The real story about “de-extinction”...

The Tasmanian tiger was declared extinct in 1982. But now… scientists are trying to bring it BACK.

And it’s not alone! You might’ve seen news about dire wolves, woolly mammoths, passenger pigeons… dodo birds… dinosaurs??

“De-extinction” has become a huge and urgent scientific debate. But when I took a deep dive into what’s really going on here, I realized we're getting this conversation very, very wrong.

We're on the cusp of a huge genetic breakthrough… and yet the most "huge if true" thing happening here isn’t bringing back extinct animals. It's what this means for all the animals alive today!

And very few people seem to know about it…

Chapters:
00:19 Can we bring back extinct animals?
01:22 Can we bring back a...

The real story about “de-extinction”...

The Tasmanian tiger was declared extinct in 1982. But now… scientists are trying to bring it BACK.

And it’s not alone! You might’ve seen news about dire wolves, woolly mammoths, passenger pigeons… dodo birds… dinosaurs??

“De-extinction” has become a huge and urgent scientific debate. But when I took a deep dive into what’s really going on here, I realized we're getting this conversation very, very wrong.

We're on the cusp of a huge genetic breakthrough… and yet the most "huge if true" thing happening here isn’t bringing back extinct animals. It's what this means for all the animals alive today!

And very few people seem to know about it…

Chapters:
00:19 Can we bring back extinct animals?
01:22 Can we bring back a mammoth?
02:24 Is Jurassic Park possible?
05:44 Are Dire Wolves brought back from the dead?
6:26 What is de-extinction?
09:04 How do we save cute little animals?
11:08 Is the Tasmanian tiger coming back?
12:50 When is it ok to bring back an extinct animal?
14:09 What’s coming next for de-extinction?
15:10 Why is this huge if true?
15:42 :)

Bio:
Cleo Abram is an Emmy-nominated independent video journalist. On her show, Huge If True, Cleo explores complex technology topics with rigor and optimism, helping her audience understand the world around them and see positive futures they can help build. Before going independent, Cleo was a video producer for Vox. She wrote and directed the Coding and Diamonds episodes of Vox’s Netflix show, Explained. She produced videos for Vox’s popular YouTube channel, was the host and senior producer of Vox’s first ever daily show, Answered, and was co-host and producer of Vox’s YouTube Originals show, Glad You Asked.

Additional reading and watching:
- SciShow “What Caused the Mass Extinction of Billions of Passenger Pigeons?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twr53QVGh0E
- PBS Terra “What if we Brought Back the Passenger Pigeon”: https://youtu.be/7z8rXihJV4Y?si=QhhVkvc0u0fjZ8WE
- Nature on PBS “Coral Reefs That Can Finally Beat the Heat | WILD HOPE”: https://youtu.be/adcfkAplT_4?si=f4wby33bHOUTrDT-
- TIME “No Longer Extinct? Colossal Biosciences' Dire Wolf Project” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6ta3TX2Zgw
- Science Magazine “Pleistocene Park: Born to rewild” https://youtu.be/IWnlPYu3ovQ?si=9fAMoiQtMSy8Wm14
- Be Smart “The Strange Evolutionary Story of the Thylacine”: https://youtu.be/fHs_lniTNvI?si=Hq3G4GOFuFSsfL5l
- The Joe Rogan Experience “#2338 - Beth Shapiro” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsMH1-Bbqr0
- You can learn more about Black Footed Ferrets and the work from Revive & Restore on their website: https://reviverestore.org/
- To read about the efforts to biobank animals check out the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance: https://sandiegozoowildlifealliance.org/biodiversity-banking