The Good Whale

A friend of mine sent me a message with a podcast recommendation. Since I tend to listen to podcasts the most while I'm doing barn chores, I can plow through them at a pretty rapid clip and am always happy for suggestions. 

The recommended podcast in question? The Good Whale about Keiko, the orca who starred in the movie, Free Willy. This has everything I love about a good podcast (and good non-fiction in general)... It is very well written, has high production values, and tells a story that has implications far beyond the subject at hand. I highly recommend it. 

I have now listened to the five episodes that have been released and am eagerly waiting for the sixth and final installment. I need to know how it turns out, this project of rewilding Keiko. I vaguely remember hearing about the whale on the news in the 90's, but that also coincided with having only little children, so I admit to not following the story very carefully. 

While the story centers on the orca, I find that Keiko's story has much broader implications, even beyond the obvious of what is our responsibility to wild animals who have been kept in captivity. Keiko's story is also about the effects of early trauma on a mammalian brain and nervous system. How much of that can be healed? How much of a mammal's original culture can be regained? (And we learn a whale pod does have culture as each pod vocalized in its own dialect.) There were also issues regarding safety and freedom which I think have great bearing on our own human society. 

So if you love animals or leaning something new or are interested in how trauma affects the brain, this is a podcast for you. Go search up The Good Whale.

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