There's an inside joke around KALW News: that when you can’t come up with a conclusion, you should just end your story with, "the future is uncertain." And in a way, that's the theme of Jon Mooallem’s new book. It’s called Wild Ones: A sometimes dismaying, weirdly reassuring story about looking at people looking at animals in America. The book looks at three different endangered species – polar bears, Lange's metalmark butterflies, and whooping cranes. But it's less about the animals than the people trying to save them.
Mooallem is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Magazine and Pop-Up magazine here in San Francisco; he's also appeared on This American Life and the Colbert Report. He spoke with KALW's Casey Miner about how he got started looking at animals – and people.
JON MOOALLEM: I think it's sort of miraculous that we're doing anything, you know I don't see grizzly bears trying to preserve other species.
