In this archived edition of Forthright Radio from Oct. 21, 2015, we spoke with Professor Sven Beckert about his book, EMPIRE OF COTTON: A GLOBAL HISTORY, and the astounding role that cotton has had over the past 5 or 6 centuries, not just in the Southern United States, but around the entire globe.
In this edition of Forthright Radio, originally broadcast on May 1, 2013, intrepid journalist, David Quammen, discusses his book, SPILLOVER: ANIMAL INFECTIONS& THE NEXT HUMAN PANDEMIC, in which he tracks down the animal origins of such diseases we humans are now susceptible to, including viruses such as HIV-AIDS, SARS, EBOLA, HENDRA, MARBURG, and INFLUENZA, and bacteria such as LYME DISEASE and Q FEVER.
Among the questions he investigates are: Why do new diseases emerge when they do, where they do, as they do, and not elsewhere, other ways, at other times? Is it happening more now than in the past? And perhaps the biggest question: What sort of deadly bug, with what unforeseen origins and what inexorable impacts, will emerge next?
David Quammen is the author of four books of fiction, and seven acclaimed books of nonfiction, including THE RELUCTANT MR. DARWIN and THE SONG OF THE DODO. He served as the Wallace Stegner Chair of Western American Studies at Montana State University from 2007 – 2009. He is a contributing writer for National Geographic magazine. SPILLOVER: ANIMAL INFECTIONS AND THE NEXT HUMAN PANDEMIC is more than a page turner about how microbes cross from animal species into humans and evolve into infectious diseases, it is also a chronicle of the many far flung journeys David Quammen has taken to some of the most remote parts of the globe, to interview the scientists in the field, who search for the animal reservoirs from which they come.
Articles pertinent to this interview:
Infection of Wildlife Biologist Highlights Risks of Virus Hunting https://theintercept.com/2022/07/02/virus-infection-bat-biosafety/
As Covid recedes in US a new worry emerges: wildlife passing on the virus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/11/us-covid-wildlife-virus
This edition of Forthright Radio from November 11, 2012 came up in conversation (12-11-17), so we thought it might be of interest to our web listeners, as well.
As the nights grow longer, and the season approaches of long winter naps, it seems like a good time to discuss one of the inevitable aspects of life – sleep. And this seemingly simple topic is not so simple for more and more people in the modern world. And it really is quite mysterious. Neither doctors nor scientists can even tell us what sleep IS, much less what natural sleep might be. And then, there are the effects of capitalism on sleep.
To discuss these things and more, we have with us Matthew Wolf-Meyer, who was (then) a Professor of Anthropology, at UC Santa Cruz. Matthew Wolf-Meyer received his Ph.D. from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, specializing in medical anthropology, and the social study of science and technology. He holds previous degrees in Literature, Science Fiction Studies, and American Cultural Studies.
In January, 2016, he joined the faculty of the Anthropology Dept. at SUNY Binghamton. His work focuses on medicine, science and media in the United States to make sense of major modern-era shifts in the expert practices of science and medicine and popular representations of health. His book The Slumbering Masses: Sleep, Medicine and Modern American Life, published by The University of Minnesota Press, was the first book-length social scientific study of sleep in the United States and won the New Millennium book prize in 2013. It offers insights into the complex lived realities of disorderly sleepers, the long history of sleep science, and the global impacts of the exportation of American sleep.
Professor Robert Proctor specializes in 20th century science, technology, and medicine, especially the history of controversy in those fields, and projects on scientific rhetoric, the cultural production of ignorance (agnotology), and the history of expert witnessing. He also does work on human origins–including changing notions of the oldest tools, art and fire; changing body imagery, the history of molecular anthropology, changing archaeological techniques and images of “humaness,” etc. the history of global creationism and of Evo Devo, catastrophic geology, global climate change and environmental policy.
Some of his earlier books include RACIAL HYGIENE: MEDICINE UNDER THE NAZIS; CANCER WARS: HOW POLITICS SHAPES WHAT WE KNOW AND DON’T KNOW ABOUT CANCER; and VALUE-FREE SCIENCE? PURITY AND POWER IN MODERN KNOWLEDGE. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was a senior scholar in residence at the U.S. Holocaust Research Institute.
This interview was originally broadcast on February 15, 2012.
Articles referred to or pertinent to this interview:
Big Tobacco is killing the planet with plastics. No smokescreen should be allowed to hide that https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/may/26/big-tobacco-is-killing-the-planet-with-plastics-no-smokescreen-should-hide-that-acc
Humans used tobacco 12,300 years ago, new discovery suggests https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58884119
Smoking linked to faster cognitive decline in men http://latimes.com/business/la-fi-tobacco-20120126,0,6096911.story
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