing a young David Attenborough in black and white. We're seeing this kind of journey. They're looking for this orangutan.

[David Attenborough]

A few minutes later, we heard a crashing in the branches ahead. And there, only a few yards away, we spotted a great furry red form swaying in the trees.

[Alex Schwartz]

And now we are seeing footage of the orangutan, which for the time, I think was probably extraordinary. I mean, the show, Zoo Quest, was hugely, hugely successful. And, you know, many, many people tuned in. And I can see why from this, like, you're seeing. You're seeing an orangutan climbing in the trees. By the way, the first thing I notice when I watch this clip is how focused on the people it is. It's very, very different than contemporary nature documentaries where the people are totally out of sight. That's right. We're seeing this kind of journey that Attenborough's making in the thick force of. I'm not sure where he is.

[Nomi Fry]

It's Bali. It's Bali.

[Alex Schwartz]

Okay.

[Nomi Fry]

Is it Bali? Probably.

[Alex Schwartz]

I mean, it's certainly an Asian country.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah, yeah.

[Alex Schwartz]

Is it Bali?

[Nomi Fry]

I believe it's in. Yeah, I believe it's.

[Alex Schwartz]

So we're seeing him and therefore a Balinese guide. They're looking for this orangutan. And we see them first of all, like when Attenborough's asking if the orangutan has been sleeping there or something, he makes the kind of international gesture for sleep. You know, it's like we're almost watching this kind of funny communication between guide and presenter.

[Nomi Fry]

Right. It's not just the footage of the animal divorced from whoever it is that's either narrating the action or shooting the action. This is all right there. And later on in the clip, too. It's interesting, Alex, is to your point about the fact that we see the people front and center. Later on in the clip, we see Attenborough experiencing a traditional Balinese dance.

[David Attenborough]

Soon, a dancer wearing a headdress of hornbill feathers emerged from beneath the longhouse and began to prance and posture to the music of the drums and gongs.

[Nomi Fry]

You know, it's a kind. You know, this is 1956. This is post empire. Right. But not just post, but just post empire and the.

[Alex Schwartz]

And not fully post. We're moving post.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah, we're moving post. And trending post. We're trending post. And yet there is a kind of, I mean, the kind of interest in a strange land and showing the people back home through the, you know, with the help of the BBC, not just the animals, but also the people and the customs. And then also, you know, this is called Zoo Quest. So interestingly, I believe, from what I read about this show, the idea was to bring back those animals to the London Zoo. And so it wasn't just let us observe these animals in their natural habitat and leave them alone, but the impulse to kind of like bring back these specimen back to the mother country, you know, that, of course, is quite different than what we see right now in a nature documentary. Although arguably the images that are brought back from these far flung places kind of satisfy a similar impulse in the view of acquisitive. Yeah, yeah.

[Vincent Cunningham]

It strikes me though, too, that the authority and the, I don't know, the equity that Attenborough builds up from Zoo Quest on forward as somebody who actually cares about these habitats, cares about how they are depicted in this whole sort of prismatic way, is what gives him then the sort of gravitas as a person to then make the turn toward what we see now, which is a more, I guess you could call it a more activist form, or certainly at least a more sort of politically aware form. So one of the real turning points for attenborough was in 2004 when he went to a talk. He, like many people at that time, was already aware of global warming. But this talk is really the moment in the Attenborough lore when he was convinced that humans were behind these major changes. So let's play a clip from the first project that he made after seeing that Talk. This is 2006, a program called Are We Changing Planet Earth?

[David Attenborough]

You and I belong to the most widespread and dominant species of animal on Earth.

27 years ago, I presented Life on Earth, a series that traced the evolution of life from its very beginnings.

[Alex Schwartz]

What we're about to see, if you keep playing the clip, you'll see, because I watched a bit of this before. Maybe we can keep watching for a second, because he's playing a clip of himself as a younger man talking about humans effect on nature. And what he comes back to say is an older man is even stronger.

[David Attenborough]

But although denying a Special place in.

May be becoming immodest.

The fact remains that man has an unprecedented control over the world and everything in it. And so whether he likes it or not, what happens next is very largely up to him.

[Alex Schwartz]

So that's the old documentary and now we see in the new documentary. The immediate cut is to a vision of glaciers collapsing, huge forest fires. Just real disaster footage.

[David Attenborough]

Up to us, indeed. At the time I spoke those words, I had no idea that we, mankind, might have unleashed forces that are now altering the climate of the Earth. Could the destruction of towns and cities in the southern United States be linked to the collapse of glaciers in Greenland?

[Alex Schwartz]

And we cut also big storms. You know, keep in mind, this was 2006. We cut to Hurricane Katrina. Yes, I lost everything.

[Nomi Fry]

Everything.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Everything's gone. People, funnies and stuff floating around is real bad.

[David Attenborough]

Might drought in the Amazon that killed thousands of fish be connected to the intensity of forest fires in Australia?

[Alex Schwartz]

So here is basically the most powerful direct statement that Attenborough can give, saying, Well, I said 27 years ago that humankind was gonna have an effect on the environment and we had to see what it was gonna be. Well, here it is. We absolutely now know that it's climate change. I mean, this is a really forceful program. It's interesting to me that it's even phrased as a question, are we changing planet Earth? Like, he really just sets up his audience and maybe that's the title he got away with, or maybe he felt that that was a more inviting way to kind of get people. Because of course it was framed as a debate for so many years, this climate change debate.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Clickbait before clickbait.

[Alex Schwartz]

Exactly, exactly, yeah. Cause you gotta get the eyeballs. But here he is coming in saying that it's very, very real. I mean, he focuses in this program on the polar bears, which are at the top of the Arctic food chain and are therefore deeply threatened by the failure of the species below them. All of which depend on ice floes being in place for a certain amount of. You know, the other thing that really strikes me about the show, Are we Changing Planet Earth? Is unlike a show like mammals, or even just Planet Earth 2, the huge 2016 Attenborough blockbuster that I watched and enjoyed very much. In Are We Changing Planet Earth? There are a lot of conversations with scientists directly. Like the people are part of the footage in a really different way than in that earlier show, Zoo Quest. It's no longer just wide eyed, excited exploration and learning something new. It's now talking to experts who have studied These animal populations for dozens of years. So it's really trying to shine a light politically and scientifically on what is happening to the planet.

[Vincent Cunningham]

That's right. In mammals. At the end of one of the episodes, we see the sort of search of the videography crew for the very cute, huge eared finet fox.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yes.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah. That's the dark episode.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah. And before they find them, they find two carcasses of foxes that have clearly been killed for sport, it seems.

[Nomi Fry]

For sport, yeah.

[Vincent Cunningham]

You know, there's no.

[Nomi Fry]

They don't do anything.

[Vincent Cunningham]

The meat, or taken the fur, the meat, nothing. They're just kind of there and you can see the devastation of. You know, I am one of the guys just stands up and looks around and says, I'm heartbroken, you know. But it's clear that human intervention, a certain sort of wanton cruelty or whatever is part of the story of their survival or not.

[Nomi Fry]

Mm. I think it's in another episode. The fishing is meager.

[David Attenborough]

The sea lions are familiar with the sound of these trolley wheels.

[Nomi Fry]

You see them under a bridge in the water and you see a guy like a fishmonger rolling like a cart, like a supermarket cart filled with fish innards and bits, you know, whatever is left after filleting the fish for, you know, his customers.

[David Attenborough]

Leftovers from the markets are thrown back into the sea.

[Nomi Fry]

So there is a kind of. I mean, obviously it comes from a lack that is because man made. That. That's man made. But there is a kind of nice moment there of. Kind of like we're collaborating here in a way.

[Alex Schwartz]

Exactly. Yeah. I really felt that one big takeaway from mammals. You know, we've discussed, in brief, this kind of trajectory from happy observer of nature and the wonders of nature to much more forceful political commentator, basically still an observer of nature and therefore forced to speak the truth about what humankind is doing to nature. One thing I got from mammals was not pure doom. And I think that speaks to a very particular political and cultural moment. Because at this point, like most people I would venture to say, who are gonna view these shows, are convinced that this is real and urgent. And so it's sort of like in 2006, you have the need to say, hey, this is real. Look at what's happening. Open your eyes to the absolute disaster. And now I think it's a bit of a cliche in our society to be like, well, we're screwed. And that is so both emotionally despondent and also practically horrible. Practically, like really counterproductive. So I found that the series and this is one reason I liked the series was kind of striking. The balance between exposure to the splendors of nature. Okay, check. Exposure to some of the degradations that nature has faced because of man made climate change. But also, as Nomi is pointing out, and there were other examples too, a sense of, you know what, there are some options here. We have choices to make. We need to keep thinking about these things in terms of like, a good example was there's one episode, the cold episode, where we see the snow leopard. And I basically like screamed when the snow leopard came on screen. Because a couple of years ago I listened to Peter Matheson's book the Snow Leopard.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah.

[Alex Schwartz]

On audiobook. And the whole thing there is about like, they try to see the snow leopard. It's very arduous. They don't see the snow leopard. And I'm like, and in my own living room, here's the snow leopard. Oh, my God. Like, there she is. She's right there and she's hunting yak who these Tibetan farmers are bringing up to plateau. And first you think like, oh God, they're invading her territory. But then it turns out that there's been an effort made to preserve the snow leopard. There are more snow leopards. There's a kind of compensation program going on for the farmers who lose their yak so that they're not inclined to hunt the snow leopard. So it just shows you, at least I took this away. And maybe I'm being too optimistic, but that there is something to be done.

[Nomi Fry]

Right.

[Vincent Cunningham]

That's right. In a minute. What's behind the so called gold rush of nature documentaries, critics at large. We'll be right back.

[Nomi Fry]

I'm David Remnick, host of the New Yorker Radio Hour. There's nothing like finding a story you can really sink into that lets you tune out the noise and focus on what matters. In print or here on the podcast, the New Yorker brings you thoughtfulness and depth and even humor that you can't find anywhere else. So please join me every week for the New Yorker Radio Hour. Wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Vincent Cunningham]

There'S been a huge explosion of these big budget documentaries. I've seen it referred to in a few places as a gold rush, or even, I guess more appropriately, as a stampede. There was Blue Planet 2 in 2018, Our Planet on Netflix in 2019, A Life on Our Planet in 2020, and many, many more.

[Alex Schwartz]

Did you guys see the Octopus Teacher?

[Vincent Cunningham]

No.

[Nomi Fry]

No.

[Alex Schwartz]

Okay.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Did you?

[Alex Schwartz]

Yeah. Because the Octopus Teacher is what immediately comes to mind as a recent, like, mega Hit it got everybody talking. It was on Netflix. It came out during the Pandemic, the.

[Vincent Cunningham]

One where there was, like, a romance involving an octopus or some other sort of.

[Alex Schwartz]

Well, it's funny you should ask that. So, okay. I'm realizing now it's called My Octopus Teacher, which makes my point even better.

[Vincent Cunningham]

It's a hard thing to. But sometimes you just get a feeling, and, you know, there's something to this creature that's very unusual. There's something to learn here.

[David Attenborough]

I had to have a radical change.

[Vincent Cunningham]

In my life, and the only way I knew to do it was to be in this ocean with her. And then I had this crazy idea. What happens if I just went every day?

[Alex Schwartz]

Filmmaker and naturalist Craig Foster. He has taught himself to swim underwater without any help. He began free diving in a cold underwater kelp forest. When he went down there, he found his octopus teacher, this female octopus who he films and watches as she defends herself against pajama sharks, for instance. There's a very scary moment where she loses an arm. This guy develops what are clearly feelings for this octopus. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether they're romantic feelings, but they're deep feelings of profound attachment. I mean, it just came to my mind as part of this gold rush situation where there clearly is a hunger to see nature documentaries. I mean, that one had, like. Yeah, it was a rom com. I mean, it doesn't end well. Let's just. Spoiler alert. Like, octopus.

[Nomi Fry]

So maybe it was a rom dram.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yeah, it was a bit like, you know, love story, but with an octopus instead of a cancerous, you know, Harvard story.

[Nomi Fry]

Love means never having to say you're sorry to an octopus.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yeah. Or saying it for the rest of your life because you couldn't do enough to protect her.

[Nomi Fry]

Oh, no.

[Alex Schwartz]

I mean, another answer to the question about why these documentaries are everywhere. I like to go for the easiest answer. Sometimes the cameras. The cameras are really good right now. We have, like, a real ability to capture stuff we've never seen before, and it seems to keep growing. I mean, that's just. What else can you guys think of? Like, that's just one.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah. I mean, I just think, you know, these documentaries present us with a vision of a different world. You know, I remember suddenly watching and enjoying this show on Netflix called Penguin Town, which is about, like, penguin protagonists, like, in South Africa, you know, in a particular town, and how, you know, they. They live in love, which had kind of like, you know, like, a scent of reality television to it. So it's not totally surprising that I liked it. And these are all different types of shows and documentaries, but I think it does to go back to this reality show comparison. Right. Part of the reason that people watch reality television is escapism.

[David Attenborough]

Even.

[Nomi Fry]

Even though, even though the protagonists that we look at on screen have conflicts, problems, you know, issues that might mirror our own. And it's not always like an easy watch. I think similarly with these nature documentaries, you might see things on screen that are disturbing and that might implicate you in some ways or that you might be like, oh yeah, you know, like because we're. I'm eating octopus, then this octopus is dying or whatever. I don't know about this particular octopus because I haven't watched it, but you know what I mean? And yet it's separate from us, you know.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah.

[Nomi Fry]

And there is something about that that does provide a level of escapism and kind of. I don't know if relaxation is exactly the word I'm looking for, but comfort maybe.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yeah. And I do think part of that comfort is bound up with the idea that some of this stuff still exists. Like that's where we come back to this loop, which hopefully isn't a doom loop because I don't think that is productive. No. But this loop of we watch these things relieved that some of the magnificence, much of the magnificence of the planet is still there. And then it becomes the responsibility of these shows to remind us that that all depends on our behavior and to insert examples of ways in which that's no longer the case. I noticed I was taking a look before at Our Planet on Netflix and as I started to watch it, I saw that it was rated TVPG for fear.

[Nomi Fry]

I thought, okay, oh, interesting.

[Alex Schwartz]

I guess the fear must be because there will be hunting scenes and like maybe, you know, I had actually started watching mammals with my 18 month old son who identified most of the four legged ones as doggies. So like he's not totally at the level of understanding what's happening. And then at some point he got bored and wanted to do something else. And I was like, well, good that you did because you didn't have to see the whale pups get, you know, knocked off one by one. Like there's some brutal stuff that's going on. So maybe that's the fear they met. But the fear I was thinking of was the fear of extinction.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah, something, you know, all of that I totally agree with. And I also wonder sometimes because I don't necessarily think that the Streaming services have a high estimation of their viewers or. And I do wonder if the sort of sometimes ambient nature. This has been a topic among sort of watchers, observers of TV recently, that people are trying to create what they call, you know, ambient TV stuff that you can just have on or second screen tv while you can like be.

[Nomi Fry]

On your phone or something.

[Vincent Cunningham]

That's right. You can be on your phone and this thing is on also. And I wonder if, you know, because it seems like these things are very expensive to make. Like, you know, not only the technology which we talked about, but just the sending people on these immense voyages. I think it's a fool's errand to try to excavate the profit motives of Netflix or whatever. But I do hope that what might be a cynical ploy on the behalf of the streamers might redound to our benefit in the ways that we have talked about. One thing that I've heard and I think is funny is the idea that marijuana legalization has something to do with this 100%. The friend of our show who has been on our show, Samantha Irby, has an essay that's like, sometimes I like to get high and think about whales.

[Alex Schwartz]

There it is.

[Vincent Cunningham]

And she's not the only one. And I do want, you know, sort of. I wonder too, if this has to do with, again, the powers that be and their estimation of our moods, which is like, I want to bliss out and look at something beautiful.

[Alex Schwartz]

You don't even have to wonder. Like, we have evidence that indeed it is the case. Like, there was this Times article in which a BBC executive said that one reason that this stuff is becoming so popular is the legalization of marijuana. People want to get high and not just think about whales. They want to look at them, they.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Want to check them out.

[Alex Schwartz]

Yeah. And I actually think that's great. I think that's a great use of nature documentaries and of weed, because both.

[Nomi Fry]

Natural resources or both.

[Alex Schwartz]

Well, yes. And you know, that kind of stoned focus and also awe and wonder is appropriate to bring. Cause those things are awesome.

[Vincent Cunningham]

You know what else is awesome?

[Nomi Fry]

It's a net positive.

[Vincent Cunningham]

It is a net. You know what else is awesome and a net positive? David Attenborough himself. Do we have Attenborough thoughts?

[Alex Schwartz]

Yes, he's 98.

[Vincent Cunningham]

What does he mean to us?

[Nomi Fry]

He's 87 now, I believe.

[Alex Schwartz]

98.

[Nomi Fry]

98.

[Alex Schwartz]

He was just out and about at Wimbledon looking dapper, looking great. Yeah, Well, I think, you know, we've talked about this on the show before, but we three like to find Examples of vocation of someone who is clearly called to do something and did it and pursued it with love, with dignity. He's one of these people you can look at and say, you have given us such an enormous amount. You have added net hugely positive to the human condition, which is understanding ourselves in the context of the globe, of the world.

[Nomi Fry]

Yeah, yeah. And I think this is really. I mean, if we were to sum up kind of the legacy of this genre, not that it's by any means, it seems to still be going strong, so we're not. The discussion is yet to be had. But does knowing about something make us care about it more? Is being exposed to the world in this particular way that these nature documentaries have been able to give us? Does it make us more involved members of society, of planet Earth, of, you know, whatever you want to call it, members of our species?

[Alex Schwartz]

I think the answer to that is that it could, and it depends on the people who are watching. I think it could. But I think the most significant effect, perhaps, would be like, you know, the trope which I love, of the theater kid watching the Tonys and being like, that's for me, it's Broadway. Get me there. This is my place. I'm getting on the next train.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Pops.

[Alex Schwartz]

Like, that kid is watching these documentaries too. And a new generation of scientists are born. I do believe that's the case, and I think that's very important. And as for the rest of us schmoes who are not about to go off and get PhDs in this, I'm packing my bags. Yeah. I'm heading off to the next research station. Ma. I'll see ya in 10 years when I'm back from Antarctica. Yeah. I do think it matters. I think this grim but true thing, which is that these documentaries serve as a preservation of something that may never be again.

[Vincent Cunningham]

Sure.

[Alex Schwartz]

Which is a terrible thought. In that case, I think we should be deeply glad to have them and treasure them. I'm hoping that the legacy of them is that we, as a public feel more committed to our planet's future. I mean, I feel so. I'm not Pollyanna ish, because I'm exactly the opposite about the subject of the climate. But I feel like I'm playing that role here, just being like, maybe we can all care a little more.

[Nomi Fry]

I do think, as someone who really. I don't really watch nature documentaries regularly, but as I said in the beginning of the episode, as I watched, I was like, earth is amazing, which sounds stupid, but I do think it's like, wait, there's a wholethere's a whole world out there. I mean, similarly to when we went to Seattle with the pod and we were talking to people on the Space Needle and there were people from all over. Everyone was kind of helpful and intelligent and willing to talk to strangers. And I was like, wow, the human race not so bad after all, you know?

[Vincent Cunningham]

Yeah.

[Alex Schwartz]

But also the worst.

[Vincent Cunningham]

This has been Critics at Large. Our senior producer is Rhiannon Corby and Alex Barish is our consulting editor. Our executive producer is Steven Valentino. Conde Nast's head of global audio is Chris Bannon. Alexis Quadrado composed our theme music, and we had engineering help today from James Yost with mixing by Mike Kutchman. You can find every episode of Critics at [e-mail] critics. We'll see you next week.

[Nomi Fry]

Hiya, it's Kush Jumbo here. The next guest on my podcast, Origins is Dame Anna Winter. She is the editor in chief of Vogue, a champion of the arts, and the last word in fashion. We talk behind the scenes at the Met Gala, the type of people she simply can't stand, and find out what her own daughter Bea has to say about her. Well, that's lovely. Listen to Origins with Kush Jumbo wherever you get your podcasts from. PRX.