The (Full) Maya Higa Interview 🎙️
Three observations from our sit-down convo
Neighbors,
On Thursday, we dropped our sit-down conversation with Twitch streamer and animal conservationist Maya Higa, our Issue Seven cover star.
You can watch the interview on our YouTube channel here. Three standout quotes and observations:
1.
“Ultimately, what makes the Alveus team so great is that we’re all so aligned on what we want for these animals. And what we want for our natural world, too.” —Maya Higa
Maya opened her animal sanctuary, Alveus, in her early twenties. Throughout our conversations, she spoke to the crash course of opening a nonprofit, building a team culture, and hiring employees—many of whom are older than her.
“She definitely hired people more knowledgeable than her, and I think she respects that very much,” Maya’s mom, Vicki Amon-Higa, told me. “She has a bachelor’s of science, but she doesn’t have an advanced degree. And a lot of the people that are on her team do, and they are experts in their field.”
As executive director, Maya does make the final calls. But she prioritizes listening to her animal care staff above all else.
“If an animal needs something, we have the resources to provide it, and we absolutely will,” she told me. “That’s what I care about, and that’s what they care about. So it’s just been really easy.”
2.
“I think it’s really important people see me as a person, more than, like, a formal wildlife presenter.” —Maya Higa
The streamer talked about “the difference between reading something in a textbook in school” versus “sitting on a couch, listening to your friend talk about something they care about.”
She thinks the latter, “anecdotal” route is more powerful, as it makes her more trustworthy and relatable than “traditional learning.” That’s why she shows more sides of herself online, whether it’s singing covers, collaborating with other streamers, or ratioing LeBron James on Twitter.
But do viewers actually learn (or retain) anything from watching Maya’s streams? I had my doubts, so I talked to several of her fans…and got my answer.
Oliver began listing off fun facts regarding the strength of parrots’ beaks, and dove into detail on the permeable skin of frogs. Arsen mentioned that Maya’s segments on spiders and insects helped her get over her arachnophobia. Rebecca Nieves, a twenty-year-old pre-med student in South Florida, agreed. “With insects, now knowing how important they are to [local ecosystems]...it sounds simple, but it really does give you a worldview change,” she tells me. All of a sudden, “you’re actually noticing these things, and you actually want to go outside and find these animals.”
“I am the public relations team for insects,” Maya joked to me.
3.
“I think one of the hardest things as a creator is going, Okay, I have this attention. What do I do with it?” —Hank Green
Hank is one of Maya’s biggest inspirations, so I hopped on a call with him before visiting Alveus. As a creator and educator who’s launched several careers off of YouTube stardom, he has mixed feelings on the state of online science communication.
“There’s a lot of people…that can just sort of say the most interesting, possible thing, because they have no need to be connected to the truth,” he told me. “Because of the way that the Internet is structured, that stuff is getting a lot of attention, and I don’t know how to interface with that.”
In Hank’s telling, the creators who lead fruitful, sustainable careers are the ones who figure out how to leverage the attention they receive towards what's good for the world—ultimately leading to long-term fulfillment, anyway.
“That’s what sets Maya apart,” he concluded.
(Upon hearing this, Maya audibly gasped and exclaimed, “Oh! My goat!”)1
Our bread-and-butter will always be our written journalism. But I am curious:
We're a small team, and publishing video interviews (along with the newsletter and magazine) is definitely an added lift. Nevertheless, we know some of you—and broader audiences—enjoy interacting with our stories further, and we're open to sharing more conversations like this one on our channel.
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Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
Since animals are a big part of this story, I figure it's relevant to mention that the user of “goat” here means “G.O.A.T.” As in , “Greatest of All Time.”