had tried to implement this change in his own office, allowing his secretary to bring her baby to the university. It had worked out fine, until students and professors complained that it was unprofessional. âAcademics are such snobs,â he mutters, recalling their indignation at the babyâs cries.
As our interview draws to a close, I ask Suzuki what he would like to do over the next several years. He laughs wearily, admitting that he had actually planned to retire nearly fifteen years ago, at age fifty-five. The flurry of new causes and projects, of course, hasnât left him with much choice but to keep going.
He admits that it could be a few years yet: After getting his David Suzuki Foundation on solid financial ground, heâll have to find a successor to host The Nature of Things . He notes that CBC may take the show off the air after he retires due to its strong association with him; however, he would like his daughter Severn to have a shot at becoming the next host.
âI have a few things that I want to do before I die,â he says thoughtfully. âAt my age, every day is a gift. I could be hit by a car, who knows? I would like to learn to speak Spanish. And I would liketo study geology, to have a hobby, like painting or carving. But in order to do that, Iâve got to have time.â As though to snap himself out of a dream, Suzuki taps his fingers on the table. The sound disperses images of Suzuki painting landscapes in a cabin beside some half-finished wood carvings, bringing us back to his foundation, where countless emails, phone calls, letters, and deadlines await him. âBut that wonât happen for a while,â he says with a wry smile.
As I shook hands with Suzuki at the end of the interview, he was no longer just a figure on TV screens and in periodicals, immortalized by over forty years of exposure in the public eye. The David Suzuki that I met was human, vulnerable, prone to telling stories, and critical of himself and his work. Textbooks and encyclopedias will mark him as a groundbreaking geneticist and broadcaster, but to us, heâs a loving son, grateful husband, and caring father like anybody else, whose eyes dance whenever he talks about his children.
       A UTHOR C OMMENTARY
What surprised me about the David Suzuki interview was how human he was and how openly he told his story about family and growing up. In particular, his memory of how his father shaped his career trajectory and curiosity about nature, as well as the need to explain science in a way that resonated with everybody, was very touching. â Jenny Uechi, 2015
       A BOUT THE A UTHOR
Jenny Uechi is the managing editor of the Vancouver Observer , an award-winning news site (winner of Canadian Journalism Foundationâs Excellence in Journalism Award, 2012 and 2014). She is a former news director at NHK, assistant editor of Ricepaper , and translator.
A Writerâs Life: Speaking with Denise Chong
Ricepaper 14, no. 4 (2009)
Eury Chang
We often look to writers in order to get a better understanding and sense of the world that we live in. One writer whose work powerfully illuminates the world around us is Denise Chong. Educated in economics at the University of British Columbia and in economics and public policy at the University of Toronto, Chong has authored a number of bestselling books over the past fifteen years. Her titles include such well-known works as The Concubineâs Children (1995), The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc (1999), and most recently Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship (2009). In many ways, each of these books delves into the challenging and tumultuous worlds of their subjects and, in the process, offer an insightful social and cultural commentary of the times.
In October 2009, Chong, who now lives in Ottawa, returned to her native West Coast for two
As our interview draws to a close, I ask Suzuki what he would like to do over the next several years. He laughs wearily, admitting that he had actually planned to retire nearly fifteen years ago, at age fifty-five. The flurry of new causes and projects, of course, hasnât left him with much choice but to keep going.
He admits that it could be a few years yet: After getting his David Suzuki Foundation on solid financial ground, heâll have to find a successor to host The Nature of Things . He notes that CBC may take the show off the air after he retires due to its strong association with him; however, he would like his daughter Severn to have a shot at becoming the next host.
âI have a few things that I want to do before I die,â he says thoughtfully. âAt my age, every day is a gift. I could be hit by a car, who knows? I would like to learn to speak Spanish. And I would liketo study geology, to have a hobby, like painting or carving. But in order to do that, Iâve got to have time.â As though to snap himself out of a dream, Suzuki taps his fingers on the table. The sound disperses images of Suzuki painting landscapes in a cabin beside some half-finished wood carvings, bringing us back to his foundation, where countless emails, phone calls, letters, and deadlines await him. âBut that wonât happen for a while,â he says with a wry smile.
As I shook hands with Suzuki at the end of the interview, he was no longer just a figure on TV screens and in periodicals, immortalized by over forty years of exposure in the public eye. The David Suzuki that I met was human, vulnerable, prone to telling stories, and critical of himself and his work. Textbooks and encyclopedias will mark him as a groundbreaking geneticist and broadcaster, but to us, heâs a loving son, grateful husband, and caring father like anybody else, whose eyes dance whenever he talks about his children.
       A UTHOR C OMMENTARY
What surprised me about the David Suzuki interview was how human he was and how openly he told his story about family and growing up. In particular, his memory of how his father shaped his career trajectory and curiosity about nature, as well as the need to explain science in a way that resonated with everybody, was very touching. â Jenny Uechi, 2015
       A BOUT THE A UTHOR
Jenny Uechi is the managing editor of the Vancouver Observer , an award-winning news site (winner of Canadian Journalism Foundationâs Excellence in Journalism Award, 2012 and 2014). She is a former news director at NHK, assistant editor of Ricepaper , and translator.
A Writerâs Life: Speaking with Denise Chong
Ricepaper 14, no. 4 (2009)
Eury Chang
We often look to writers in order to get a better understanding and sense of the world that we live in. One writer whose work powerfully illuminates the world around us is Denise Chong. Educated in economics at the University of British Columbia and in economics and public policy at the University of Toronto, Chong has authored a number of bestselling books over the past fifteen years. Her titles include such well-known works as The Concubineâs Children (1995), The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc (1999), and most recently Egg on Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man Who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship (2009). In many ways, each of these books delves into the challenging and tumultuous worlds of their subjects and, in the process, offer an insightful social and cultural commentary of the times.
In October 2009, Chong, who now lives in Ottawa, returned to her native West Coast for two
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