Is it time to rethink what plants are capable of?

I think we're all kind of culturally coming around to this idea that intelligence might exist in things that are brainless.

It's Tuesday, June 4th, and you're listening to Science Friday.

I'm sci-fi producer Shoshana Bucksbaum.

Are plants intelligent?

Maybe that's not a question you ever thought to ask, and until recently, even botanists

were hesitant to ask the question, publicly that is.

But that's changing.

In recent years, scientists have identified how plants communicate with each other,

respond to touch, store memories, and deceive animals for their own benefit. All bits of evidence

that suggests that plants possess a unique form of intelligence that we've so far been overlooking.

Here's guest host Ariel Doom Ross with more.

Joining me now is Zoe Schlanger, author of the new book, The Light Eaters,

how the unseen world of plant intelligence offers a new understanding of life on earth.

She's also a climate reporter for The Atlantic, based in Brooklyn, New York.

Zoe, I loved your book. Welcome to Science Friday.

I'm so glad to hear that. So great to be here. Yeah, thanks for being here. So it's not often that I read a popular science book and I am genuinely having my mind blown throughout.

How did this book happen? What compelled you to write this?

Yeah, I was compelled to write this because of how

mind-blowing these findings were to me as well. I'm a climate reporter and I've been covering

climate change for something like seven years and I was starting to get really burnt out. I'm sure

you could relate to this. Climate news is a drag. And I was feeling really numb to the material,

...