464-How Flowers Made Our World

Joe Lamp'l· Host0:00

Hi, everybody. I'm Joe Lamp'l, the Joe behind Joe Gardener, and welcome to The Joe Gardener Show. What if the flowers around us aren't just beautiful? What if they actually made the world we live in? That's the question at the heart of our conversation today, and there's nobody better to explore it with than my guest, David George Haskell. David is a biologist and writer whose work lives in the intersection of science, poetry, and deep attention to the natural world. He earned his degree in zoology from Oxford and his PhD in evolutionary biology from Cornell, and he's a Guggenheim Fellow and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London. He's also the author of several acclaimed books, and when I say acclaimed, I mean twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times once wrote that he thinks like a biologist, writes like a poet, and gives the natural world the kind of open-minded attention one expects from a Zen monk. His newest book is How Flowers Made Our World, and it's a mind-expanding conversation. So let's get into it, and as we do, thanks to Soil Cubed and the Ultimate Gardening Sheath. You probably know by now, having access to high-quality compost is my not-so-secret weapon for the success of everything I grow in my garden, and that's why I'm so proud to be partnering with Soil Cubed. If you live in their delivery zones within Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, most of Alabama, and for some of my Texas listeners, Soil Cubed