The Fungi Factor – Nicholas P. Money, Professor, Western Program, Department of Biology, Miami University – Fungi and the Future of the Earth
Finding Genius Podcast
Richard Jacobs
4.4 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2020
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nicholas P. Money, professor and director, Western Program, Department of Biology, Miami University, Ohio, discusses mycology and microbes.
Podcast Points:
- What important information can we learn by observing fungi?
- The important points about climate change
- How does overpopulation impact the environment?
Money, an expert in mycology, is the prolific author of multiple books and articles that detail the microbial world. Money's latest book titled, The Selfish Ape: Human Nature and Our Path to Extinction, has created a buzz in the scientific community. In the book, he set out to counter many of the dominant narratives that exist in regard to homo sapiens. Money talks about the damaging effects humans have upon the environment as well as our negative impact on various species.
Money discusses carbon footprints, and he talks about his reasons for penning The Selfish Ape. Humans need to treat species more sensitively, and that's the bottom line. Money outlines many of the actions that have taken place in our time, and historically, that have impacted the environment overall. He discusses population growth, and comments on how little we hear about it when leaders talk of climate change.
Continuing, Money explains how fungi relate to our existence as humans. He discusses his career spanning more than 30 years, studying fungal reproduction. Money explains how fungi are different, and how they move, and he talks about the various qualities they have that typically do not exist in other places in the natural world. We can learn a lot about our own problems, as humans, by looking at, and studying, how fungi have solved theirs.
Transcript
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| 0:32.1 | podcast that Richard Jacobs. |
| 0:34.0 | Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Future Tech and Finding Genius |
| 0:41.8 | podcast series. I've interviewed over 2,000 experts in their fields. My goal here is to find the geniuses in their relative fields and bring them to youth listeners. |
| 0:51.0 | So today I have Professor Nicholas P. Money, he's the author of |
| 0:55.2 | multiple books. A lot of them on fungi or fungal biology. His new is one is called |
| 1:01.6 | The Selfish Aape. And he's a professor at Miami University, |
| 1:05.3 | ahead of what's called the Western program. |
| 1:08.2 | So again, today we're going to focus, even though Nick has the extensive background, |
| 1:11.9 | we're going to focus more on his most recent book that just came out the selfish shape so Nick thanks for coming how you doing |
| 1:17.8 | Hey, I'm doing well good to have the opportunity to talk with you. Yeah the title is reminiscent of Dawkins the selfish gene but you know that's my |
| 1:28.0 | assumption what's what's the premise of your new book I suppose that well the premise of |
| 1:32.1 | the new book is to counter some of the |
| 1:36.1 | dominant narratives about Homo sapiens those that seek to elevate us above the rest of nature. |
| 1:44.4 | We think about Stephen Pinkers, |
| 1:47.5 | the better angels of our nature that was published |
... |
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