So THIS Happened is Wichita's podcast for real talk, local culture, and the occasional Taylor Swift spiral — and this week, Jen Cole and Rachel Chappelle headed out to Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard, Kansas, just outside Wichita, to sit down with LynnLee Schmidt, COO of Tanganyika, for one of the most emotional episodes yet.
By now, most of the Sip Squad has seen the videos: a newborn giraffe calf, born fighting for her life, now off oxygen and walking on her own. Her name is Milani. This episode is the story behind those clips — the decisions, the team, and the twenty-hour sprint that gave her a chance.
🦘 This or That: Wildlife Edition
LynnLee jumped right into This or That with Jen and Rachel — kangaroo over sloth (“they're overrated,” she said, and she's not wrong), and a whole tangent on sloth toe counts none of us expected to learn.
🦒 Meet Milani
Milani's story didn't start the night she was born — it started about a month and a half earlier, when her mom stopped eating. LynnLee walks us through the diagnosis, the impossible choice the team faced (there was never a “save the mom or save the calf” — it was lose them both, or try to save the calf), and the moment Milani took her first breath.
📞 The Phone Tree That Saves Giraffes
What happened next was a twenty-hour sprint: an emergency call to the International Center for Giraffe Conservation, a colleague driving four hours with a cooler of banked giraffe plasma just in case, and Tanganyika's own director driving to a medical supply store to buy an oxygen machine — for a giraffe. LynnLee calls it a phone tree. It's really more of a “get in the car and go” tree.
💪 Holding Both
The team spent two weeks on round-the-clock shifts — over 150 hours of overtime in the first week alone — helping Milani learn to hold her own head up, and eventually, to stand. LynnLee's description of that process (all the confidence, none of the coordination) had the whole room laughing through tears. As of this week, Milani is off oxygen and walking on her own.
🌍 Why Tanganyika Exists
LynnLee unpacked her philosophy on conservation — what she calls “the conservation funnel.” Awareness, interest, action. It's why Tanganyika leans so heavily into hands-on animal encounters: people protect what they've actually touched.
🐜 What's Next at Tanganyika
A brand-new baby giant anteater is now out on exhibit (gender still unknown), and Tanganyika's documentary Take Me to Mars — the story of Mars the pygmy hippo and the team behind him — premieres in person on August 19th before eventually heading to streaming.
📍 Find LynnLee & Tanganyika Wildlife Park
🥂 Before You Go
So THIS Happened is proudly sponsored by Vu Events and Backspace Media, Jen's own company.
And as always...
🦒 Milani is a fighter
🥂 Cheers to the whole team behind her
💖 And we'll see you next time
So THIS happened.
So THIS Happened is Wichita's podcast for real talk, local culture, and the occasional Taylor Swift spiral. Hosted by Jen Cole and Rachel Chappelle. New episodes drop weekly — find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
