Molly Webster

Right.

That's cool.

Yeah, that makes sense, right?

Good theory.

Good theory.

Why, why, why?

Well, apparently, so this gets kind of like mathy and nitpicky, but Kevin says that the benefits of these older females bowing out, they like don't quite make up for the fact that they're like living these long, luxurious post-reproductive lives, like painting their nails and eating monkey meat.

So it's like maybe it doesn't quite work.

Damn it.

So is Kevin about to swoop in and be like, I've got my own hypothesis?

There's like not a grand universal theory of post-reproductive females.

Okay.

And it's still just like a real open question of why we or orcas or chimps live this long post-reproductive life.

Right.

I mean, honestly, there's a part of me that's like, thank God, because if we had actually found an answer, it would have felt so prescriptive.

I don't know.

It makes me feel like it would have been kind of sad.

I agree.

I mean, I think it would be kind of limiting.

And I think the thing is, one of the things I've loved about this reporting process of the story isn't really learning the theories, which are kind of confusing in a lot of ways, but actually learning about these specific animals like Granny and Garbo and just imagining their lives.