LinkedIn Presents.

I'm Rufus Griscombe, and this is the next big idea.

Today, the hidden story of the life we breathe. If you look out at the empty space in front of you, what do you see?

Nothing. The absence of stuff.

Early philosophers, including Aristotle and Plato, imagined a pure divine essence permeating all space, weaving silently through planets and stars. It wasn't until the 18th century that we began to discover

oxygen and other gases in the air, vital substances for life, combustion, and respiration.

By the late 19th and 20th centuries, aerobiology emerged, uncovering a new unseen world.

That empty space around us turns out to be teeming with invisible microbial life,

carrying pollen, spores, bacteria, and viruses, all inhaled into our bodies with every breath we take.

Thus, what began as a poetic, mystical belief, inhaled into our bodies with every breath we take.

Thus, what began as a poetic, mystical belief transformed through science into a profound truth.

Air is substance, alive and brimming with unseen wonders.

A discovery that's a testament to humanity's enduring curiosity and the universe's infinite depth.

My guest today, Carl Zimmer, has written a book about those unseen wonders.

It's called Airborne, the Hidden History of the Life We Breathe.

Carl is a columnist for the New York Times and the author of 14 other books about

science, including Life's Edge and She Has Her Mother's Laugh. He is also, I'm pretty sure,

the first guest we've ever had on the show who has an asteroid and a species of tapeworm

named after him. We covered a lot in our conversation, from the rogue

scientists who scaled glaciers to prove life exists in thin, frigid air, to the ongoing

war between humans and airborne pathogens, some of which are being created by humans.

We talk about indoor and outdoor pollution, air as a form of diet, and the benefits of

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