Christiana Figueres & Garik Israelian on Jane Goodall’s legacy and the search for truth

A new award has been created in honor of late conservation icon Jane Goodall by the board of the Starmus Festival, an international gathering of scientists and artists to be held from Oct. 17-22 in Tenerife, Spain. Christiana Figueres has been selected as the recipient of this inaugural Jane Goodall Earth Medal. Figueres is the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is known for her work in securing the negotiations leading to the Paris climate agreement. She joins the podcast this week to discuss the significance of this medal and her thoughts on the future of science communication and truth — both of which are focal points of the upcoming festival. “What an absolute giant [Goodall] was to her very last day,” says Figueres. “The fact that a medal has been made in her honor, and that I will debut that is just an unbelievable honor.” Astrophysicist and co-founder of the Starmus Festival, Garik Israelian, also joins the podcast to discuss the festival theme, “The Search for Truth.” He credits the idea for the medal to his advisory board, which includes Starmus co-founder Brian May, also an astrophysicist but better known as the guitarist for the rock band Queen, and fellow musician Peter Gabriel. “Brian was very active in protecting animals, and he had a foundation called Save Me. And another member of our advisory board, Peter Gabriel, was also very active in human rights, and also he knew Jane Goodall very well,”…This article was originally published on

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