Last Ape Standing Dispatch #12: An Update
This post was originally published on November 15, 2019 on a previous version of ChipWalter.com.
Hi Friends!
I hope you’re all thriving and enjoying life.
I’m guessing you have managed to survive hearing nothing about my literary misadventures these last few years as I’ve plunged into work on my latest book. But on the off chance that you have an interest in the trouble I’ve been getting into, let me attempt a sliver of illumination.
First the news about my most recent book. It’s entitled Immortality, Inc.: Renegade Science, Silicon Valley Millions and the Quest to Live Forever, and will be published this January 7th (2020) by National Geographic Partners. We’re getting great early response (you can see more about that here) which is nice after three years of research and banging my head bloody on my keyboard. You all are the first to see what the book cover will look like (complete with flap cover and frosty photo of yours truly).
National Geographic is planning a national tour (San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC, Cleveland Area, Pittsburgh are on the agenda so far). Several events have already been booked so I hope you’ll mark your calendars depending on where you live.
Here’s a short list:
The Pittsburgh Arts and Lecture Series – Carnegie Hall, Pittsburgh, January 16th 2020.
Politics and Prose Bookstore – Washington DC, January 11. 2020 3:30 pm
The Commonwealth Club – Silicon Valley, January 30, 7 pm
Lake-Geauga League of Libraries, Willoughby Public Library – Willoughby, OH – February 26, 7:30 PM
Stay tuned for updates at www.chipwalter.com. More dates and events will be forthcoming in most of these locations.
If you are interested in buying a copy of the book, but won’t be in one of these cities, you can pre-order it online at all the usual places. (Just scroll down from the top of the page and click the icon of your choice below the book title.) If you’d like me to sign a copy of a book, it’s probably best to drop me an email at chip@chipwalter.com, and I’ll figure out a way to make it happen.
You can find more information about the book and my experiences writing it a little later in this email …
Even before I completed Immortality, Inc. and after the publication of Last Ape Standing (2013), it has been a fascinating few years.
Some of you may recall I began work on an article for National Geographic magazine, “The First Artists,” (see links to that article and that project below). While working on the article, I was lucky enough to become — along with my National Geo colleague Stephen Alvarez — only the second journalist permitted to enter Chauvet Cave where in 1994 some of the oldest and most beautiful prehistoric artwork had been found. But that was only part of the undertaking. Over two years, I travelled 60,000 miles through South Africa, Portugal, Spain, France and Germany to explore a variety of rich and amazing artifacts. The complexity and beauty of the prehistoric works will change your view of human culture.
You can find the National Geographic article on my website here: “The First Artists.” It was published in January of 2015. You can also find my behind-the-scenes stories about the whole experience in my blog “Dispatches From a Last Ape Standing” (link updated for repost) including my misadventures with baboons in South Africa and trips through Spain and Portugal.
As an example, here’s just one drawing from Chauvet. Blow it up and look closely, and you’ll see two prowling cave lions, created over 30,000 years ago with just a couple of strokes of ochre and charcoal. These artists did this from memory, by lamplight, deep in these caves. They had no pictures for reference, which tells me that they were in intimate terms with all of these animals. They saw them as fellow creatures. The lions, by the way, had no manes, and are now extinct, but they were half a size larger than today’s African lions. About 600 pounds each.
You might also find an article that Stephen Alvarez wrote about the photography he did for the article. It was Stephen who persuaded the Geographic to commission the story in the first place, something for which I will be forever grateful. And finally, here’s an article that explains how France came to create the world’s most ambitious Re-Creation of Cave Art. The French Ministry of Culture did this to ensure that the original cave would remain safely preserved. Nothing like it has ever been created before. And if you ever have the opportunity, it is worth visiting.
Most of the animals depicted in the art work I have seen are now extinct—cave bears, wooly mammoths, bison and rhinos. Only horses still remain. You can find many more pictures and videos of these artworks at my online gallery (link updated for repost) as well a digital fly-through of the cave created by the French Ministry of Culture. It’s quite a ride.
While working on First Artists and talking around the country about Last Ape Standing, I was asked by Tony Lake, the Executive Director of UNICEF, and Pia Britto UNICEF’s Senior Advisor on Early Childhood Development, to help develop and moderate an all day discussion at the UN with 20 of the world’s leading thinkers about the long term emotional damage caused when very young children deal with toxic stress like the kind they experience in poor neighborhoods or war zones or when forced to face long and difficult migrations. The series of talks also explored ways to solve these problems.
Here I am shooting my mouth off during opening remarks and then with some of the Early Childhood Development team, and all of the remarkable scientists who came from around the world for the all day discussions. The entire day was taped, and if you’re interested can watch all four of the sessions here if you’re inclined.
Why would I be asked to do this? It was because of a review of Last Ape in The New York Times. Tony Lake read it, then read the book and was especially interested in two chapters that explore the evolution of childhood, and the way children’s brains develop during their first five years. The whole event was a remarkable experience. And I want to thank Pia for all of her help and support as we worked to put that event together. (This event later led to another in Beijing in 2015, an equally remarkable experience.)
17 world renowned neuroscientists and pediatricians gather for a conference—Missing Linkage: Understanding the Multiple Effects on Brain Development—at UNICEF headquarters in New York, April 16, 2014. Ray Stubblebine for UNICEF
The research and writing Immortality, Inc. required — as many of you know — the usual amount of work. Throughout 2016 I travelled 50,000 miles from the Arctic Circle to the Islands of Greece and all through Silicon Valley, Arizona and Las Vegas to meet with the book’s key characters: well-known futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, Art Levinson, the Chairman of Apple and former Chairman of Genentech; and Craig Venter, the scientist who spearheaded the completion of the Human Genome Project. These are not people who are easy to get hold of, but thankfully they agreed to spend many hours with me as I explored them and their work. I also met with plenty of other scientists and business people while scribbling through scores of Reporters Notebooks and poring through sixty hours of interviews. From the conception of the original idea to the book’s final publication, the project will span four years. Enough time to get a college degree. If I’ve done my job right, I’ve delivered something you’ll enjoy reading.
Immortality, Inc. focuses on the scientific efforts to cure the biggest killer we all face: aging. It features exclusive information and insights found only in this book thanks to the unusual access I was provided, so I have to keep it under my hat. But when the book is published, I hope you’ll enjoy it. National Geographic is very excited, and we’ve been getting great response (as some of the blurbs on the book cover attest).
If these scientists succeed, your future, my future and the future of the human race will be changed in ways we can’t even begin to imagine. The book weaves science, business, history and biography in ways I hope you’ll agree make it surprising, compelling and enjoyable. That’s certainly what I have worked to accomplish. So stay tuned for updates to the tour that National Geographic’s crack marketing team has planned.
(By the way, I have uploaded a fair number of pictures and videos to my gallery at chipwalter.com., mostly accumulated during these trips, including locations in China, the Orkney Islands, Scotland, the Arctic and, of course, Chauvet. I really have been lucky to see some amazing places, and I hope you don’t mind if I’ve shared my meager efforts.)
Meanwhile, I’m working on four other books, including two novels, and two TV series. As these move along, I’ll keep you up to date.
Once again feel free to visit chipwalter.com and the gallery and blog when you get a chance.
I hope you find some of this interesting. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to enjoy these experiences. As always, thanks to all of you for your kindness, and for supporting my work over the years.
All the best,
Chip