In the Weeds

Predators are a two-faced god for humans, according to Dan Flores, historian and author of Coyote America:  A Natural and Supernatural History . After all, we were once both predators and prey. With this episode, we continue to explore this complex relationship of humans and predators by looking to the song dogs of the prairie.   Coyotes inspired several Aztec dieties, served as the model for the...

In 1967, medieval historian Lynn White published a now-infamous paper that traces the current environmental crisis back to a Judeo-Christian worldview… essentially, he blames the creation story in Genesis, especially the part in which God gives humans the task of “ruling” over animals.  I wanted to take a closer look and knew the thing to do was to ask a rabbi. I got help from Rabbi Isaiah Rothste...

I’m having trouble letting go of wolves…I’m fascinated with the way we use these predators as models for who we are, as humans, and who we are, as animals.  So, before we move on to our next topic, I thought it would be fun to look at an example from popular culture.  My friend Alisa Hartz and I discuss the Twilight movies, based on the YA novels by Stephenie Meyer, in which Bella, a teenage girl...

Last time, we looked at Little Red Riding Hood and the “big, bad wolf” of the fairy-tale tradition. This time, we turn to actual wolves and their situation in North America today.  I interview Maggie Howell, the Director of The Wolf Conservation Center. We talk about why wolves are important to the ecosystem (and how the Northeast has suffered in their absence) and what is being done to protect en...

How did the wolf come to be “carnivore incarnate”? Why do we project our own beastliness onto wolves? With the help of Maria Tatar, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, and Aleksander Pluskowski, Associate Professor of Archeology at  the University of Reading, I deconstruct the figure of the fairy-tale wolf.

How do you shop for a good bottle of olive oil? What’s the difference between organic and conventional? 1 percent and .25% acidity? Learn this and much more from my conversation with Philip Asquith, Master Miller of Ojai Olive Oil - oh, and, my brother. We recorded this interview while exploring the olive grove and mill, on the edge of the Sespe Wilderness Area.

Environmentalists tell us that to save our species - and many others that depend on us - we need a change in our culture, not just our technology, but what exactly is culture? With the help of Michael Ziser, Associate Professor of English at UC Davis, and Caleb Scoville, a Ph. D. candidate in sociology at UC Berkeley, I explore the history and meanings of the word culture.  It turns out this histo...

I'm traveling, so I don't have time to produce a full episode this week, but I hope you'll enjoy this segment of my interview with Doug Tallamy that didn't make it into my first episode. In this part of our conversation, Tallamy talks about his recent research on the impact of coffee production on bird habitat and the new "Bird Friendly" label he's developed with...

Part 2 of my inquiry into the connections between wood and music and, by extension, trees and people.  I interview Judy Nelson, violist for the New York Philharmonic, who tells me stories of violas, old and new, teaches me what makes an instrument "speak" and gives me insight into the dynamic relationship between a musician and her fiddle. For pictures and more info see in-the-weeds.net.

In my quest to understand the relationship between trees and music, I seek out Brian Skarstad, an expert violin maker (he scoffs at the term "luthier") who makes violins by hand, employing many of the same techniques that violin makers have been using for hundreds of years. I talk to him about tonewood, how a violin is made and the myriad details that affect a violin’s sound and quality....

I talk with Marcia Bjornerud about her recent book, Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World . We discuss how to read rocks (“rocks are not nouns but verbs”), the “developmental novel” in which the Earth is the main character, and the geologist’s perspective on climate change. 

A companion to the first episode with Doug Tallamy, this episode features Carolyn Summers, landscape architect, adjunct professor at the Native Plant Center at Westchester Community College and author of Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East. She helps us understand how to put Doug Tallamy's call to "Bring Nature Home" into practice. For pictures of the plants we discuss...

Doug Tallamy, Professor of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, proposes a shift in our suburban gardening culture. To ensure the future of many species, including our own, Tallamy argues we must garden with more native plants to feed insects. For more information see in-the-weeds.net

Intro to the upcoming podcast In the Weeds with Nicole Asquith.