Photograph by Wade Davis
Inspiring people to care about the planet since 1888
Photograph by Wade Davis
An ethnographer, writer, photographer, filmmaker, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence who was recently honored with the prestigious Explorer’s Club Medal for 2011, Wade Davis has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet, and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” He has dedicated his life to studying endangered cultures and preserving the totality of traditional languages, beliefs, myths, and dreams that constitute humanity’s cultural inheritance—a legacy that he calls the “ethnosphere.” Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. His work has taken him around the world, through the Amazon, Tibet, the Arctic, Africa, Australia, Mongolia, Polynesia, and New Guinea, living for extended periods among indigenous communities. He is the author of 14 books including The Serpent and the Rainbow, Light at the Edge of the World, and _The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World (2009), based on the CBC Massey Lectures, Canada’s most prestigious intellectual forum. His latest book, Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest was released in October 2011.
Popular Presentation
The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in a Modern World
Indigenous human cultures are going extinct faster than many plants and animals. Fully 50 percent of the more than 6,000 languages spoken today will cease to exist in our lifetime. With them will go the knowledge, stories, customs, and footprints of entire cultures. Davis leads us on an enlightening and gripping journey through ancient worlds, demonstrating how our world is richer for their presence and contributions.
Learn More About Wade:
IMAX: Grand Canyon Adventure Film
Smithsonian Channel: Light at the Edge of the World
“With only the simple instruments of his voice and his passion, Davis weaves a cloak that allows us to imagine for a moment the world as it might be seen through the indigenous imagination. It’s a deft feat and it transforms the literature of grievance, so familiar now, to a literature of love and almost celestial appreciation. He is our very own Massey shaman, breathing life into fragile worlds that are rapidly growing extinct, worlds that mark the boundary of the human imagination.” – CBC Radio
Listen to Radio Interview With Wade Davis
Boyd Matson Interviews Wade for NG Weekend Radio Show
Wade Davis provides an enlightening, awe-inspiring, and cautionary look at vanishing cultures and languages as he leads readers on a fascinating tour through a handful of indigenous cultures and worldviews. This book has spent numerous weeks as the number one bestselling book in Canada.
Listen to Wade Davis address sell-out audiences in the 2009 Massey Lectures, held in venues across Canada.
With stunning photos and stories, National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world’s indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.
Davis recently spoke with National Geographic News about the concern many Haitians are feeling as they bury loved ones without proper rituals, and U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson’s remark that Haiti’s earthquake is God’s retribution for a voodoo “pact with the devil.”
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