E.O. Wilson, Richard Evans Schultes and Wade Davis: Pl(ants) of the Gods

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2022

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

E.O. Wilson was sometimes called "the father of biodiversity," sometimes "a modern-day Darwin," and sometimes simply "Ant Man." His recent death was an enormous loss to the world of biology and environmentalism. You'll hear him tell wonderful stories here, including one about how a childhood disability gave him a great advantage in his work. You'll also get to know two major figures in a related field: ethnobotany. Richard Schultes created the field with his groundbreaking studies in the Amazon, back in the 1940’s & 50’s. He studied the plants that the indigenous populations used for healing, in an effort to identify new molecules that could be used in modern medicine. Along the way, he discovered over 2,000 plants previously unknown to science. One of Schultes' proteges was Wade Davis, who furthered the work of ethnobotany, and today is a best-selling author of books about indigenous cultures around the world. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2022

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Alice.
0:02.0	I'm pretty sure we've never talked about hallucinogens on this podcast.
0:08.0	Well, everything in good time.
0:11.0	You know, it's very difficult to explain to someone who has never
0:14.4	taken a psychedelic but it is it generates a realm of wonder of insight, of perception that leaves one with little doubt that that is a real world
0:28.1	and what we wander around in this ordinary realm of consciousness is simply a crude facsimile.
0:34.0	So why aren't we all taking more hallucinogens?
0:37.0	I don't know. I think the world might be a better place if we did.
0:40.0	That's Wade Davis. He knows quite a bit about psychedelics or hallucinogens from his work as an anthropologist, an ethnobotonist, and a writer.
0:51.0	He has studied indigenous cultures around the world and the plants they use
0:56.6	for spiritual rituals and medicinal purposes. Wade Davis was a student and protege of Richard Evans
1:04.8	Schultes. They are both our guests today.
1:08.0	Richard Schultes was the founder of the entire field of ethnobotony. Back in the 1930s he began his hunt for plants that might
1:18.9	help scientists create new cures.
1:21.7	I'm hoping that from my work we may eventually find some chemicals
1:29.6	in these plants that can be used medicinally. But in the Amazon, for example, there are 80,000
1:40.2	species of plants to give you some measuring rod,
1:45.0	New England has 1900 only.
1:48.0	80,000 species,
1:50.0	if chemists are going to try to get material of 80,000 species and analyze them and then give
1:58.0	them to pharmacologists, this job will never be done.
2:03.0	What we should do is concentrate on those plants
	...

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