Miriam Horn and Wildlife Conservation Society EVP Joe Walston in conversation at the Leon Levy Center for Biography

Joe Walston, head of Wildlife Conservation Society Global, which operates in more than 60 countries to protect wildlife and habitat, talks with Miriam Horn about her new book, Homesick for a World Unknown, The Life of George B. Schaller, at CUNY’s Center for Biography, where Horn was the 2020-21 Sloan Fellow.

Schaller himself previously led global science for WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo. “If I had to encapsulate my job,” says Walston, “it is to make sure that George’s legacy lasts .. If you ask ‘where does WCS work in Asia,” the answer is ‘where there are elephants, tigers, or where George went.’

“It’s a testament to your extraordinary efforts that you’ve managed to take someone who is as elusive as the species that he studied… the snow leopard of conservationists … and unlocked not only his legacy, his work, but also his psychology and motivations.

“Conservation is sometimes seen as merely slowing declines.. but the species that George worked on and inspired the world to work on — tigers, mountain gorillas — are on the increase. This is not about the past; this is a book about the future.”

Listen to the full conversation here