Daniel Alarcón

In the off-season, when there were no weekday shows at Reino Aventura, Renata and the other trainers swam and played with Keiko for hours. Most of the people who worked with Keiko were young, none older than 30, and they made Keiko the center of their lives. They fed him by hand, gave him belly rubs all the time. They even set up a special hose just for him. He loved to be sprayed.

In the off-season, when there were no weekday shows at Reino Aventura, Renata and the other trainers swam and played with Keiko for hours. Most of the people who worked with Keiko were young, none older than 30, and they made Keiko the center of their lives. They fed him by hand, gave him belly rubs all the time. They even set up a special hose just for him. He loved to be sprayed.

And as far as anyone could tell, Keiko genuinely seemed to like it.

And as far as anyone could tell, Keiko genuinely seemed to like it.

There's nothing about that last sentence of Renata's that could be fact-checked. Not a word. We don't know if Keiko was having a blast. We can't know. Maybe he was dragging the trainers around because he was bored, or because he loved these friendly people who fed him every day. Maybe what his humans interpreted as Keiko having fun was really just habit, or even defeat.

There's nothing about that last sentence of Renata's that could be fact-checked. Not a word. We don't know if Keiko was having a blast. We can't know. Maybe he was dragging the trainers around because he was bored, or because he loved these friendly people who fed him every day. Maybe what his humans interpreted as Keiko having fun was really just habit, or even defeat.

Like, why not let the people ride? They seem to like it. We can't really know what animals are thinking, so we do our best with the information we have, making educated guesses about the inner lives of the creatures we love. And that's what the story is really about. An imperfect attempt to understand what might be best for an animal who can't speak for himself.

Like, why not let the people ride? They seem to like it. We can't really know what animals are thinking, so we do our best with the information we have, making educated guesses about the inner lives of the creatures we love. And that's what the story is really about. An imperfect attempt to understand what might be best for an animal who can't speak for himself.

The intention to make things right for him, to make things better. Everything I'm going to tell you in the next six episodes was set in motion by these good intentions. And by everything, I mean an unprecedented global campaign, a high profile, high stakes science experiment, and a debate about what exactly we, humans, owe the natural world.

The intention to make things right for him, to make things better. Everything I'm going to tell you in the next six episodes was set in motion by these good intentions. And by everything, I mean an unprecedented global campaign, a high profile, high stakes science experiment, and a debate about what exactly we, humans, owe the natural world.

At the center of it all is Keiko, who would become, almost by accident, a symbol for all whales, for the health of the oceans, for the very concept of wildness, but who was also an individual orca with a name and specific history and trauma and character. A character with fears and limitations that no human could ever hope to interpret with any certainty. Not that they wouldn't try.

At the center of it all is Keiko, who would become, almost by accident, a symbol for all whales, for the health of the oceans, for the very concept of wildness, but who was also an individual orca with a name and specific history and trauma and character. A character with fears and limitations that no human could ever hope to interpret with any certainty. Not that they wouldn't try.

In fact, lots of well-intentioned people would claim they knew exactly what was best for this whale. And they would be arguing and fighting over those interpretations for years. From Serial Productions and the New York Times, this is The Good Whale. I'm Daniel Alarcón.

In fact, lots of well-intentioned people would claim they knew exactly what was best for this whale. And they would be arguing and fighting over those interpretations for years. From Serial Productions and the New York Times, this is The Good Whale. I'm Daniel Alarcón.

It wasn't just Renata and the other trainers who loved Keiko, or even just the people in Mexico City who went to see Keiko at Reino Aventura. It seems like pretty much every kid in Mexico knew him. He was beloved, a kind of national mascot.

It wasn't just Renata and the other trainers who loved Keiko, or even just the people in Mexico City who went to see Keiko at Reino Aventura. It seems like pretty much every kid in Mexico knew him. He was beloved, a kind of national mascot.

One person I spoke to compared him to a Mexican Mickey Mouse. And in fact, a lot of people assumed that Keiko was Mexican, like actually from Mexico. They never considered that he could have come from anywhere else. He was just theirs. We talked to lots of people who grew up in Mexico City in the 80s and 90s.

One person I spoke to compared him to a Mexican Mickey Mouse. And in fact, a lot of people assumed that Keiko was Mexican, like actually from Mexico. They never considered that he could have come from anywhere else. He was just theirs. We talked to lots of people who grew up in Mexico City in the 80s and 90s.

And they said again and again that Keiko had an aura about him, that seeing him at Reino Aventura was like hanging out with your 7,000-pound best friend, the killer whale you told your secrets to, what was happening at school, who your crush was. It was that kind of relationship. If you watched television in Mexico in the late 80s or early 90s, chances were that sooner or later you'd see Keiko.

And they said again and again that Keiko had an aura about him, that seeing him at Reino Aventura was like hanging out with your 7,000-pound best friend, the killer whale you told your secrets to, what was happening at school, who your crush was. It was that kind of relationship. If you watched television in Mexico in the late 80s or early 90s, chances were that sooner or later you'd see Keiko.