Annie Jacobsen

Yeah, they lie to each other.

Have you seen Chimp Empire?

Yes.

God, there's so much that goes.

Somebody was asking me after I wrote the surprise Kill Vanish book about the CIA's paramilitary, the Ground Branch guys, the snake eaters.

And they said, what's the origin story of Ground Branch?

Thinking I was going to say, you know, the OSS.

But I had just seen Chimp Empire.

And I couldn't help myself but say, Chimp Empire is the origin story of the CIA's paramilitary.

Wow.

Right?

And I remember that, watching that, it's like the four hours.

And it's so magnificently filmed.

And it's so interesting.

And that moment where they go back in time and you realize someone had been videotaping the previous generation of chimps.

and that their anger and their fighting was based on revenge.

That blew my mind.

Because I often think, because I write about war and weapons, I always think about nature versus nurture and were we built this way?

This is a very interesting thing to think about, like your electric caterpillar.

They were fighting over resources.