Part of our series: "Conversations with Great Thinkers and Practitioners of our Times."

Legendary naturalist, Jane Goodall is the world's foremost authority on chimpanzees. A child of a different and far away era, growing up in the 1940's when women were still denied equality and Africa was a dark and dangerous place, Jane Goodall followed her dreams and went to Africa to study and protect animals. Today her name is well known throughout the world and her work is both cutting edge and humble. She is a real life voice for voiceless animals in much the same way that Dr. Seuss created a character to speak for the endangered and eventually extinct Truffala trees - the Lorax. In both cases these voices have been widely heard and yet the destruction of earths' bio diversity continues as we bare witness to the greatest rate of extinction on this planet in 65 million years.

Although Dr. Goodall is a person of celebrity she lives a humble life spending most of her year on the road teaching and lecturing. She is a supporter of voluntary simplicity - "promoting environmental stewardship, thoughtful consumption, financial responsibility, community involvement and simple, sustainable lifestyles.". This talk is a version of her standard lecture given to a meeting of The Seeds of Simplicity in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Goodall is a member of the advisory board.