The Most Delicious Poison with Noah Whiteman

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Indre welcomes evolutionary biologist and UC Berkeley professor, Noah Whiteman unto the Inquiring Minds Show to delve into the world of nature’s toxins and Whiteman’s new book. "Most Delicious Poison: The Story of Nature's Toxins from Spices to Vices.” explores the adaptations that have enabled various organisms to not only survive but thrive in environments laden with toxic substances, such as the monarch butterfly's resistance to milkweed toxins, and the broader and intricate relationships between plants and animals, focusing on how certain organisms have evolved to resist or utilize toxins for survival.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You and Betty and the nancy's and bills and Joes and James will find in the study of science
0:06.4	a richer, more rewarding life.
0:09.9	Hey, welcome to inquiring minds.
0:11.9	I'm Indrae Viscontas.
0:13.0	This is a podcast that explores the space where science and society collide.
0:17.9	We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it matters.
0:27.1	A few months ago, I was at a dinner party, and I had the good fortune of sitting next to an evolutionary
0:36.1	biologist who could comment on the
0:38.9	molecular chemistry of the food we were consuming. And you can imagine all the ways in which this
0:45.6	could have gone wrong. But in Noah Whiteman's case, he managed to entertain while educating,
0:51.9	and we played the fun game of Guess the Spice, which he won
0:55.6	handily and then could also tell us how that particular spice evolved. So I had to share his
1:01.7	expertise with you, my listeners, and fellow nerds at Inquiring Minds. Noah Whiteman is
1:07.8	professor of integrative biology and of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley.
1:13.1	He's a Guggenheim fellow. And we're going to talk about his book, Most Delicious Poison,
1:18.2	The Story of Nature's Toxins from Spices to Vices.
1:22.6	Noah, welcome to inquiring minds.
1:24.6	Indre, thank you so much. It's great to be here.
1:27.7	And I loved your description of the dinner.
1:29.8	I had similar memories.
1:33.1	Yeah, it was among the nerdier events that we had over the winter time, but also super fun.
1:38.8	Or I guess, you know, I shouldn't say also.
	...

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