As Goodall let slip later in the interview, she has found that the trick to helping people understand that we can all make a difference is pretty simple: telling stories.

“Being angry and pointing fingers, you won’t get anywhere. You just have to reach people’s hearts. And the best way I know is to tell stories,” Goodall said. “My job now is to try and help people understand every one of us makes a difference. And cumulatively, wise choices in how we act each day can begin to change the world.”

One of the things I learned most organically in this journey is not that beavers are good for the environment. Not that beavers help salmon or that their are ways to solve problems that arise when they move in. No. I once foolishly thought that science would be persuasive and that knowing the facts would make all the difference. It didn’t.

What made a difference was telling stories.

That wasn’t what I expected or what I really wanted. Touching hearts seemed somehow a mushy way to go about this important work. I wanted to persuade people with facts. I wanted people to see the historical inevitability of living with beavers. I wanted people to use the right names for things and understand what was at stake.

But it was the heart strings – not neurons – that saved beavers. I realized it that first random Earth day at John Muir.

It was our first exhibit so we weren’t even sure what to bring. We tossed in an old chew Moses had given us and some photos. And on a whim I stopped at the Wall green’s on the way in and bought a cheap set of felt pens and some paper. I thought maybe, if nothing else, we’d encourage some children to draw beavers. Make it a contest, put the winner on the website. We ended up with 100 and they were every single one priceless. There are two council members children in this photo. And there were more.

I had no idea the beaver illustrations would be so personal. So unique. So touching, One council member opposed to the beavers was going through a divorce and his ex came with the children that day. The children drew heart-felt beavers with “We love you” signs on it, Another council member came over afterwards and asked me not to post those pictures on the website or say whose they were “Because you know how things get complicated in families”.

Trust me. I’m telling you stories.

In the end that day laid the footprints for the path we would ultimately take. Touching hearts, winning votes for beavers, placing increasing pressure on the ‘respectable’ wing to do the right thing. We learned it all that day. Or the first lesson to it all.

Goodall then did what she does best: She told a short personal story to highlight that point. “I got lots of opposition from animal rights people for even talking to the people in the labs,” she said. “But if you don’t talk to people, how can you ever expect they’ll change?” A longtime opponent of experiments on animals, Goodall has become a leading activist in the anti-vivisection community.

There are certainly merits to challenging those with differing viewpoints — but for Jane Goodall, being patient, understanding, and attentive toward her opponents has brought her great success in making a difference in the world.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m nowhere near as patient as Dr. Goodall. And I think she completely underestimates (or pretends to underestimate) the enormous value of shame. But I agree with her about this. In the end its not about groundwater or science. It’s not about the role urban wildlife plays in creating social cohesion. It’s not about biodiversity or saving salmon or preventing fires.

It’s about telling stories.