Radiolab Episode Summary: "Lucy"

Podcast: Radiolab (WNYC Studios)
Air Date: February 19, 2010
Hosts: Jad Abumrad, Robert Krulwich

Overview

This episode of Radiolab explores the profound—and often heartbreaking—questions that arise when the boundary between humans and our closest animal relatives blurs. Centering on the true story of Lucy, a chimpanzee raised as a human in a science experiment, the episode investigates what happens when animals and people try to share not just space, but culture, language, and even identity. Through interviews, memoirs, and firsthand accounts, the hosts unravel issues of ethics, biology, empathy, and the surprising consequences of crossing the species divide.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Breaking the Animal-Human Barrier (00:00–06:39)

• The show opens with field researcher Barbara Smuts recounting her experiences with a young male chimp, Goblin, in Tanzania and the breakdown of researcher/animal “borders.”
• Memorable Quote (05:54):
  Jad Abumrad: "She slips. And for just that moment, she's not really a human, he's not really a chimp. The raincoat is the only important thing."
• Sets the thematic stage for the episode: What happens when the wall between human and animal collapses?

2. The Experiment: Raising Lucy as Human (07:02–21:43)

• Background:
  In the 1960s, psychologists Maurice and Jane Temerlin adopt Lucy, a newborn chimpanzee, for an extended experiment to see how “human” she can become.
• Key Insights:
  • Lucy eats with utensils, dresses herself, and mimics human behaviors.
  • Language lessons with Roger Fouts reveal she learns over 250 signs, demonstrates spontaneous word creation (“candy drink” for watermelon), and even lies.
  • Lucy’s assimilation is both impressive and unsettling.
    Notable Moment (13:29):
    Roger Fouts: “She would also lie to me…And lying, we should also say, is another one of those things that people used to think only we do.”
• Sexual Identity Crisis:
  • Lucy develops sexual attraction toward humans, and when introduced to another chimp, she is terrified, underscoring how completely social boundaries have been redrawn.
    Memorable Quote (18:20):
    Sue Savage-Rumbaugh: “She was stranded right in between this great divide… There is no category in our language except a mythical one for something that’s not human and not animal.”

3. The Fallout: When Nature Reasserts Itself (21:43–25:57)

• As Lucy grows, her strength and willfulness become dangerous—posing a threat to her human parents.
• The Temerlins search for a solution, eventually deciding to “return” Lucy to the wild rather than placing her in a restrictive zoo or lab.
• Memorable Quote (21:43):
  Maurice Temerlin (via David Garland): “If they don’t have happy endings, they should have tragic endings. I hate books which have no ending like this one.”

4. Janice Carter and the Attempt to Rewild Lucy (25:24–35:29)

• Janice Carter, Lucy’s caretaker, accompanies her to a Gambian nature reserve, eventually relocating her and other ex-captive chimps to a forested island.
• Challenges:
  • Lucy clings to Janice, unable to adapt to wild life, refusing to forage, and suffering emotionally.
  • Janice constructs a cage for herself to force distance, prompting most chimps (but not Lucy) to begin learning wild behaviors.
  • An extraordinary standoff (30:17):
    Janice Carter: “Lucy go.”
    Jad Abumrad: “No, Janice come.”
    This sign language battle continues as Lucy resists assimilation into chimp society.
• Turning Point (32:14):
  • After Janice and Lucy fall asleep together, Lucy offers Janice a leaf, then eats it—a symbolic breakthrough.
  • From this moment, Lucy slowly adjusts and joins the other chimps.

5. Loss, Legacy, and Tragic Ending (35:29–37:45)

• After a long absence, Janice returns to the island to find Lucy gone. She discovers Lucy’s remains—likely killed by poachers after approaching them with her typical human-trusting manner.
• Memorable Quote (36:52):
  Charles Siebert: “They think that Lucy, always the first to approach humans, just sort of guilelessly approached poachers…that was Lucy’s end.”

6. Reflections on Lucy’s Story and Human-Animal Boundaries (39:00–40:32)

• The hosts and Charles Siebert reflect on the meaning of Lucy’s story, emphasizing the risks and ethical quandaries of crossing such deep-rooted boundaries.
• Insightful Takeaway (40:03):
  Charles Siebert: “The only option now and the best way to dignify and honor like what they are, who they are…is to fence them, ourselves off from them in little pockets of their home that we leave alone. That would be coexistence.”

7. A New Approach: Bonobo-Human Experiments (40:32–55:10)

• Producer Soren Wheeler visits the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, meeting bonobo Kanzi, who was raised with both human and bonobo influences by Sue Savage-Rumbaugh.
• Here, rather than a one-way “humanization,” a genuine cross-species culture emerges.
  • Kanzi learns over 600 words by using a symbolic keyboard.
  • Kanzi and the researchers engage in complex, emotionally rich social relationships.
  • The blurred boundary brings confusion, sometimes danger (e.g., Kanzi bites a staff member over a perceived violation of bonobo social rules).
  • Memorable Exchange (54:05):
    Robert Krulwich: “You’re telling us a story which reads more and more and more like a soap opera between a community of beings… it's just primates.”

8. The Emotional Heart: What Do We Lose & Learn? (55:10–56:14)

• Sue Savage-Rumbaugh expresses what she’s gained—and lost—traversing the animal-human divide:
  • Notable Quote (55:10):
    Sue Savage-Rumbaugh: “When I am with bonobos, I feel like I have something that I shared with them long ago, but I forgot…if I could have their abilities and keep mine, I would be whole.”

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "She was stranded right in between this great divide… There is no category in our language except a mythical one for something that’s not human and not animal."
  Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (18:20)
• "We have begun to be able to decode his speech… When he speaks to me and I understand it, it's in English."
  Bill Fields on bonobo Kanzi (47:22)
• "You’re telling us a story which reads more and more and more like a soap opera between a community of beings."
  Robert Krulwich (54:05)
• "We are all the same, really. Just primates."
  Jad Abumrad & Bill Fields (54:27)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Goblin and Barbara Smuts (Animals & Human Borders): 00:00–06:39
• Lucy's Adoption & “Humanization” (Temerlins & Roger Fouts): 07:02–21:43
• Lucy's Crisis and Wild Relocation (Janice Carter): 25:24–37:45
• Reflections & New Approaches (Great Ape Trust & Kanzi): 40:32–55:10
• Emotional Conclusion (Sue Savage-Rumbaugh): 55:10–56:14

Conclusion

"Lucy" tells an extraordinary story: of a chimpanzee made human and the tragic cost of her hybrid identity. The episode challenges listeners to ponder the limits of empathy, the meaning(s) of species, and the consequences—good and bad—of our deep desire to connect with animals. In the Lucy experiment, compassion, curiosity, and overreach converge. Later, at the Great Ape Trust, a new, more collaborative paradigm emerges, but it too is fraught with uncertainty. Ultimately, Radiolab offers no neat answers—only the haunting complexity and heartbreak of trying to bridge the gap between human and animal worlds.