Animals & Us
Nan Hauser
A childhood brain injury and a whale's deliberate act of protection transformed a nurse into an ocean guardian fighting for whale survival.
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Nan Hauser grew up on a Quaker wildlife preserve in Pennsylvania, where her grandmother asked her each day what she had done to make herself and the world better. At 22 months old, Nan fell 25 feet headfirst onto pavement, sustaining a severe brain injury, fractured vertebrae, and epilepsy. She refused to let it stop her. She became a nurse, then a midwife, delivering babies in remote islands while also running whale stranding organisations. When her children grew up, she finally pursued what had called to her since childhood: understanding what whales do beneath the surface. For three decades, she has studied humpback whales in the Cook Islands and Bermuda, discovering that they pass song phrases around the world using celestial navigation, following the Earth's axis with precision that never deviates by more than a single degree.
In 2008, while filming underwater, a male humpback whale pushed Nan around for ten and a half minutes, sheltering her under his pectoral fin from a tiger shark that had entered the water. He delivered her safely back to the boat. A year and fifteen days later, that same whale returned, recognised her, and met her eye with what she describes as a loving gaze. That encounter transformed her understanding of whales as aware, compassionate beings capable of deliberate choice, and it became a promise: to be their voice and protect them.
Today, Nan fights daily against krill trawling, ship strikes, shark nets, noise pollution, and climate change, all of which threaten the whales she has devoted her life to. Some days the sadness of seeing protections reversed and the ocean degraded defeats her. But she keeps going. Her message is simple: use your voice, go outside, reconnect with nature, and remember that everything we do has an impact on the planet.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
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