PRI: Science, Tech & Environment

Spanish journalist Carlos Barragán delves into the world of the Yahoo Boys, young Nigerian hustlers who scam lonely Westerners out of their money online. The post New book, ‘The Yahoo Boys,’ explores the world of Nigerian love scammers appeared first on The World from PRX.

Weeks after The World first reported on allegations of forced labor at BYD's new car factory in Hungary, authorities are cracking down on the car maker. Three companies associated with the Chinese EV giant's plant in Hungary have been sanctioned — and Hungary has launched an environmental investigation into the site. But labor advocates are skeptical that those actions will lead to any real change. The post Hungary cracks down on BYD plant over forced labor allegations appeared first on The World from PRX.

Deutsche Welle's Lars Bevanger traveled to northern Finland and reports on the country's booming gaming industry. The post A different kind of ‘Fintech' appeared first on The World from PRX.

Dramatic cuts to science research grants have particularly affected rare disease research. But some of the people most affected, including those with Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome, are now organizing their own global research collaborations. The post Families organize amid government funding cuts into rare disease research appeared first on The World from PRX.

Robot news has been coming fast and furious this month. One robot won a half-marathon in Beijing, and others captured a Russian position in Ukraine. And last week, we learned of a robotic arm that beat table-tennis champions at their own game. To learn about this moment in robotics, The World's Host Carolyn Beeler spoke with Kenechukwu Mbanisi. He's an assistant professor of robotics engineering at Olin College in Massachusetts. The post The latest in the world of robotics appeared first on The World from PRX.

DW's Lars Bevanger reports on a new a controversial contract between Britain's National Health Service and the US data and spy tech company Palantir. The post Increasing frustration over UK deal with spy tech company appeared first on The World from PRX.

DW Reporter Ben Bathke meets up with an Estonian tech entrepreneur who has pivoted towards defense to discuss the role of rapidly developing technology in the Ukraine war. The post Security tech start-ups play increasingly significant role in Ukraine war appeared first on The World from PRX.

A casual conversation with a friend led NYU neuroscientist Tim Requarth down an unsettling line of inquiry. His friend had made an AI video of himself scaling Mt. Rushmore, and a little while later, he felt the slightest bit of a memory of being at Mt. Rushmore — even though he had never been there. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Requarth about why our brains' process for making memories seems to be vulnerable to generative AI. The post AI may be messing with our memories appeared first on The World from PRX.

Artificial intelligence is a game changer across many fields these days and mathematics is no exception. Yet, the rapid acceleration of its ability to solve some of arithmetic's most challenging proofs has left many a mathematician wondering how they fit into future equations. The World's Host Marco Werman spoke to one such human mathematician, Daniel Litt, at the University of Toronto. The post AI is rapidly changing math, and mathematicians are defining their role in the equation appeared first on The World from PRX.

An agreement between the US and Zimbabwe, under which the US would send health aid directly to the country, has collapsed. The Zimbabwean government rejected the deal over concerns about data sharing and sovereignty. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The post Health aid pact between US and Zimbabwe collapses appeared first on The World from PRX.

No, not the scary Terminator-like ones beloved of science fiction writers … We’re talking about the cute, helpful ones designed to help out in school. And, yes — this really is a thing.  A Norwegian company is already successful in 17 countries with a small robot that can represent absent pupils in the classroom. DW’s […] The post Not quite The Terminator, these robots still look human-like and perform tasks appeared first on The World from PRX.

The once-dominant phone giant is now becoming known in other areas of media and tech. The post Nokia is back appeared first on The World from PRX.

In East Africa, the vast majority of cars are imported from other countries. But a group of engineers in Kenya is working to change that by developing the country's first-ever locally-assembled electric vehicle. The post In Kenya, there's a quiet push for an electric car revolution appeared first on The World from PRX.

Guy De Launey, from our partners at DW, Deutsche Welle's, program Inside Europe, reports on Serbia's vast lithium reserves and the challenges facing companies trying to access them. The post Serbia tries to access its lithium reserves amid local opposition appeared first on The World from PRX.

Deutsche Welle's Shant Shahrigian reports on a $500 million AI factory planned for Armenia in one of the latest projects from chip-making titan NVIDIA. The post A multi-million dollar AI data center is slated for Armenia appeared first on The World from PRX.

Self-driving cars and electric vehicles tend to dominate global headlines, but some of the most consequential innovations in transportation are happening in far humbler machines. In Shenzhen, China, driverless delivery vans, autonomous sanitation robots, surveillance drones and other experimental vehicles are already operating in public spaces, offering a view of how cities may function in the coming decades. The post In China, the future of transportation is already here appeared first on The World from PRX.

Forty years ago, Shenzhen, China, was little more than a cluster of villages, home to a few hundred thousand people. Today, it holds roughly 20 million residents and ranks among the world's fastest-growing megacities. Yet, unlike other urban centers that have ballooned at similar speeds — Mumbai or Lagos, for example — Shenzhen has largely sidestepped the air pollution, overcrowding and failing infrastructure that often accompany rapid expansion. In the second of a five-part series, The World's Jeremy Siegel explores how the city has been able to avoid the problems typically associated with megacities. The post Lessons from the world's most thriving megacity appeared first on The World from PRX.

Sean Powers, from the "Click Here" podcast, reports on the lone coder trying to bring back the Uyghur web. The post Saving the Uyghur internet appeared first on The World from PRX.

Dina Temple-Raston, the host of the “Click Here” podcast, reports on the erasure of Ekpar Asat, who wanted to build a digital space for his Uyghur community. The post The disappearance of Ekpar Asat appeared first on The World from PRX.

Dina Temple-Raston, the host of the “Click Here” podcast, reports on the shift in China's surveillance tactics of its Uyghur population. The post The curious case of UyghurEdit++ appeared first on The World from PRX.

Last week, several Nobel laureates and high-profile celebrities cautioned that the threat of artificial intelligence is real, particularly regarding what's known as artificial superintelligence. Max Tegmark, head of The Future of Life Institute and a professor doing AI research at MIT, spoke to The World's Host Marco Werman about why experts — including him — are calling for urgent action. The post Nobel laureates sound the alarm over artificial superintelligence appeared first on The World from PRX.

The UN estimates revenues from scam centers in Southeast Asia, mostly Myanmar, to be nearly $40 billion. The sheer number of people being conned into working for them has overwhelmed police. So, one man tried to step in, rescuing dozens of people from being trapped. The post Freeing victims from criminal enclaves in Myanmar, one TikTok at a time appeared first on The World from PRX.

In the wake of federal funding cuts that threaten scientists' jobs in the US, programs have emerged across Europe to attract those worried American scientists. The World's Gerry Hadden reports from a university in southern France where incoming Americans are referred to as “scientific refugees.” The post Europe wants to attract American scientists appeared first on The World from PRX.

Especially these days, traveling can be chaotic. Now, a trio of American YouTubers has devised a fun way to make it all less stressful through a video series that turns travel chaos into a competition. The post These YouTube streamers have turned the stress of travel into a game appeared first on The World from PRX.

Latam-GPT, a Chilean-led artificial intelligence project, promises to center Latin American languages and cultures. The post An AI that speaks the languages of Latin America appeared first on The World from PRX.

Dina Temple-Raston, the host of the "Click Here" podcast from Recorded Future News and PRX, reports on North Korean workers applying for remote IT jobs around the world. The post Meet the ‘Kyles’ — North Korea's secret IT warriors appeared first on The World from PRX.

Almost 1 in 4 Brazilians have been victims of cybercrime, making the country number one in the world for phishing via WhatsApp. The post How Brazil became one of the epicenters of cybercrime appeared first on The World from PRX.

Ben Bathke from our partners DW, Deutsche Welle, reports on what European nations can learn from Estonia's digital government services. The post Estonia serves as a digital pioneer for European governments appeared first on The World from PRX.

The Netherlands, which was once a religious country, saw a dramatic decline in religiosity after WWII. Recently though, there's been a small but significant increase in people turning to faith. One reason is efforts made by Gen Z — but not through traditional churches. The post In one of the world's most secular countries, some Gen Z Christians are finding faith again — but not at church appeared first on The World from PRX.

As record-breaking heat hits parts of Europe, France is trying to adapt. Paris is now expanding its district cooling system. The World's Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Raphaelle Nayral, the head of the company operating the network about the initiative. The post Amid rising heat, Paris expands a network of pipes to keep cool appeared first on The World from PRX.

The Trump administration has made it a priority to eliminate DEI programs across the United States and even overseas. It's put some private companies on notice and warned businesses working with US embassies and consulates to renounce their inclusion policies. But many of these groups are resisting and fighting back. The post Trump administration cuts funding to Barcelona library over DEI policies appeared first on The World from PRX.

Cases of the recently identified Covid-19 variant NB 1.8.1. are rising. Some have dubbed the variant "razor blade throat" for one of its notably painful symptoms. The World Health Organization says it's monitoring the variant. The World's Marco Werman spoke to Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and immunologist based in Boston. The post Here's what to know about the new COVID variant ‘razor blade throat' appeared first on The World from PRX.

In France, 25 people were recently charged over a series of kidnappings and attempted abductions. The post A bizarre crimewave is taking place in the French capital appeared first on The World from PRX.

Summer is in full swing in India, and many cities are experiencing scorching heat, fueled in part by climate change. And in India's bustling cities, as the sun sets and the worst of the day's heat subsides, a sinister threat emerges: high nighttime temperatures. But some low-tech solutions may help address the problem.  The post Hot nights are worsening India's heat crisis. But low-tech solutions show some promise. appeared first on The World from PRX.

As part of The Big Fix series, Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Chris Bataille, a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, about the state of small modular nuclear technology and Ontario's plans to construct four of these new reactors. The post Ontario approves $15 billion plan to build small modular nuclear reactors appeared first on The World from PRX.

A Soviet spacecraft is expected to come hurtling back to Earth after being stuck in orbit for more than 50 years. The Kosmos 482 probe was intended to reach Venus, however, it never got to its destination. Instead, it's been circling Earth since 1972, and gradually descending. The post A Soviet spacecraft is expected to make a crash landing on Earth this week. But nobody knows where — yet. appeared first on The World from PRX.

Spain is testing new artificial intelligence technology that will change the speed limit based on weather conditions, traffic, time of day and road conditions. The government hopes the system will help alleviate gridlock and increase safety on one of the country's busiest highways. The post Spain tests AI-based speed limit system appeared first on The World from PRX.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, owners have been training their dogs to “tell” them what they want by mashing buttons with their paws to express words in various human languages. A UCSD study began to explore the practice further and now includes participants in dozens of countries around the world. The post A new global study allows dogs to ‘talk' to their owners by pressing buttons that say human words appeared first on The World from PRX.

“Maybe Happy Ending” is an intimate science fiction story that has been performed many times in Seoul, South Korea. Now, its adapted version is playing on Broadway. The story, about a pair of robots, sheds light on the human condition in this digital age. The post Can robots fall in love? A sci-fi musical from South Korea is now a hit on Broadway. appeared first on The World from PRX.

Colombian architects are turning to older building techniques to reduce the carbon emissions associated with construction. The post Earth homes make a comeback in a Colombian town appeared first on The World from PRX.

WhatsApp, used by millions of people around the world, says its users were hacked by the Paragon Solutions spyware company. The World's Host Marco Werman speaks with John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, about the continuing threat of sophisticated spyware. The post WhatsApp identifies dozens of users hacked by Paragon spyware company appeared first on The World from PRX.

In Russia, the Kremlin has been steadily cracking down on the internet. Surveillance and censorship have increased, especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has cut off access to many of the most popular websites and apps. The latest target is YouTube. The post Kremlin's internet crackdown is taking on YouTube appeared first on The World from PRX.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, people have been evacuating and safeguarding Ukrainian works of art and museum pieces. Now, a team of conservators and students are also creating permanent, 3D records of buildings and objects that can't be moved in case they are damaged or destroyed. The post Conservators scan Ukraine's wooden churches to help preserve them appeared first on The World from PRX.

Aid groups have stopped using a new sea route to get aid to Gaza after an Israeli strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven workers on Monday, April 1. Ships had been leaving from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Cyprus is a popular vacation destination, and for thousands of years, it has been a center of commerce and migration. National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek walked the length of the island in 2014. He was and still is on a 24,000-mile walk, retracing the first human migration out of Africa.Salopek caught up with The World's Carolyn Beeler to discuss the juxtapositions of Cyprus' past and present. Carolyn Beeler: Paul, you got to Cyprus on a modern diesel-powered ship. But how did the first inhabitants of that island get there?Paul Salopek: Yeah, they arrived by sea also, of course. From what we know about the archeology of Cyprus, they were some of the earliest settlers to make villages, making this transition from hunter-gatherers to being settled. When they got to Cyprus, way back 12,000 years or so ago, there were miniature hippopotamuses and elephants on the island, and they ate them all. And then they settled down and started farming.In one of your dispatches, you wrote that Cyprus is one of the oldest inhabited islands on earth. What do we know about those early inhabitants other than that they barbecued pygmy hippopotamuses?Well, they eventually became very powerful as the centuries rolled by because they started to discover that they controlled a very valuable resource, which was copper. And so, leading into the Copper Age, which led into the Bronze Age, they were sitting on top of a giant bank account. And as a consequence, what's happened to Cyprus, it's interesting, even in today's news, given the tragedies that are happening in the Middle East right now, is that it became invaded and overrun by so many different civilizations. Back to, you know, the Phoenicians, the Egyptians, the Assyrians, Persians, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottomans, just the list goes on and on. It's just been washed over, as if by waves, by different groups of people. Two faiths: earthly vs. cosmic rewards, Famagusta, northern Cyprus. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic  You can see that by looking at a map of Cyprus. Nestled in the eastern Mediterranean, it's so close to Africa, Europe, and Asia. How much does its location and those waves of conquest factor into the island's culture today?I think that that kind of DNA imprint has got to be there. You know, it's kind of a layer on layer on layers in the many thumbprints of the people who've been there. And I suspect it'll continue today because of the instability in Israel and neighboring Lebanon. They just got 2,000 migrants who showed up on boats trying to escape that area, as the war started to spread into Lebanon. So, the waves continue.Going back to your crossing of the island on foot, what was that like? Can you tell me about it? Well, it was unique in this long, crazy journey of mine because normally, I walk with what I call walking partners. It's just baked into the DNA of the project that I walk with local people who act like the cultural interpreters of the landscapes they call home, making the storytelling much better. But because I was in a rush to reach the next country, Turkey, and because Cyprus is relatively small, I decided to hoof it across the island alone.How did that impact your experience of the place not having those local partners?Cyprus was unique. I've gone through, I think, 20 countries so far. Cyprus is the only one that I walked through alone because I was in a hurry. I had an appointment to kind of reach a walking partner waiting in Turkey, so I hoofed it eight days across the island, up through these beautiful mountains covered with kind of carob trees, olive trees, hay-colored fields and white chalky roads. And I could get by [speaking] English because the most recent wave of nomads to come through Cyprus are tourists. And so there's a tourist industry there. Into the layered foothills of the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic I'm curious. We've been discussing this place being a draw for people from all over. So, what kind of languages did you hear while walking across the island?It was like walking into a polyglot bazaar, where I saw African stevedores speaking North African languages. A little bit further on, they were Indian workers plowing the fields, listening to sitar music on their earbuds. And there Russian tourists laid out, you know, in pink ranks, baking under the sun. It was a very polyglot place. Empty rooms with a view. The hulks of old war-emptied hotels overlook Varosha's fabled beach, northern Cyrpus. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic Speaking of Cyprus, which is famously divided between Greek and Turkish areas, you crossed the line from one jurisdiction into the other. What was that like?This was another continuation of how borders figure into this walking project across the world. Sometimes, they stop me. I have to turn left or right and walk around whatever country is not letting me in. This was a case where that border — which had been militarized, they've been on the front line because of a war in Cyprus, between ethnic Greeks and ethnic Turks —  it was like a front line. It's called the Green Line. There were sandbags. There was kind of no man's land. But it was open. And trade was going back and forth. And when I talked to both the Cypriots on the Greek side and the Cypriots on the northern Turkish side, I said, "How are you guys living with this? It's been, you know, almost 50 years." They said, "Paul, we are more like each other than we are like Greece or Turkey." It was a kind of classic border culture, like the US-Mexico border. They have more in common with each other, this kind of hybrid zone of cultures, than they do with the big countries that border there.But you were just easily waved through this border, which seems very porous. It's interesting to reflect that that border is getting much more porous, whereas so many others worldwide are being hardened. Migration is trying to be prevented.That's absolutely right. That's kind of the high spots of that border, is that going from a front line that was mined and that would have been deadly to cross a few decades ago? It's actually kind of a bit blurry now. And let's see what happens. It's been in this cold, frozen war stasis condition, patrolled by the UN and whatnot. The hope I heard from the people on both sides was that there would be some weight to make that border go away altogether. Waiting. Sinan Pasha mosque, the converted 14th-century church of Saints Peter and Paul. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org. Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic  It is, of course, still there. And there is a deserted resort straddling the line between Greek and Turkish zones. You called it Europe's ghost city. What was it like walking through that?There was this abandoned city. It used to have, apparently, 39,000 people or so in it. It was one of the most famous resorts in the Mediterranean. Big movie stars in the '70s, [like] Paul Newman and Sophia Loren, would go there for a holiday. Five-star hotels. And because it was on the front line and remains contested, it's been sitting and rotting under the Mediterranean sun. Empty. Seagulls live in those five-star suites now because there are no windows. The beaches are empty. It's been fenced off by the Turkish army. It was very bizarre like a Dresden-like ruin sitting on this beautiful, jewel-like beach setting.Parts of this interview have been lightly edited for length and clarity.Writer and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has embarked on a 24,000-mile storytelling trek across the world called the “Out of Eden Walk.” The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, has funded Salopek and the project since 2013. Explore the project here. Follow the journey on X at @PaulSalopek, @outofedenwalk and also at @InsideNatGeo.

It was in the ancient city of Petra, in 2013, when National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek said he came upon a crossroad filled with antiquity, fabulous monuments, palaces and grand avenues chiseled into a sandstone canyon far above the rift valley of Jordan. After walking for the better part of a year through the desolate deserts of the Horn of Africa and then into the almost equally desert and empty landscape of Saudi Arabia, Salopek said he was welcomed into  Jordan by a Bedouin musician named Qasim Ali. Qasim Ali sings the blues, Bedouin style, at Petra, the ancient heart of the Nabatean empire. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org. Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic Ali sang the blues while playing the Rababa, an ancient stringed instrument. Salopek described it as a dramatic setting.“It kind of became the backdrop music for stepping from nomadism into millennia of settlement, into this highly contested, many-chambered heart that we call the Levant,” he said.The World's Marco Werman talked more with Salopek about his journey through Jordan and into the Israeli-occupied West Bank, following in the footsteps of the first humans out of Africa. Marco Werman: Your walk through Jordan was a kind of transition from the world of Bedouin herders and nomadic life to a world of farms and villages where early people first put down roots. How did walking it on foot help you appreciate human history?Paul Salopek: Well, it was kind of almost a schizophrenic reality, Marco. There was kind of walking through every day at three miles an hour out of the empty desert, and suddenly tomato farms started to appear. Irrigation canals … the whole infrastructure of modern-day farming. But at the same time, my project is about deep, deep history and the people I'm following, when they walked through, none of that was there. But something happened when we first migrated out of Africa, through this part of the world. As one archeologist told me, we finally sat down. We stopped moving so much. We settled. We invented agriculture. We started piling rocks on top of each other. We smelted metal. And this era, called the Neolithic, is the one, essentially, that we're still inhabiting today. A city-based, urban, settled lifestyle. This was one of the corners of the world where it began. Ghawarna women dye wool using oxide-rich mud. Modaita, the yawning camel is unimpressed. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic  You crossed a border in May of 2014, the Jordan River, and you walked into the West Bank through Israeli army checkpoints. Give us a sense of life in the Palestinian West Bank in 2014.Back at that time, it was a time of, relatively speaking, calm, right? I mean, there's always tension in this corner of the world, but there was no open warfare that I saw. But this, this was a foretaste, again, of this extraordinary maze of the Middle East, of the West Bank, which is partitioned, as you probably know, into three different administrative sectors: Israeli, Palestinian, and then mixed administrative control. There were checkpoints everywhere. There were barriers everywhere. For somebody coming from almost a year on foot, out of kind of relatively open horizons, it was dizzying. It was just a bit surreal. I was walking at the time with my Palestinian walking partner Bassam Almohor, and he said, “Paul, this is my life. I have to kind of change personality every time I cross one of these checkpoints.” And he was a walker, Marco. He was one of the founders of a walking club based in Ramallah. His philosophy was “My piece of Earth. This place I call home is so small that walking makes it big. This is how I keep my sanity.” Bullet on the road to Bethlehem. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic  Wow. Well, we know that things had been tense and violent in the West Bank before 2014 when you were there. Your journey also took you into the ancient city of Jerusalem. You walk the same paths as the ancient Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, Romans, early Christians and Muslims. How much did that sense of history color your view of the modern state of Israel?It was inescapable. I mean, there are just so many layers. Again, I deal with historians and archeologists. These are the people that I talk to to advise me on what compass bearing to move on as I pass along these ancient pathways of dispersal out of Africa. Another archeologist based in Jerusalem said, “Paul, Jerusalem was a village, a settlement that was prehistoric.” You know, it started to kind of appear in the consciousness of that inhabited landscape around the Bronze Age. I measured history, recorded history, from the time of that settlement to today, there had been 700 or more wars. But everybody that I met in that highly conflicted, highly contested, very small corner of the world has their own ways of trying to keep life good. And he said, “Paul, I focused not on those 700 wars but on the spaces of peace in between.” In Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic  So, as you follow the news from the Middle East today, what jogs your memories of walking the Holy Land on foot?This part of the world was new to me. I never covered it as a journalist, and I'd covered some pretty big episodes of mass violence among humans in Africa. I covered, for example, the Congo Civil War, which was one of the bloodiest and most devastating at the time in the early 2000s. The numbers there are staggering. In Central Africa, almost 5 million people died in that conflict. And so here I am, coming from out of Africa into the Middle East, where it's tiny, by African standards. And I was astonished at the amount of attention that was focused on it. It was like there was this global stadium built around this quadrant of the world, where the whole world was looking down on these conflicts among villages, among cities, among invisible lines. To be perfectly candid, I was kind of scratching my head. I said, “Why is this corner of the world getting so much attention when the rest of the world has far larger, gaping wounds, in terms of just bloodshed?” If you want to use a metric of human blood. But now, looking back from 13 years later, seeing what's happening now, I think that was a measure, sort of my naivete, of the fact that I was comparing human suffering to human suffering ... which is always a dangerous thing to do. And what we're seeing now is just how incredibly deep — it may be small, Marco — but how incredibly deep these fissures run. Yuval Ben-Ami at the Separation Barrier in East Jerusalem. Erected by the Israeli government to thwart terror attacks, it cleaves some Palestinian neighborhoods in half. Join the journey at outofedenwalk.org.  Credit: Paul Salopek/National Geographic  It struck me when you said you'd been in Africa for that long. You actually started in the Out of Eden Walk. You've kind of followed, in a way, the Levantine Corridor that humans left many thousands of years ago into the Middle East. I wonder how, on foot, that changed how you see this tense modern world.When you walk for very long periods – and I'm talking months and years – across horizons ... you kind of enter a mental state where you look at the surface tensions of the world. You look at the cities, the conflicts, the way we've treated the planet, the way we've subjugated and, in many ways, destroyed nature. And I'm not saying that it makes you fatalistic, but there's a sense of equanimity that comes with it. A sense of, “God, this is all going to be scraped away.” Everything we say is going to be scraped away during the next glaciation. And all of our monuments, all of our heroes, all of our statues are going to be kind of in the moraines of these glaciers, 12,000 years from now. That doesn't make me feel fatalistic. It doesn't make me shrug. It gives me a sense of, sort of, I don't know, of … patience, if you will, with this troublesome species that we are — both so very good and very bad.Parts of this interview have been lightly edited for length and clarity.Writer and National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek has embarked on a 24,000-mile storytelling trek across the world called the “Out of Eden Walk.” The National Geographic Society, committed to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world, has funded Salopek and the project since 2013. Explore the project here. Follow the journey on X at @PaulSalopek, @outofedenwalk and also at @InsideNatGeo.