Arthro-Pod: May 2020

Friday, May 15, 2020

Arthro-Pod EP 75: The Rise and Fall of DDT Part 2

Welcome back to Arthro-Pod! Today is part two of our deep dive into the history of DDT, a long and convoluted story that has lots of effects on us today. This portion of the story is about the long fall that DDT had, beginning with the publication of "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson and ending with the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. We talk about the way people viewed Rachel Carson and her work, what the problem is with believing in a "silver bullet", and how DDT may have helped politicize environmentalism.

Show notes
Learn more about Rachel Carson and her work at https://www.rachelcarson.org

This is also a good look at current perspectives on her and her work
https://slate.com/technology/2012/09/silent-spring-turns-50-biographer-william-souder-clears-up-myths-about-rachel-carson.html

If you enjoyed the show, the majority of the research for it came from David Kinkela's book "DDT and The American Century". It's highly recommended if you want to see more of the primary sources and the inspiration for a lot of our discussion.

https://uncpress.org/book/9781469609775/ddt-and-the-american-century/

Questions? Comments?

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This episode is freely available on archive.org and is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Beginning/ending theme: "There It Is" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Arthro-Pod Special Edition: What the heck is a "murder hornet"?

If you have been watching the news lately, you have undoubtedly heard the phrase "murder hornet" being thrown around. There’s a lot of fear-mongering and sensationalism out there. We’re all stressed out and anything nicknamed a “murder hornet” can’t be good.
The Arthro-Pod gang is here with a special podcast episode to tell you it will be okay and there is little/no chance of you being murdered by one of these hornets. If you have a life-threatening allergy to bees/wasp venom, and even if you don’t, be aware of your surroundings and avoid disturbing hives or nests. Even the cutest, most helpful honey bee will sting you of she thinks the colony is in danger.

We are including some helpful resources here from reliable sources if you are interested in learning more about the Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia. But please stop calling it the “murder hornet”. Entomologists do not and have never referred to them as such.
Bottom line: Chill don’t kill.