Episode 95: Dickson Despommier talks about 30 years of research into intracellular parasitism

STEM-Talk

Dawn Kernagis and Ken Ford

Natural Sciences, Health & Fitness, Nutrition, Alternative Health, Science

4.7 • 706 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2019

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our guest today is Dr. Dickson Despommier, a microbiologist and ecologist who is the emeritus professor of Public and Environmental Heath at Columbia University. Our conversation with Dick covered a variety of topics and ran so long that we divided his interview into two parts. Part one covers the nearly 30 years Dick spent conducting research on intracellular parasitism, especially Trichinella spiralis, one of the world’s largest intracellular parasites. Part two of our interview with Dick focuses on vertical farming. In 1999, Dick and his students came up with the idea of raising crops in tall buildings. When his book, “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21stCentury,” came out in 2010, there were no vertical farms in the world. Today, there are commercial vertical farms not only throughout the United States, but also in Korea, Japan, China, England, Scotland, The Netherlands, France, Russia, Dubai, Canada and a host of other countries. Dick is the author of five books, including “People, Parasites and Plowshares.” His most recent book, “Waist Deep in Water,” is a memoir of his life-long love of fly fishing, a topic we had so much fun discussing that we touch on it in part one and part two of our interview with Dick.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to STEM Talk.
0:01.2	Stem Talk.
0:01.4	Stem Talk.
0:03.3	Stem Talk.
0:03.7	Stem Talk, where we introduce you to fascinating people who passionately inhabit the scientific
0:11.2	and technical frontiers of our society.
0:14.2	Hello, I'm your host, Don Cornagus, and joining me to introduce today's podcast as a man
0:18.5	behind the curtain, Dr. Ken Ford, IHMC's director and chairman of the double secret selection committee.
0:23.8	Let's selects all the guests who appear on STEM Talk.
0:25.9	Hi, Dawn.
0:26.8	Great to be here today.
0:28.7	So our guest today is Dr. Dixon de Pommier, a microbiologist and ecologist who is the emeritus professor of public and environmental health at Columbia University.
0:38.3	Our interview with Dick was so fascinating and ran so long that we actually divided it into two episodes.
0:44.3	For nearly 30 years, he conducted research on intracellular parasitism and taught courses on parasitic diseases, medical ecology, and ecology.
0:53.3	In 1999, Dixon and his students came up with the idea of raising crops in tall buildings.
0:58.3	When his book, The Vertical Farm Feeding the World in the 21st Century, came out in 2010,
1:02.6	there were no vertical farms in the world.
1:04.5	And today, there are commercial vertical farms not only throughout the U.S.,
1:07.4	but also in Korea, Japan, China, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, France, Russia,
1:12.3	Dubai, Canada, and a host of other countries. Dick is the author of five books, including
1:17.4	People, Parasites and Plow Shares. His most recent book, Waste Deep in Water, is a memoir of his
1:23.9	lifelong love of fly fishing. But before we get to today's interview with Dick,
	...

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