Author Archives: forthrightradio

Julian Brave Noisecat

Julian Brave NoiseCat is an enrolled member of the Canim Lake Band Tsq’escen in British Columbia. He is a graduate of Columbia University, and received a Clarendon Scholarship to study global and imperial history at the University of Oxford. He was formerly the native issues fellow at The Huffington Post. He writes for The Guardian, The Nation, The Paris Review, CBC, Vice, Pacific Standard, Dissent, Jacobin, Fusion, Indian Country Today, Salon, High Country News, Canadian Geographic, Frontier Magazine, World Policy Journal as well as other publications.

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Julian Brave NoiseCat, a contributing editor of the newly unveiled Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada, points on a giant map at a launch event in Toronto, Wednesday August 29, 2018. The Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada includes a four volume print atlas, an online atlas, an app, and a giant floor map. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mark Blinch)

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To find out more about the Tribal Canoe Journey for the 50th anniversary of  Alcatraz : https://www.canoejourney2019.com/

Here are links to articles referenced in this interview:

How a River Was Granted Personhood  https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/587689/river-me/

His side of the story: Nathan Phillips wants to talk about Covington https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/04/nathan-phillips-his-story-hate-division-covington

‘This is my home’: growing anger in Canada over projects on indigenous lands https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/11/canada-pipeline-indigenous-trudeau-treaty

Trans Mountain pipeline halted after Canadian court overturns approval https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/30/trans-mountain-pipeline-latest-canada-court-overturns

The Polynesian Voyaging Society’s Hikianalia Journey to Californiahttps://bombmagazine.org/articles/the-polynesian-voyaging-societys-hikianalia-journey-to-california/

The Tribal Canoe Journey, an odyssey to reclaim tradition and territory   https://www.canadiangeographic.ca/article/tribal-canoe-journey-odyssey-reclaim-tradition-and-territory

After grisly murder, stop delaying passage of Savanna’s Act http://www.startribune.com/after-grisly-murder-stop-delaying-passage-of-savanna-s-act/503171711/

Missing and Murdered     http://www.frontier.is/missing-and-murdered/

Disruption Beyond Standing Rock    https://www.vanalen.org/stories/disruption-beyond-standing-rock/

Standing Rock inspired Ocasio-Cortez to run. That’s the power of protest https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/14/standing-rock-ocasio-cortez-protest-climate-activism

Native Americans Take Power    http://inthesetimes.com/features/native-american-voters-government-political-revolution.html

Indigenous Struggle Is Key to a Green New Deal       https://truthout.org/articles/indigenous-struggle-is-key-to-a-green-new-deal/

Dahr Jamail THE END OF ICE: Bearing Witness & Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption

We first had Dahr Jamail on Forthright Radio in March, 2005 with Mark Manning, to discuss what was going on with the U.S.’s Second Siege of Fallujah, Iraq. He courageously went there un-embedded and defied the military information blockade to report what had actually happened there. Since then he has been our guest five times over the years.

For the past few years, he has been focusing on Climate Disruption in various journals, including truthout.org, where he had been publishing monthly Climate Dispatches.

And now his book, THE END OF ICE: BEARING WITNESS AND FINDING MEANING IN THE PATH OF CLIMATE DISRUPTION has been published by The New Press. He goes to many places around the world and speaks with indigenous people and scientists on the front lines of what can only be described as an accelerating global disaster of human caused climate disruption, geological change and mass extinction. Unlike most other narratives of climate disruption, not only does he document the science, but he also addresses the emotional, psychological, philosophical and ethical dimensions.

I was struck by a simple observation he makes between the outlook of dominant settler colonialist cultures, which speak of rights, and of most indigenous cultures, which emphasize obligations. That lead to what one of your interviewees called “the con job of hope and hopelessness,” and what you say is “the necessity of unblocking grief.”

Thus, our interview began..

Articles pertinent to this Interview:

When the Ice Melts: The Catastrophe of Vanishing Glaciers (Dahr Jamail) https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jan/08/when-the-ice-melts-the-catastrophe-of-vanishing-glaciers

Huge ‘hot blob’ in Pacific Ocean killed nearly a million seabirds https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/16/hot-blob-ocean-seabirds-killed-new-zealand-north-america

Ocean temperatures hit record high as rate of heating accelerates https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/13/ocean-temperatures-hit-record-high-as-rate-of-heating-accelerates

Polar Vortex Clobbers Midwest With Record-Breaking Cold https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/polar-vortex-2019-midwest-northeast_us_5c504437e4b0d9f9be691b6e

Children’s climate rallies gain momentum in Europe https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46999381

The New Language of Climate Change https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/27/climate-change-politics-224295

We Are Destroying Our Life Support System https://truthout.org/articles/we-are-destroying-our-life-support-system/

This Could Be The Biggest Scandal Of The Climate Change Era https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-plan_us_5c41c704e4b0bfa693c2a90b

Legality of Drilling Permits Issued During Shutdown Challenged https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-24/senate-votes-on-ending-shutdown-threaten-a-return-to-deadlock

North American glaciers melting much faster than 10 years ago – study https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/18/north-america-glacier-melt-study-climate-change

Study: Yellowstone’s forests could become grasslands by mid-century https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/yellowstone_national_park/study-yellowstone-s-forests-could-become-grasslands-by-mid-century/article_501326d6-190d-5300-96be-84e82ab63bf4.html

Google, Facebook And Microsoft Sponsored A Conference That Promoted Climate Change Denial https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/google-facebook-microsoft-climate-denial_us_5c48dfcbe4b083c46d650d9f

Corporate America Is Getting Ready to Monetize Climate Change https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-22/muggy-disney-parks-downed-at-t-towers-firms-tally-climate-risk

Henry Giroux – Democracy in Exile

“It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.” from A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism

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In this edition of Forthright Radio, we welcome back Professor Henry Giroux, who holds the McMaster University’s Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department, and who is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. He is a prolific author and journalist. His books -more than 65 – include AMERICA AT WAR WITH ITSELF; DISPOSABLE FUTURES: VIOLENCE IN THE AGE OF SPECTACLE; HEARTS OF DARKNESS: TORTURING CHILDREN IN THE WAR ON TERROR; ZOMBIE POLITICS AND CULTURE IN THE AGE OF CASINO CAPITALISM, and THE VIOLENCE OF ORGANIZED FORGETTING.

Articles by Professor Giroux cited in this interview include:

A Democracy in Exile Fights Against Fascism        https://truthout.org/articles/a-democracy-in-exile-fights-against-fascism/

Trump’s Racist Language of Pollution Drives His Neoliberal Fascism https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-racist-language-of-pollution-drives-his-neoliberal-fascism/

Striking Teachers Beat Back Neoliberalism’s War on Public Schools https://truthout.org/articles/striking-teachers-beat-back-neoliberalism-s-war-on-public-schools/

Neoliberal Fascism and the Echoes of History            https://www.truthdig.com/articles/neoliberal-fascism-and-the-echoes-of-history/

Henry A. Giroux on Developing a Language of Liberation for Radical Transformation                 https://truthout.org/articles/henry-a-giroux-on-developing-a-language-of-liberation-for-radical-transformation/

Trump’s act of state terrorism against children                                     https://theconversation.com/trumps-act-of-state-terrorism-against-children-98612

Neoliberalism in the Age of Pedagogical Terrorism        https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/10/22/neoliberalism-in-the-age-of-pedagogical-fascism/

Killing Children in the Age of Disposability: The Parkland Shooting Was About More Than Gun Violence                   https://truthout.org/articles/killing-children-in-the-age-of-disposability-the-parkland-shooting-was-about-more-than-gun-violence/

Education as a Weapon of Struggle: Rethinking the Parkland Uprising in the Age of Mass Violence                     https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/26/education-as-a-weapon-of-struggle-rethinking-the-parkland-uprising-in-the-age-of-mass-violence/

Donald Trump’s fascist politics and the language of disappearance https://www.salon.com/2018/11/18/donald-trumps-fascist-politics-and-the-language-of-disappearance/

 

 

Lauren E. Oakes – In Search of the Canary Tree

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IN SEARCH OF THE CANARY TREE: THE STORY OF A SCIENTIST, A CYPRESS, AND A CHANGING WORLD, published by Basic Books, chronicles the six years Lauren E. Oakes, PhD, spent beginning in 2010, as a young Stanford University scientist, doing doctoral research in South East Alaska, studying the mysterious die-back of ancient yellow cedar trees. Hers was a multi-disciplinary approach. In addition to the grueling field work studying thousand of trees, and countless other plants in the changing forests, she also interviewed local folks, including native Tlingit weavers, timber operators, other scientists, and just regular folks who enjoy the forests for recreation. There were many surprises along the way, which she shares with us in this interview.

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Yellow cedar rejected for threatened species listing  https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/ap_news/us/yellow-cedar-rejected-for-threatened-species-listing/article_746560f2-a98d-58da-9058-4ab90e154225.html#tncms-source=infinity-scroll-summary-siderail-latest

Trump Denies Protection to Ancient Alaskan Cedar Trees Threatened by Climate Crisis, Logging       https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-denies-protection-ancient-alaskan-cedar-trees-threatened-climate-crisis-logging-2019-10-04/

 

Kirsten Swinth: Feminism’s Forgotten Fight

In her latest book, FEMINISM’S FORGOTTEN FIGHT: THE UNFINISHED STRUGGLE FOR WORK AND FAMILY, Fordham University Associate Professor of History, Kirsten Swinth, corrects many myths and misconceptions about Second Wave Feminism, demonstrating that it isn’t feminism that has betrayed women, but the society that failed to make the far-reaching changes for which feminists fought in the period 1963 to 1978.

feminism-s-forgotten-fightIt is published by Harvard University Press.

Her first book was

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Rebecca Traister – GOOD & MAD: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger

Given the unauthorized release of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center on May 2, 2022, we revisited this interview from October, 2018. Rebecca Traister joined us again to update us on the evolving situation, which can be heard at the end of the archived interview.

Rebecca Traister is writer at large for New York magazine, whose latest book is GOOD AND MAD: THE REVOLUTIONARY POWER OF WOMEN’S ANGER, published by Simon & Schuster. . Her earlier books include ALL THE SINGLE LADIES, and the award winning BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY. Her work has been published in The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post and the New York Observer among other publications.5bca1ba93b365.image.jpg

The New Kavanaugh Documentary Changes Nothing https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/01/new-kavanaugh-documentary-what-it-will-do.html

Anita Hill: Kavanaugh confirmation hearing ‘disservice to the American public’ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/10/anita-hill-brett-kavanaugh-confirmation-response

‘Vile hatred, hero worship’: Christine Blasey Ford faces an unsettling future https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/10/christine-blasey-ford-faces-unsettling-future

Black Women Have Never Had The Privilege Of Rage https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-angry-black-women_us_5bbf7652e4b040bb4e800249

With Kavanaugh Confirmation, GOP Commits Again To Patriarchy, Misogyny https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-party-brett-kavanaugh-patriarchy-misogyny_us_5bbaaf43e4b01470d05284ca

Kavanaugh once lobbied for judge now handling ethics complaints against him https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/22/brett-kavanaugh-supreme-court-tim-tymkovich-ethics-complaints

The Republican party is about to face the wrath of women https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/25/republican-party-face-wrath-women

Christine Blasey Ford’s Attorneys Reveal Statement From Corroborating Witness https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-attorneys-keith-koegler_us_5bb82805e4b0876eda9e3d85

Christine Blasey Ford’s Lawyers React To Brett Kavanaugh’s Expected Confirmation https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-reaction-kavanaugh-confirmation_us_5bb68963e4b0876eda9ca3ea

I Know Why Evangelical Women Support Brett Kavanaugh. I Was Raised To Do The Same. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-evangelical-women_us_5bb3a28de4b0ba8bb211985b

(1981) Audre Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism” http://www.blackpast.org/1981-audre-lorde-uses-anger-women-responding-racism

Finally, angry women are the solution and not a problem – but we still have far to go https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/24/angry-women-solution-nanette-metoo-emilie-pine

We Still Haven’t Learned from Anita Hill’s Testimoy https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/opinion/anita-hill-clarence-thomas-brett-kavanaugh-christine-ford.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Kavanaugh’s opening remarks are a master class in a common sexual abuser defense tactic https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/27/1799292/-Kavanaugh-s-opening-remarks-are-a-masterclass-in-a-common-sexual-abuser-defense-tactic?detail=emaildksc

Brett Kavanaugh’s Testimony Was A Spectacle Of Angry Male Bonding https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/brett-kavanaugh-testimony-angry-male-bonding_us_5bad9b54e4b09d41eba00a32

Here’s where Kavanaugh’s sworn testimony was misleading or wrong https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/09/28/heres-where-kavanaughs-sworn-testimony-was-misleading-or-wrong/?utm_term=.3675b54144b5

John M. Barry – The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

This was the very first edition of what would become Forthright Radio. It was originally broadcast in November, 2004.  We spoke with John M. Barry, author of the book, THE GREAT INFLUENZA: THE EPIC STORY OF THE DEADLIEST PLAGUE IN HISTORY. 100 years ago, in 1918, as a war weary world sought to bring those years of horror we call World War I to an end, another horror arose – a new, virulent and highly contagious strain of influenza, which within, a year spread rapidly around the world. We’ll never know the exact number of those killed, but it is estimated that a minimum of 50 million, and as many as 100 million died. At today’s population level, that would be between 150 million and 300 million dead worldwide. As we begin the annual flu season, our guest, John M. Barry, tells us what we know about this pandemic and warns of the possibility of such a global pandemic occurring again in our own time. But this is not just a history of a medical disease, his depiction of the politics of the war-time situation has disturbing foreshadowing of some of the same polarized dynamics with which we find ourselves grappling today, where truth is dismissed as an arbitrary term and “the force of an idea lies in it’s inspirational value. It matters very little whether it is true or false.” As Mark Twain put it so well, History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Although this interview was conducted in 2004, when George W. Bush was president, and we were 9 months into our invasion of Iraq, and the parallels to the Wilson administration are noted, some of those parallels seem even more pertinent today under the current administration.

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As Bird Flu Looms, the Lessons of Past Pandemics Take on New Urgency https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/opinion/coronavirus-disease-2019-health-care-pandemic.html

Skeletons of 1918 Flu Victims Reveal Clues About Who Was Likely to Die https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/health/1918-flu-skeletons.html

What We Can Learn From How the 1918 Pandemic Ended  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/opinion/covid-pandemic-end.html

Post-Covid America Isn’t Going to Be Anything Like the Roaring ’20s https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/roaring-2020s-coronavirus-flu-pandemic-john-m-barry-477016?utm_source=pocket-newtab

America’s response to coronavirus pandemic is ‘incomprehensibly incoherent,’ says historian who studied the 1918 flu https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/americas-response-to-coronavirus-pandemic-is-incomprehensibly-incoherent-says-historian-who-studied-the-1918-flu/2020/05/22/1906391a-7b53-11ea-b6ff-597f170df8f8_story.html

‘We take no risks at all’: a voice from the Spanish flu outbreak https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/22/we-take-no-risks-at-all-a-voice-from-the-spanish-flu-outbreak

Herd Immunity? Or ‘Mass Murder’? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/opinion/coronavirus-herd-immunity.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Dr. Johan Hultin Dies at 97; His Work Helped Isolate 1918 Flu Virus https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/27/health/dr-johan-hultin-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

Dean Baker

Dean Baker co-founded The Center for Economic and Policy Research in 1999. His areas of expertise include housing and macroeconomics, intellectual property, Social Security, Medicare and European labor markets. Before that, he worked as a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, and was an assistant professor at Bucknell University. He has also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, and the OECD’s Trade Union Advisory Council. He is frequently cited in economics reporting in major media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, and NPR. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian Unlimited (UK), the Huffington Post, TruthOut, and his blog, Beat the Press, features commentary on economic reporting.

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He is the author of several books, including Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer; Getting Back to Full Employment: A Better Bargain for Working People; The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive; and The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer. He was last our guest on Nov. 15, 2017.

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Publications mentioned in this edition of Forthright Radio include:

Frontline: The Warning   https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/warning/

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U.S. consumers to be hurt by tariffs by Doug Palmer  https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/18/consumers-tariffs-trump-china-795159

Lehman anniversary: The five most surprising consequences by Kim Gittleson   https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45478670

Ten years on from the financial crash, we need to get ready for another one by Robert Skidelsky      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/12/crash-2008-financial-crisis-austerity-inequality

Ten Years After The Financial Crisis, The Contagion Has Spread To Democracy Itself by Zach Carter  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/financial-crisis-10-years-later-ben-bernanke-hank-paulson-timothy-geithner_us_5b9d7dc8e4b04d32ebf92396

Four Reasons Why Los Angeles’s Upcoming Public Banking Ballot Initiative is a Huge Deal  by Pheonix Goodman  https://truthout.org/articles/why-los-angeles-upcoming-public-banking-ballot-initiative-is-a-huge-deal/

To Stop the Next Financial Crisis, We Need Public Ownership of Banks—Now  by Thomas Hanna  https://truthout.org/articles/to-stop-the-next-financial-crisis-we-need-public-ownership-of-banks-now/

Donald Trump’s currency confusion continues by Jeffrey Frankel https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/21/donald-trump-currency-confusion-continues

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Mary Beth Pfeiffer – LYME: THE FIRST EPIDEMIC OF CLIMATE CHANGE

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Our guest on this edition of Forthright Radio is award winning investigative journalist, Mary Beth Pfeiffer. Her latest book is LYME: THE FIRST EPIDEMIC OF CLIMATE CHANGE (Island Press, 2018). Over the years, we have interviewed numerous guests on different aspects of Lyme Disease. None of them has gone into such depth, nor been so global in scope, nor addressed so critically and effectively the issues of, not only Lyme Disease, but other tick-borne diseases, of which there are an ever expanding number recognized – but as importantly, investigating the politics and economics of the science and medical guidelines, which have defied logic, common sense, medical ethics or compassion. As you will hear, there are elements of a darker age – some say, An Inquisition, in the current state of governmental, university and medical research, funding and protocols.

Mary Beth Pfeiffer has been an award-winning investigative journalist for three decades, who has specialized in social justice, environmental and health issues. In addition to her latest book, LYME: THE FIRST EPIDEMIC OF CLIMATE CHANGE, she is also author of Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill, which is a critically acclaimed look at treatment of the mentally ill in prisons and jails in the United States.

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Borrelia burgdorferii’s corkscrew shape allows it to penetrate into heart muscle and to cross the blood-brain barrier, as well as other organs. Lyme carditis can be deadly, as are deaths by suicide of some Lyme sufferers.  And like that other “Great Imitator” spirochete, Syphilis, it can cross the placenta to infect the fetus, causing miscarriage and congenital health problems.

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Ixodes scapularis, the host of the Lyme spirochete, thrives in modern human altered environments and the warming, more humid weather patterns of climate change.lyme-disease-symptoms.png

Tick-borne diseases are on the rise in many parts of the world.

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Long lived for an arachnid, ticks need only  feed once during each of their life cycles, which may span 3 years. The Lyme spirochete actually increases the fertility, viability and longevity of the ticks. At least one tick species can reproduce without fertilization from males.

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Although the “bulls eye” rash, erythema migrans, is the only definitive symptom considered diagnostic for Lyme Disease, according to a CDC study of 150,000 cases, it appeared in only 69.2% of patients. What about the other 30%?

10 points about suing the architects of Lyme policy—as a task force meets to review it              https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10-points-about-suing-the-architects-of-lyme-policy_us_5a2764bbe4b0650db4d40bb5

Lyme bug stronger than antibiotics in animals and test tubes. Now study people. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lyme-bug-beats-antibiotics-in-animals-and-test-tubes_us_59fa4fdbe4b09afdf01c4023

David Quammen- The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life

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I am delighted to welcome back to Forthright Radio, award winning author, journalist, David Quammen. He was our guest 5 years ago after his book, SPILLOVER: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic was published. His latest book, THE TANGLED TREE: A RADICAL NEW HISTORY OF LIFE, published by Simon & Schuster came out a couple of weeks ago. And lest you think this book, being about science – the research and theorizing –  isn’t something you’d be interested in – let me tell you, this recent research reveals just how bacteria become resistant to our most potent antibiotics so quickly and fatally to so many, or how Horizontal Gene Transfer not only allowed for evolution, but may explain how certain cancers develop – as well as questioning our most basic concepts of ourselves as a species and individuals. And this puts a new meaning on “Tree Huggers” and “Tree Cutters”.

David Quammen has won many awards for his books and magazine articles, including from the National Association of Science Writers, and the Society of Biology (UK) Book Award in General Biology. His work with National Geographic is particularly noteworthy, and has taken him on myriad, lengthy difficult treks, which distinguish him from most authors, such as chronicling J. Michael Fay’s 2,000 mile survey hike through the forests of Central Africa, The Megatransect.

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Charles Darwin speculated on the evolution of life as a tree, with “I think” written on top.

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A popular 20th century version based on Darwin’s idea of a tree of evolution. At least this one, doesn’t place humans explicitly above other species.

In the 20th century there has been  a tumultuous debate as to how best to characterize the concept of evolution. Is it a tree? Is it a web? Is it a net? A mosaic?

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In David Quammen’s book, Carl Woese’s work was crucial to the debate, pioneering molecular phylogenetics, using (at the time) dangerous, innovative techniques to study RNA as a basis to determine species and evolution.

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After demonstrating that there was a third “kingdom”, the Archaea,  different from Bacteria, Carl Woese proposed a new Tree of Life pictured above.d997044659f3d0b0579a70728d1553e7.jpgLynnMargulis, married Carl Sagan when she was 19. After bearing 2 sons with him, she moved on. She took her second husband’s name, Margulis while making her revolutionary mark on biology. After juggling the three jobs of scientist, mother and wife, she decided to forego that last job, wife.
Her work synthesized earlier ideas, which she coined, endosymbiosis, that organelles, crucial to more complex life forms – including humans – were based on “infective heredity” by bacteria, that established essential organelles such as mitochondria, chloroplasts and centrioles.

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