There's a push to remove the moratorium in Minnesota against developing nuclear power as s ource of energy. We are hearing claims that it is a renewable energy source, and that it doesn't produce carbon emissions. When this podcast was actually being recorded (there was snow on the ground,) the Minnesota Legislature was in session. So, yes, that's a while ago. But this is still relevant, and will be for the future. There's no guest on this show, because I am interviewing Greg Laden, who is the co-host and has been working on the issue so he has some expertise.
Our guest for this episode is Dr. Karen Stollznow, a linguist, an
author, and she shares podcast hosting duties on Monster Talk with
Blake Smith. She's published a new book, focusing on a single
word, Bitch. Bitch is a highly contextual word, controversial in
that sometimes it's cool and other times Very Uncool. In Bitch:
Journey of a Word , Karen examines the etymology of the word and
its various meanings along with the social context of how we use it
to demean or elevate the person we're referring to. When you read
it, just remember not to dog-ear the pages, that would make you a low
down son of a bitch. Use bookmarks, always.
Marlene Zuk presenting a TED Talk.[/caption]
For this episode, Greg and Mike Zoomed with Marlene Zuk to ask her some pointed questions about her book Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet, and How We Live.
We didn't ask what she had for breakfast, nor what she suggests that we have for breakfast, because that isn't the point of the book. Zuk wrote about the complexity of evolutionary development and that it's not necessarily so that modern people can look to the past to build our menus, our patterns of relationships, nor what we do for exercise. We don't need to be stuck in the past, since evolution doesn't teach that we should. Evolution doesn't stop, so why should we?
As usual, the conversation touched on concepts that both Greg and Marlene developed during their field research. Even the Bing Chat AI made a contribution. Not a great one, but then it's just a bot.
Marlene will return to give us inside baseball on her most recent book Dancing Cockatoos and the Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man's Test: How Behavior Evolves and Why It Matters.
(Purchasing through these links helps fund the podcast, so, if you're going to buy a book, you know... especially if we turned you on to it.)
