National Geographic Magazine - UK August 2018

Thanks for sharing your expertise on sleep, the topic of our cover story. Thomas Edison called sleep “an absurdity” and “a bad habit.” Is that idea ingrained in our culture? I think it’s deeply ingrained, but we’re at a moment of transformation. What stops people from prioritizing sleep is the fear that somehow they’re going to miss out. We have so many phrases that confirm that—“You snooze, you lose,” “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” But now there are role models, people who are prioritizing sleep and are supereffective. You’re known as hard-charging. Did you have a moment when you said, I’ve got to change what I’m doing? Yes, in 2007 when I collapsed from sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and burnout. Being a divorced mother of two teenage daughters, I had bought…

I’ve been a fan of National Geographic since I was a child. The topics covered in the magazine seemed exotic back then, but as I look through the current issue, I’m struck by how universal they now all are. The illegal persecution of animals is a global matter, whether it’s lions (“Poisoning Africa,” page 78) or birds of prey in Peak District National Park (next page). Even butterflies are under threat in Indonesia’s rain forest (“The Butterfly Catchers,” page 112) as well as in Britain’s countryside. What concerns me most is the loss of biodiversity. If we stress ecosystems by removing significant numbers of critical species, then they will go into terminal decline. If we lose essential pollinators or keystone predators, then we’ll know that we’re in trouble. ‘IF WE…

Mark Thomas, an investigator at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), vividly remembers the first time he saw a goshawk, in 1990 in the northern section of Peak District National Park. “[It was] flying really low,” he recalls. “I felt exhilarated and privileged.” Fast-forward nearly 30 years: According to a recent report co-authored by Thomas, the bird has nearly vanished from the area, along with another bird of prey, the peregrine falcon. Thomas believes grouse shooting estates are responsible for the population decline of both birds. Red grouse are explosively fast fliers and a highly prized game bird in Britain. A day’s shooting can cost up to £4,000 per person. With such sums at stake, gamekeepers are under pressure to deliver high numbers of grouse, he says.…

I like simplicity in a photo, the challenge of saying more with less, so the sleek forms of penguins isolated against the icy Antarctic landscape make an ideal subject. Because it’s a long way south, I make sure I arrive with a plan in hand and hand warmers in pocket. Taking photos at below freezing temperatures can be challenging and painful work, especially for my finger clicking the shutter button.…

CONSIDER THE SHOEBILL, whose photo opens this article. It’s a one-of-a-kind species on the verge of extinction—exactly the type targeted for protection by the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered species program, aka EDGE of Existence. But when I started the EDGE initiative in 2007, the challenge was getting people who’d never heard of those animals to commit to protecting them. Ideally I could have gone to the leading marketing agency for nature and asked what to do to get people to emotionally connect with these weird and wonderful creatures. But no such agency exists—and we’ve only begun to develop both the art and science of making this vital connection. Tim Flach photographed the birds in this article; all are in his book Endangered, to which I contributed. Flach has a…

“YOU NEED TO HAVE your throat cut out and your decomposing, bug-infested body fed to wild pigs.” An anonymous Facebook user wrote that—and more that’s unprintable—to Kyle Edmund after the British pro tennis player lost in a 2017 tournament. After University of Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard spoke about the history of male suppression of female voices, she received Twitter threats, including “I’m going to cut off your head and rape it.” On Martin Luther King Day this year, an anonymous Twitter user lionized the man who killed King some 50 years ago: “RIP James Earl Ray. A true fighter for the white race.” The same month, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that his “Nuclear Button… is a much bigger & more powerful one” than Kim Jong Un’s. This capped…