I think young people are smarter today than we were. I think they’re better equipped. And I think that there’s a world of conversations that are happening that will allow, not just the usual suspects to be the ones leading movements. That I’m really excited about.

I don’t think storytelling just matters, I think it’s – if you had to choose – it’s the only thing that matters.

The challenge of valuing small sized creatures lies in the greater difficulty in observing their existence- and therefore seeing their connection to anything else. If you don’t know it’s there, how can you value it? But if we reframe the way we look at the world, we see so much more!

Because there’s place, and there’s time. And sometimes you’re in the right place, but it’s the wrong time. And sometimes it’s the right timing but you’re at the wrong place.

A lot of misinformation spread about wolves in particular, it’s really hard to find an animal that has so much hatred directed toward it, and so much misinformation that’s widely accepted that hurts their recovery and their persistence as a species. People live their whole lives not questioning that wolves are bad.

I think the way we grow up, a lot of communities tend to do certain things and nature has never really been something that’s been big in the African American community. Unfortunately, it’s never really been something that clicked. We just don’t have the programs here that are necessary to really teach people about the outdoors. When I was in high school, I went on a field trip to a prison, and the court house when I was in my civics class…we’re not really encouraging our students here in the United States to get out and see nature.

Government and politics is a team sport. You have to work with others and in order to do that, you basically submerge some of your interests to get other interests. And it’s a real compromise. And it’s not easy, but it’s life.

If you decide along the way that you want to change your goals or change what you’re interested in, you need to accept that. As a scientist, it’s really important to be able to let go of ideas when they don’t work out.

Your future depends on what people are doing in politics today. Your rights, your freedoms, your movement – it all depends on what politics does today.

You matter. Your opinion matters. Your voice matters. Don’t ever think that, ‘Oh, well, I’m not going to get involved in this because I’m just I’m just a nobody’. Everybody is somebody and the more people who go out and have that voice and say this is important to me. You might be one person but you’re going to be one of 1000 to 100,000. You matter.

I’d say it’s, it’s good to be skeptical. You shouldn’t be skeptical. You should be skeptical of all levels of authority in government. Whether that’s international, national or local, but don’t be cynical.

Young people’s new ideas is what moves society forward.

Critical thinking to me is…intentionally thinking – ‘where do we get my information from?’

The youth of today, they do have a responsibility to speak up as much as anybody else.

At any age you can come up with new ideas, you can study them you can develop them.

Consulting the experts, accessing the best available science and being really serious about it, not just hearing what you want to hear, but being open minded and willing to listen to what the real experts say.

Before you can criticize something, make sure that you’re not a part of it.