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In this week\u2019s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Lynne Lewis, currently a professor of economics at Bates College and an incoming professor of agricultural and resource economics at Colorado State University, about brown bears in Katmai National Park in Alaska. Lewis discusses the fan base for the brown bear population in Katmai, which is connected to the Fat Bear Week tournament held every October; surveys that indicate the amount of money people would be willing to pay to protect the brown bears in Katmai; the relationship between an animal\u2019s perceived individuality and the value people place on the conservation of that animal or its local population; and potential problems associated with visitors overcrowding Katmai and other national parks in the United States.\n\nReferences and recommendations:\n\n\u201cGetting to know you: individual animals, wildlife webcams, and willingness to pay for brown bear preservation\u201d by Leslie Richardson and Lynne Lewis; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ajae.12249\n\n\u201cThe charisma premium: Iconic individuals and wildlife values\u201d by Christopher Costello, Lynne Lewis, John Lynham, and Leslie Richardson; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069623000906\n\nLive cam of brown bears at Katmai National Park in Alaska; https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls\n\n\u201cThe Bears of Brooks Falls: Wildlife and Survival on Alaska\u2019s Brooks River\u201d by Michael Fitz; https://wwnorton.com/books/9781682685105\n\n\u201cThe Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music\u201d by Dave Grohl; https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-storyteller-dave-grohl