Mumbles, Musings and Misadventures
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #12: An Update
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, […]
Last Ape Standing #11: Istanbul
I can’t see very well out of the window (I’m in an aisle seat), but I suspect we are flying over the Alps into and across Italy on our way to one of the most storied cities on earth. […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #10: France
Returned last week after three weeks in France on assignment for National Geographic Magazine (this was spring 2013) … That makes me still a Last Ape Standing :-). Unbelievable trip! It’s been busy and deadlines loom on various projects so […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #9: Spain
These are pictures from two of the cave complexes I visited in Northern Spain, a beautiful area near the Bay of Biscayne. The first picture is of El Castillo. Inside this rise of rock lie several cave complexes that wind themselves deep inside. It was in here that I saw some of the most amazing […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #8: Spain & Portugal
It’s been a crazy! five months since 2013 showed its face back in January — The release of Last Ape Standing; thrilling trips to Africa, England, Spain and Portugal for National Geographic Magazine (with more to come); wonderful reviews of Last Ape in the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review and many other publications, and, most importantly to me, very kind thoughts from […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #7: Home (for a Minute) and a Cabbie’s Remarkable Story
A Pittsburgh story: I arrived home the other night, and grabbed a taxi at the airport. Long day — up at 6 am in Oxford England and home in Pittsburgh at 9 pm 20 hours later. But I always enjoy talking with taxi cab drivers wherever I go so […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #6: Close Encounters of the Baboon Kind
When I was in Potberg, South Africa last week, I was wandering around the grounds taking a few pictures. Chris Henshilwood (see other dispatches) had pointed out that troops of baboons often wandered the grounds too. […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #5: At the Tip of South Africa
The next morning we were up and off at 9 am, well schooled in the ways you could be snake-bit, bushwhacked by baboons or swept out to sea. Everyone’s gear was jammed into three Toyota Land Cruisers and off we went with cameras, lasers, […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #4: South Africa, Making for Camp, and the Earliest Symbols
Christopher Henshilwood is talking about the best way to keep the baboons under control. He is the scientist in charge of this excursion to the coast of Africa, and one of the top archeologists in the study of prehistoric life. He stands 6 ft. 5 inches, with long, stilt-like legs that carry a slender, rectangular frame in long strides wherever he goes. […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #3: Cape Town and Beyond
I packed up my bags in my very nice central Cape Town hotel room, threw them in my rented VW and began to navigate my way, warily, and on the wrong side of the road (to me at least), out of the city. […]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #2: Flying to Africa
A drawing of the great Colossus of Rhodes. This is MUCH better. Here, in row 38 F on KLM's very comfy 777-200 jetliner, I am a happy man. Unlike Delta's flying sardine can, I can write! I can stretch my frame, recline and sleep, which I have been doing, peacefully, I think (was I snoring?) for the past 4 hours. (Travel tip -- take 3 grams of melatonin [...]
Last Ape Standing Dispatch #1: Amsterdam
Here I sit in Amsterdam's Schipol Airport. It was here in this port city that the Great Age of Discovery began 500 years ago. That's when the Netherlands and the powerful Dutch East and West India Companies undertook to build their planet-wide trading empire. It's ships sailed the globe and controlled trade from Europe to Indonesia and Japan in the east to the new world (including New York - then [...]
Dispatches From A Last Ape Standing: Introduction
This week I depart, a Last Ape Standing, on assignment for the National Geographic Magazine for South Africa, then later London and Oxford. [...]
Mating With Neanderthals and Other Joys of Prehistoric Life: Four Creatures You Didn’t Know You Were So Close To
Recent Discoveries About Neanderthals and Other Ancient Humans Have Given the Phrase "I'll be a monkey's Uncle!" a whole new meaning. [...]
Read an Excerpt from Last Ape Standing
From the Introduction of Last Ape Standing Over the past 180 years we have so far managed to stumble across, unearth and otherwise bring to light evidence that 26 separate human (hominin, to use the up-to-date scientific term) species have evolved on planet Earth. As you may have noticed, twenty-five of them are now no longer with us, done in by their environments, predators, disease, or the unfortunate shortcomings of their [...]