I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear and Vivid, conversations about connecting and communicating.

There's something like between twice and ten times as many bacterial cells in us as

there are human cells in us.

So they are us and we are them.

If you take all the bacteria together, they have a hundred to a thousand fold different

kinds of abilities to do things, then we ourselves do.

That's Dr. Joe Handelman, who studies microbes at the University of Wisconsin.

Not only the vast array of microbes that live in us and on us, but also the even greater

number that lurk in the soil beneath our feet.

I talked with Joe about why both the microbes within and below us are so important to our

survival.

But we began our conversation which took place last fall talking about the weather, which

these days often leads to talk that's far from small.

Joe, I'm so glad to be talking to you today.

I'm especially glad because you're in Wisconsin and I'm in New York and you had a drive through

a snow storm to get to the studio.

What's happening there?

I wish I knew what was happening.

We have had two snow storms already in Madison, Wisconsin and it's only on tober.

This isn't even Thanksgiving yet.

No, this is Halloween.

And we still have beautiful orange and red and green leaves on trees and we have snow sticking

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