Meet Brant MacDuff

We were lucky to catch up with Brant MacDuff recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brant, so great to have you with us and thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with the community. So, let’s jump into something that stops so many people from going after their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. We’d love to hear about how you dealt with that and persisted on your path.

I study wildlife conservation strategy, and for better or worse my general “opponents” are people who want the same thing I do (lots of wildlife and lots of healthy habitats for them to live in.) The hate comes from the chasm between those who want to get from A to B emotionally, and those who want to get there scientifically. The people who are the most emotionally driven by the/any topic won’t be able to think critically about it. But when I get to talk with folks who are solutions oriented and interested in success and progress, then I get fired up enough to bring that conversation to the next group of people and the next. The existence of “Flat Earthers” doesn’t stop NASA from being successful, but (today) public understanding of how conservation actually works is critical for success, so I’m motivated to continue educating on behalf of the animals, and because I know it’s possible for people to change their minds. What keeps me up is figuring out how to bring the conversation/ education to greater numbers of people.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

Wildlife conservation economics is thrilling (I’m a nerd) in how surprising and (initially) counterintuitive it can be, that’s what drew me to it. I wanted to study animals but more importantly I wanted to study how to keep them (and the places they live) around for the future. So when I started to uncover the hidden side of successful conservation strategy, especially through “sustainable use” models like hunting, I was eager to share the data. Beginning a seminar on wildlife conservation with teasers like “eating bison is more sustainable than being vegetarian” or “wearing fur is more environmentally friendly than alternatives” and “big game hunting in Africa protects more wildlife than photography,” certainly got people’s attention and they seemed to be just as fascinated by the science and history as I was. I speak and write about conservation economics and history full time and how dangerous it is for us to attach our emotions to science. Chemistry, physics, and astronomy (for example) don’t suffer from people’s emotional attachment to them, but wildlife conservation is often made more difficult by people’s love of animals. The human psychology side of conservation was unexpected and something I enjoy exploring, despite the hurdle it creates for the work. My book “The Shotgun Conservationist” tries to touch on all this stuff from a friendly (and hopefully entertaining) 101 level but I continue to work on new ways of achieving greater outreach. Most people aren’t against the science, they just don’t know about it, so education has become the most exciting (sometimes aggravating) part of the job.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I don’t have a fear of speaking in public, I love it. Being a confident public speaker is a massive cheat code I wish I could give to people. Even if you spend most of your work hours in a laboratory talking to mice, practice speaking to them. I like to argue with myself , out loud, in the morning, over coffee (totally normal.) It helps me clarify what I want to say and often helps me come up with new ideas. It’s good to have a tight five in your pocket.

Know the history of your topic. That usually comes naturally if you’re doing/studying something you love, but sometimes you have to work at it. Understanding what happened in the past is a good tool for predicting the future, things change, but the history of how people deal with change is remarkably static.

Use *your* story when you can. Regardless of your background there are aspects of your story that are relatable. That personal connection to your work is important when folks are sussing out if you have passionate follow-through or are just trying to make a buck. I work in spaces that are often very liberal or very conservative so I tailor my presentation to my audience. If I’m talking to a more liberal crowd I might pepper in the fact that I’m a trans man who lives in Brooklyn and votes Democratic. Personal information that has absolutely nothing to do wildlife conservation in Africa, but it makes me (the messenger) more palatable and often perceived as more trustworthy because of it. If I’m about to espouse the social/ ecological/ biological/ and conservation benefits of hunting elephants in Botswana I need the audience to be on my side first. I’d like to say “just let the science speak for itself” but unfortunately even science has become politically divided so it’s important I connect to my audience. If I’m speaking to a more conservative crowd I won’t mention anything they might find distracting and focus on how I was anti-hunting in my youth but the science changed my mind, so I know it’s possible for that to happen for others, and how they can go about having friendly, productive conversations with people who might be different from them.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

Do what will ultimately benefit your strengths and it will change how you perceive the challenges/ projects you take on. I hate writing (a very writer-y thing to say) and I love public speaking, I wrote the book because I knew it would bring me more opportunities to travel and educate. For someone who loves to write and would rather be buried under a pile of rattlesnakes than speak in front of a crowd, congrats, you can write without having to speak, but I’ve found with every different way I could get my work out there, the more opportunity I generated to focus on the stuff I’m good at and like to do most.

NYU business professor Scott Galloway (who I adore) likes to say “follow your talent, not your passion” and (to paraphrase the rest of his point) you’ll become passionate about that talent when you find success in it. From there you’ll have more runway to explore once you’ve created a stable base. It takes the romance out but you have to define what success is to you. If it’s business then you have to toss your self care out the window and grind for a few years while you build something from scratch, you can relax later on your pile of money. If you work in wildlife conservation like I do, then prepare to work but make no money, because copper mines generate a lot of fast cash and nature doesn’t. I’ve never once been paid by a salmon who’s watershed I’ve tried to protect. But I’m happy to do it. To be clear, I’d be much happier if the salmon could pay me a six figure salary, unfortunately they do not have pockets and therefore no place to keep checkbooks.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ImmortalAnimals.com
• Instagram: @StuffInMyApartment
• Other: Book: “The Shotgun Conservationist: Why Environmentalists Should Love Hunting”

Image Credits

Bill Keller