I dunno, but it seems kind of extreme, not to mention risky, to bio-engineer a mass mosquito die-off. So Steve Paulson tracked down the world’s greatest living entomologist to see what he has to say. E. O Wilson is sometimes called “the ant man” – that’s the insect he studied most – but he’s best known as the evolutionary biologist and a champion of biodiversity. He’s 86 years old now, and has just finished what is probably his last book – called “Half Earth”. It’s a passionate plea to save humanity by dedicating half the planet to nature. You’d assume that Wilson would be happy to let mosquitos live in that half… but that’s not what he told Steve.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
Elizabeth Little is a writer and editor who collects languages. She tells Jim Fleming about the perils of learning tonal languages.
Betsy Israel tells Jim Fleming our society has always been suspicious of unmarried women and talks about examples from Louisa Mat Alcott to Ally McBeal.
Caitlin Matthews is a Celtic scholar and storyteller. She talks with Anne Strainchamps about the various myths of a lost paradise and how we can find it within ourselves.
Francine Segan, author of "The Philosopher's Kitchen", tells us of the importance of bread to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
Eugene Mirman is an indie comic and the author of an outlandish self-help send-up called "The Will to Whatevs." He tells Jim Fleming that school was horrible for him and gave rise to his nerd humor.
"Independent People" by Halldór Laxness reviewed by author David Mitchell ("Cloud Atlas")
More than 100 million people have Twitter accounts. Every moment, across the globe, they are posting thousands of short digital messages; that’s a lot of data.
Maybe it can help us keep an eye out for cultural change?
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