-Dr. Jane Goodall, welcome.
Thank you so much for being
on "The Tonight Show At Home Edition."
Is that who I think it is?
Is that Mr H?
-This is the famous Mr H.
[ Indistinct ]
and I've had him for 25 years
and he's been to 65 countries.
And he symbolizes the indomitable human spirit
'cause he was given to me by a guy who went blind at 21
and has actually taught himself to paint.
He's an extraordinary man, so,
Mr H symbolizes that indomitable spirit.
-I love Mr H.
He was on our show last time you and I talked,
so I was gonna bring him up, anyways,
after you brought him on.
Hi, Mr H!
I've heard that you're busier than ever.
I mean, I keep seeing you pop up.
You're online and you're posting and you're doing video chats
and I think it's amazing, what you're doing.
-I'm actually more busy than on a tour.
I mean, way more because I'm trying
to send video messages to, you know,
to encourage all the people on the ground working in Africa.
We're very concerned about that.
I'm sending messages
to the 24 other Jane Goodall Institutes.
Trying to, you know, just give them reason to hope.
-Oh, absolutely.
You're lifting spirits every time we see you.
I saw one episode of "Storytime with Dr Jane."
[ Laughing ] Can you talk a little bit about that?
-Yeah. Well, I thought, you know,
all these children who can't go to school
and parents who are kind of worried
about how they can cope with them
and do their other office work from home,
and so I've been reading stories about the chimpanzee family,
elephant family, so on... -Yeah.
-...for little children.
But now, I've begun doing other messages
and also I've begun reading "In the Shadow of Man,"
the first chimpanzee book I wrote,
back in 1972, I think it was.
-Oh, my gosh! 1972.
Do you remember like what your mom said
when you said, "I'm gonna go to Africa
and work with chimpanzees and write about it"?
-Well, actually, I was 10 years old
and I read "Dr. Dolittle" and "Tarzan"
and we didn't really know anything
about chimpanzees back then.
I just dreamed of going to Africa,
living with wild animals, and writing books about them.
So everybody laughed at me.
How would I do it?
We didn't have money.
World War II was raging.
I was just a girl!
Girls didn't do that sort of thing.
-Wow. -But if you really want
to do something like this,
you're going to have to work
extraordinarily hard,
learn everything you can about what you want to do,
take advantage of every opportunity.
But if you still continue wanting to do it
and you don't give up, then you'll probably find a way.
And I did. I got there.
-Last time you were on the show, I told you
I have two little girls now. They're six and five
and, obviously, I'm a fan.
I wanted them to know who you are
and so we had a painting of you put up in my living room
and I told them all about stuff we've done together
and what you've done with even "Roots & Shoots,"
which I know continues to thrive.
And actually, you have a weekly schedule
for kids on "Roots & Shoots,"
things that kids can do, like just to --
Parents are looking for that.
-Yeah. And, you know, they can read books online.
If they're older, they can look at documentaries.
It's a wonderful chance to actually learn about things
that they want to learn about, not just school curriculum.
Although, many children are doing, you know, classes online.
They want to do everything.
[ Laughter ]
-They do. -[ Indistinct ] children.
And, please, parents,
just support your child, the way Mum did me.
Don't try and push your child
to do something you want them to do,
that isn't their thing.
'Cause that's what's happening all the time.
It's sad.
-Yeah. -This time when everybody's,
you know, locked down, or whatever we call it,
it's a time for reflection and thinking about the part
we want to play in the future of our planet.
-There's one -- I mean, I've read many things about you,
but also have seen great documentaries.
There's one coming up,
National Geographic has premiered today,
which is Earth Day, by the way.
Happy Earth Day!
It's the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
It kind of feels odd that we're indoors,
but I'm about to go outside in my backyard
and thank the Earth.
But the Jane Goodall Institute is stronger than ever now.
What are you focusing on
in the midst of all this right now?
-Well, first of all, I'm getting the message out
and one really important message
is that this pandemic was predicted
and people have not heeded the lessons we should have learned
from previous epidemics and pandemics,
and that is, because we have disrespect of the natural world,
disrespect of the animals who live there,
taken away so much habitat, crowded animals together,
viruses spilling over
from one animal species to another,
some animals pushed into conflict with humans,
human beings hunting them, eating them, trafficking them,
sending them from one country to another,
along with their viruses,
and selling them in these wildlife markets...
-Oof! -...as food, or pets.
And, because the animals are stressed,
because there's blood and everything everywhere,
it's a perfect environment
for a virus to spill over from an animal to a human.
And people have been predicting this.
It's not only wild animals.
It's also the way we treat domestic animals
in our intensive farms.
That's house created epidemics in the past
and will again in the future.
-Wow! I had my daughter write this.
This says "janegoodall.org."
[ Laughing ] It's not the best...
-Thank you. I love it. ...logo, but thank you.
Oh, I'll tell her that.
And, in honor of you and Earth Day,
I'm gonna reuse this paper all week long,
until there's no space left to write things on,
just to recycle and make sure
that we're using everything to its full capacity.
-And, please, tell everybody, all week long,
that the world's only going to come right
when every day is an Earth Day.
Because we're part of the natural world.
We depend on it.
-I'm so happy that you took the time to talk to me
and there are so many people out there
that just love you so much.
This really means a lot to me and to the world.
So, especially on Earth Day,
Dr Jane Goodall, you're the greatest.
I love you and I cannot wait to see you in person, and Mr H.
Please bring him along with you.
-I will bring him.
Then we can have a proper hug.
Right now we can have a virtual hug, right?
-[ Laughing ] I'll take it. I'll take it. ♪♪