Tag Archives: science

Living on Earth: How Life Shapes Our Planet with Peter Godfrey-Smith

Episode Description:

In this episode, host Francesca Rheannon sits down with philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith to discuss his latest book, Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World.

Godfrey-Smith offers a fresh perspective on how life forms, from the simplest bacteria to complex animals, have actively shaped our planet. This episode dives deep into the evolutionary history of choice and how understanding our impact on the world can guide better decisions for the future.

Tune in to explore how organisms aren’t just products of evolution but key players in creating the environment we inhabit today.

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Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Key words: Peter Godfrey-Smith, philosophy, science, evolution, podcast, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show

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David Lipsky, THE PARROT AND THE IGLOO: Climate & The Science of Denial

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We spend the hour with David Lipsky talking about his new book, The Parrot and The Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial. It’s about the sordid history of climate denialism, its deep roots in the industry of tobacco denialism, and its pernicious impact on the public’s trust in science.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Key words: David Lipsky, climate change, global warming, science, climate denial, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, creative nonfiction, history, writer’s voice, Francesca Rheannon, Continue reading →

Podcast

Annalee Newitz, THE TERRAFORMERS & Doug Tallamy, NATURE’S BEST HOPE

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We talk with Annalee Newitz about their new sci-fi novel, The Terraformers. Taking place some 60,000 years in the future on a planet far, far away it pits a motley crew of designer sentient life forms, including neo-Neanderthals, talking moose, sentient trains, journalist cats and gender-diverse Homo sapiens, against the greedy corporation that wants to gentrify their planet.

We have to design our living spaces, the places where we play, the places where we farm, our corporate landscapes, our roadsides. All of these places have to be designed in ways that welcome nature rather than expel her. — Doug Tallamy

Then we talk with ecologist Doug Tallamy about the Young Reader’s Edition of his bestseller, Nature’s Best Hope. The book outlines his vision for a homegrown national park composed of millions of urban, suburban and exurban yards — a grassroots approach to conservation that everyone can take part in, regardless of age.

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Tags: sci-fi, Annalee Newitz, ecology, native plants, Doug Tallamy, pollinators, writers voice, podcast, book recommendations, author interview, book podcast, book show, book excerpt, science, science fiction, climate change
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Podcast

The Case For Climate Hope: Joelle Gergis, HUMANITY’S MOMENT

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I’ve been thinking about climate change lately in really simple terms: that it’s really about the people and the places we love. It isn’t actually any more complex than that. So, yes, we talk a lot about parts per million and all these degrees of warming and all these complex things. And they are indeed metrics that scientists use to talk about climate change. But if you just strip it all the way back, it is really about protecting those places that we love and the beautiful planet that we live on as well. — Joelle Gergis

We spend the hour with IPCC climate scientist Joelle Gergis, talking about her powerful and moving book, Humanity’s Moment: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope.

It’s about how she grapples with the grief her scientific findings confront her with — but also the hope she feels as she witnesses how the tide is turning toward climate protection.

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Key terms: climate change, IPCC, JoÁ«lle Gergis, climate science, podcast

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The Five Senses of the Wildscape with Nancy Lawson & A Mystery about Pandora’s Box with Susan Stokes Chapman

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Spring is here and the birds are returning. But the roar of the leaf blowers is a big turn-off to our feathered friends:

Right now they’re starting to migrate back in from Central and South America and either coming through or stopping to stay and breed. And if they’re going to a spot where there’s this constant noise, well, why are they going to want to nest there?

We talk with Nancy Lawson about her book, Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, And Other Sensory Wonders Of Nature. It’s about the vibrant web of nature outside our back door—where animals and plants perceive and communicate using marvelous sensory abilities we are only beginning to understand.

Then, a novel links the Pandora myth to a young namesake in Jane Austen’s London — and a mystery that must be solved. Susan Stokes Chapman tells us about Pandora. Continue reading →

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The Wonders of Beavers: Leila Philip, BEAVER LAND plus Transgender Appreciation Day: Mimi LeMay, WHAT WE WILL BECOME

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Oh, those pesky beavers, Interfering with our property values! Right?

Wrong. We talk with Leila Philip about beavers, a keystone species that we need to protect as we face the challenges of climate chaos. Her book is Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America.

Then, we missed it last week: the Day of Transgender Visibility. But with all the vicious rightwing attacks on transgender people and the fascist laws being passed against them, we thought “better late than never.”

So, we bring you a piece from our archives that we first aired in 2019. It’s an excerpt from our interview with Mimi LeMay about her memoir What We Will Become. It’s about how her family learned to come to terms with the fact that their young child was transgender—and how they came to support him.

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Elsa Panciroli on mammal evolution, BEASTS BEFORE US & gardening author Maggie Stuckey, THE CONTAINER VICTORY GARDEN

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We talk with Elsa Panciroli about her book, BEASTS BEFORE US: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution. Delving into the fascinating and little-known history of mammal evolution, she provides a fascinating and uplifting look at the resilience of life on this planet, through the lens of how mammals came to be.

Then, motivated by the pandemic lockdown, many people renewed a gardening tradition that was all the rage during WWII, the Victory garden. We kick off the gardening season talking with gardening book author Maggie Stuckey about The Container Victory Garden: A Beginners Guide To Growing Your Own Groceries.

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Keywords: mammal evolution, paleontology, Elsa Panciroli, Beasts Before Us, University of Oxford, research fellow, science writers, container gardening, victory gardens, Maggie Stuckey, vegetable gardening

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Heinz Insu Fenkl, SKULL WATER & Stephanie Wear, EAT UGLY

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We talk with Korean American writer Heinz Insu Fenkl about his autobiographical novel Skull Water. It’s about his youth in Korea as the son of a Korean mother and German-American father, the trauma of war and the dizzying transformation of Korea from the old ways to modern life.

Then, jelly fish, bugs and garbage, oh my! We talk with marine scientist Dr. Stephanie Wear about the importance—and the joys — of “eating ugly.” She hosts the new documentary series Eating Ugly, on Discovery+.

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Danielle Clode, KOALA & Russell Banks, VOYAGER

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We remember Russell Banks, who passed away on January 7 at the age of 82. We last spoke with him in 2016, about his memoir Voyager, and re-air that interview today.

But first, we talk withÂ Danielle Clode, award-winning natural history writer, about her new book Koala: A Natural History and an Uncertain Future.

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Dr. Ann-Christine Duhaime, MINDING THE CLIMATE & Darr Reilly, The Carbon C.R.E.W. Project

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Why is it so hard to get the hair-on-fire action on climate we need to deal with the crisis? Could it have something to do with our brains? We talk with Dr. Ann-Christine Duhaime about her book, Minding The Climate: How Neuroscience Can Help Solve Our Environmental Crisis.

Then, we talk with one climate activist who’s putting Duhaime’s lessons on how to change minds about the crisis to work: Darr Reilly, co-founder of the Carbon Crew Project.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.

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Antonio Padilla, FANTASTIC NUMBERS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM & Poet Richard Wilbur (Encore)

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We talk with Antonio Padilla about his book, FANTASTIC NUMBERS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM: A Cosmic Quest From Zero To Infinity.

Then, from science to poetry: we replay our 2009 interview with the late US Poet Laureate, Richard Wilbur.

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Jackie Higgins, SENTIENT & Carl Safina, BECOMING WILD

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We talk with Jackie Higgins about her book, Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses.

Then we air our 2020 interview with Carl Safina about his book, Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace.

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Writer’s Voice: Frans de Waal, DIFFERENT & Richard Louv, OUR WILD CALLING

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We talk with world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal about his new book, Different: Gender Through The Eyes of a Primatologist.

Then we re-air our 2019 conversation with Richard Louv about his book Our Wild Calling. It’s about redefining the future of human-animal coexistence.

Writers Voice— in depth conversation with writers of all genres, on the air since 2004.
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Thor Hanson, HURRICANE LIZARDS AND PLASTIC SQUID & Beth Shapiro, LIFE AS WE MADE IT

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Today we have two fascinating interviews, both about how human beings are changing the other species with whom we share the planet.

Later in the show, we talk with evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro about how humans deliberately change species. Her book is Life As We Made It: How 50,000 Years Of Human Innovation Refined And Redefined Nature.

But first, Thor Hanson tells us about how many species are evolving to adapt to human-caused climate change. His book is Hurricane Lizards And Plastic Squid: The Fraught And Fascinating Biology Of Climate Change.

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Edith Widder, BELOW THE EDGE OF DARKNESS & Sy Montgomery, TAMED & UNTAMED

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We talk with deep sea explorer Edith Widder about Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir Of Exploring Light And Life In The Deep Sea.

Then, we revisit our 2017 interview with Sy Montgomery about the book she so-authored with Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, Tamed And Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind.

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