Brian Perry (left) interviews Mario Herrero in a ‘hard talk’ series at ILRI’s annual program meeting in 2006 in Nairobi (photo credit: ILRI).
Several years ago, staff of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) innovated ways to enliven their annual program meetings (aka, death by research powerpoint). One of the ways ILRI shook things up was to ring a (cow) bell a couple of times a day to let everyone know to circle round two stools to watch and listen to another of a series of ‘hard talk’ interviews of an ILRI staff member (and usually a senior one) by ILRI veterinary epidemiologist Brian Perry. The interviewees usually squirmed under Perry’s probing and at time ‘take no prisoners’ queries on topical issues. (A novel trick of the dapper interviewer to distract and/or unsettle his subjects was to sport a flower in his lapel buttonhole and socks of wildly diverse and vibrant hues.)
Here, for your pleasure, are collected all the short filmed Hard Talk interviews conducted by Perry at ILRI’s annual meetings.
ILRI 2006 Annual Program Meeting
Finance and human resources director BRIGITTE LAUDE on human resources at ILRI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyqBw9ML0GI&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=4
Biosciences director ED REGE and special assistant to the director general GABRIELLE PERSLEY on ILRI’s Bioscience for eastern and central Africa (BecA): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb_BoB93qZk&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=5
Deputy director general–research JOHN MCDERMOTT on scientific leadership at ILRI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ0Fo_yNs0E&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=6
ILRI out-posted staff IHEANACHO OKIKE (Nigeria), SIBONISO MOYO (Mozambique), EDWIN PEREZ (Latin America) and LUCY LAPAR (Vietnam): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5mboOEUXTQ&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=8
Climate change and sustainable livestock futures specialist MARIO HERRERO on systems analysis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agJOzrQ6TQ0&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=7
ILRI 2007 Annual Program Meeting
Landscape ecologist ROBIN REID on Livestock’s Long Shadow, report of a study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), exploring the broader implications of the report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D73JxWGqiYs&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=2, 2007
Veterinary epidemiologists JEFF MARINER and DELIA GRACE on interesting facts and controversies of the world’s livestock plagues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coryscD1uXA&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=1, 2007
Director general CARLOS SERÉ and deputy director general–research JOHN MCDERMOTT on the continuing globalization of ILRI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0mxi3zoKlE&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=3, 2007
Valedictory lecture by BRIAN PERRY providing anecdotes and comments on some of the personalities at ILRI and its predecessors, the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (ILRAD) and the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), over the years.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mxU_hFfwVc&feature=youtu.be, 2007
ILRI 2011 ‘Livestock Exchange’ Conference
SEGENET KELEMU, director of the ILRI-Biosciences eastern and central Africa Hub: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGhTnrjcE5o&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=14
Director general JIMMY SMITH, vaccine developer VISH NENE, food safety and zoonoses expert DELIA GRACE, BecA director APPOLINAIRE DJIKENG, livestock disease expert BERNARD BETT on livestock and human health research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLBsTB-hYjs&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=11
Incoming director general JIMMY SMITH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOLvlntYwtE&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=13
Departing director general CARLOS SERÉ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCOb0wpckaU&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=12
ILRI@40 2014 Addis Conference
PETER JEFFRIES (GALVmed), SARAH JACKSON (Verdant), AZAGE TEGEGNE (ILRI): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyM2wU02fMQ&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=10
Director general JIMMY SMITH and former director generals CARLOS SERÉ and HANK FITZHUGH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAzmc2LJCGM&list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m&index=9
Training in how to interview scientists
If you like these interviews, you’ll like these filmed recommendations from Perry (some of them self-confessed ‘naughty’) on how to interview scientists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZnQ_aSsnwk
More
You’ll find all of Perry’s ILRI hard talk interviews over the years here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCLZXIdq9v2SmfFtBJy-NoZze10UzWT7m
ILRI news 