Lucy Cooke

But the thing about menopause... You know, I mean, I know it gets a lot of press now and everybody's allowed to talk about it.

My mother's generation, no one did.

You know, you were just sort of irrelevant after going, after your period stopped, you know, and you were kind of this sort of, you know, kind of grey puddle of purposelessness, you know.

Oh, God.

So Lucy.

And so there's this incredible, rich amount of data on their behavior and their movements.

But those salmon are really hard to find now because they've been hunted by humans.

Yeah, you know, 25 years ago at this time of year, there was a bunch of salmon that did go up this random little tributary halfway up the coast.

So the postmenopausal female whales, they might not be adding more of their genes to the gene pool, but they're not sitting around filing their nails and watching daytime soap operas.

These orca females are the repositories for ecological wisdom.

They're keeping their hunting community alive.

Do you know, I probably shouldn't answer this question, but I will.

I'll give you an honest answer because I did.

I felt incredibly moved by them.

I really did.

I felt very, I was really pleased that I made the effort and I went there and I spent time with Dr. Giles and, you know, understanding how evolution had granted these females these long lives with such purpose made me think,

differently about my loss of fertility and I found the idea that my value now was in my wisdom and my brain and the things that I can teach other people really empowering.

As opposed to feeling like you're a grey puddle that's, you know, decreasing relevance in the world and, you know.

Yeah.

It's the kind of, it's the opposite.