Colin Donihue

After we got off Redonda (and had had a day to scrub up and do some laundry) Geoff and I were asked to give a live TV interview for Antigua and Barbuda Today! The Redonda Restoration Program (like them on FB if you can!) and a Fulbright Fellow named Andrew Maurer working in Antigua this year on Sea Turtle conservation have been doing a terrific job trying to get word out about the restoration efforts around the country. To help, I agreed to give a talk about my research on Redonda.

As I was hurriedly putting together the talk in the couple of days after we returned from Redonda, it was a surprise when Andrew asked if I’d be interested in doing a live TV interview with Antigua and Barbuda today. I was nervous. Really nervous. I’d never done TV before and live on camera means there’s no room for asking for a do-over. Geoff gave me some sage advice though, something along the lines of: Well, you’re going to say yes eventually because it’s a great opportunity even though it’s terrifying. You might as well just say yes instead of worrying about it… but I’m glad it’s not me.

So I said yes. And then I asked the producers if Geoff could come on too – we’d do a scientist/conservation writer one-two punch. Take that buddy! He said yes after I parroted his advice back to him.

We did a practice interview with Claire doing her best Katie Couric and we wrote up a few questions for Antigua and Barbuda Today to use to prep their host. Claire tried to stump us with questions like “Why is Redonda unique?” and hard-hitting follow-ups like “So what do lizards eat?” In reality, the practice session with Claire made us realize just how fun it is to talk about Redonda, the plants and animals, and the incredible efforts going into transforming it. Come Monday morning we were feeling relaxed and excited to get a chance to talk to a TV audience.

We arrived at the TV station early in the morning. It’s election season in Antigua and Barbuda right now so before (and after) us was a politician stumping for his district. Good news because that means we might get some more eyeballs tuning in. At about 7:40 they ushered to us sitting in the green room (which wasn’t green at all) to follow the stage manager into the studio. I’ll admit, at this point anxiety spiked again just a little bit.

We tip-toed into the studio as an interview was finishing and were given two microphones to snake up under our shirts. I couldn’t quite figure out where to put mine, first it was too high, then too low. Luckily the fellow doling them out was a pro and was able to sign to me the right position. Then, all of a sudden, it was a commercial break and we were quickly ushered onto the couch where our host was waiting.

He immediately made us feel right at home but it was clear he had no idea who we were or why we were there. His cheat sheet was just a list of names for the schedule of the day (none of our pre-baked questions had made it) so we quickly filled him in that we were talking about Redonda. Luckily, (and what are the chances?) he’d been there before as a youngster and so was immediately engaged and excited. Whew! And, well, you can watch the rest: