If you're trying to collect great science writing, how do you choose what's the best?

It wasn't like we were putting these stories in some 100 meter dash and timing them or something like that.

This was just representing what in

2023 people are doing.

It's Thursday, December 28th, but according to my notes, it's Science Friday.

I'm Charles Burgquist. The Sci-Fi Book Club reads some great books,

but this conversation gets a bit meta.

In a recent live stream,

experiences manager Diana Plasker spoke with people involved with the anthology

The Best American Science in Nature Writing in 2013.

They taught craft. What makes for great writing,

and how you strike the right balance between science detail

and keeping a reader engaged.

Here's Diana Plasker.

We are here to talk about our Sci-Fi Book Club monthly book pick,

which this month for December is The Best American Science and Nature

Writing 2023, which is edited by Carl Zimmer and Jamie Green.

I'm really excited to have both of the editors here today as well as two of the contributors

for that were featured in this essay collection.

Please, without further ado, welcome, we've got Carl Zimmer,

a columnist for the New York Times and the author of many science books,

including Life's Edge, the

...