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Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you'll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexpected subject somehow changed the world. Potatoes, kudzu, soccer, coffee, Iceland, bees, oak trees, sand, chickens—there are books about all of them, and many more besides, with the phrase “changed the world” or something similarly grandiose right there in the title. These books are sometimes called “microhistories” or “thing biographies” and they've been a trope in publishing for decades. In this episode, we establish where this trend came from, figure out why it's been so persistent, and then we put a bunch of authors on the spot, asking them to make the case for why their subjects changed the world. The writers you'll hear from include: Simon Garfield (Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World) Mark Kurlansky (Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World) George Gibson, publisher of Cod and Dava Sobel's Longitude Historian Bronwen Everill Slate writer Henry Grabar (Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World) Gastropod co-host Nicola Twilley (Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves) Tim Queeney (Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization) Leila Philip (Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America). This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Evan Chung, Decoder Ring's supervising producer. Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman also produce our show. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Thank you to Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America; Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World; Tina Lupton; Dan Kois; and Nancy Miller. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you'll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexpected subject somehow changed the world. Potatoes, kudzu, soccer, coffee, Iceland, bees, oak trees, sand, chickens—there are books about all of them, and many more besides, with the phrase “changed the world” or something similarly grandiose right there in the title. These books are sometimes called “microhistories” or “thing biographies” and they've been a trope in publishing for decades. In this episode, we establish where this trend came from, figure out why it's been so persistent, and then we put a bunch of authors on the spot, asking them to make the case for why their subjects changed the world. The writers you'll hear from include: Simon Garfield (Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World) Mark Kurlansky (Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World) George Gibson, publisher of Cod and Dava Sobel's Longitude Historian Bronwen Everill Slate writer Henry Grabar (Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World) Gastropod co-host Nicola Twilley (Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves) Tim Queeney (Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization) Leila Philip (Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America). This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Evan Chung, Decoder Ring's supervising producer. Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman also produce our show. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Thank you to Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America; Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World; Tina Lupton; Dan Kois; and Nancy Miller. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you'll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexpected subject somehow changed the world. Potatoes, kudzu, soccer, coffee, Iceland, bees, oak trees, sand, chickens—there are books about all of them, and many more besides, with the phrase “changed the world” or something similarly grandiose right there in the title. These books are sometimes called “microhistories” or “thing biographies” and they've been a trope in publishing for decades. In this episode, we establish where this trend came from, figure out why it's been so persistent, and then we put a bunch of authors on the spot, asking them to make the case for why their subjects changed the world. The writers you'll hear from include: Simon Garfield (Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World) Mark Kurlansky (Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World) George Gibson, publisher of Cod and Dava Sobel's Longitude Historian Bronwen Everill Slate writer Henry Grabar (Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World) Gastropod co-host Nicola Twilley (Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves) Tim Queeney (Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization) Leila Philip (Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America). This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Evan Chung, Decoder Ring's supervising producer. Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman also produce our show. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Thank you to Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America; Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World; Tina Lupton; Dan Kois; and Nancy Miller. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you'll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexpected subject somehow changed the world. Potatoes, kudzu, soccer, coffee, Iceland, bees, oak trees, sand, chickens—there are books about all of them, and many more besides, with the phrase “changed the world” or something similarly grandiose right there in the title. These books are sometimes called “microhistories” or “thing biographies” and they've been a trope in publishing for decades. In this episode, we establish where this trend came from, figure out why it's been so persistent, and then we put a bunch of authors on the spot, asking them to make the case for why their subjects changed the world. The writers you'll hear from include: Simon Garfield (Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World) Mark Kurlansky (Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World) George Gibson, publisher of Cod and Dava Sobel's Longitude Historian Bronwen Everill Slate writer Henry Grabar (Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World) Gastropod co-host Nicola Twilley (Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves) Tim Queeney (Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization) Leila Philip (Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America). This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Evan Chung, Decoder Ring's supervising producer. Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman also produce our show. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Thank you to Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America; Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World; Tina Lupton; Dan Kois; and Nancy Miller. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Look in the nonfiction section of any bookstore and you'll find dozens of history books making the same bold claim: that their narrow, unexpected subject somehow changed the world. Potatoes, kudzu, soccer, coffee, Iceland, bees, oak trees, sand, chickens—there are books about all of them, and many more besides, with the phrase “changed the world” or something similarly grandiose right there in the title. These books are sometimes called “microhistories” or “thing biographies” and they've been a trope in publishing for decades. In this episode, we establish where this trend came from, figure out why it's been so persistent, and then we put a bunch of authors on the spot, asking them to make the case for why their subjects changed the world. The writers you'll hear from include: Simon Garfield (Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World) Mark Kurlansky (Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World) George Gibson, publisher of Cod and Dava Sobel's Longitude Historian Bronwen Everill Slate writer Henry Grabar (Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World) Gastropod co-host Nicola Twilley (Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves) Tim Queeney (Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization) Leila Philip (Beaver Land: How One Weird Rodent Made America). This episode was written by Willa Paskin and produced by Evan Chung, Decoder Ring's supervising producer. Katie Shepherd and Max Freedman also produce our show. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. Thank you to Joshua Specht, author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America; Dan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World; Tina Lupton; Dan Kois; and Nancy Miller. If you have any cultural mysteries you want us to decode, please email us at DecoderRing@slate.com, or leave a message on our hotline at 347-460-7281. Want more Decoder Ring? Subscribe to Slate Plus to unlock exclusive bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of the Decoder Ring show page. Or, visit slate.com/decoderplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The banana is an interesting case study. It is the world's most popular fruit, yet it could very soon go missing from our store shelves due to a disease we've seen once before—leaving a large nutritional and economic hole in our society. The banana helps tell the story of how biotech is a key tool in strengthening our food systems to make our favorite foods more resilient, more sustainable, and more accessible. Featuring interviews with:Anna Rath, President & CEO and Director of VestaronDan Koeppel, author of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the WorldBetsy Booren, SVP of Regulatory and Technical Affairs at the Consumer Brands AssociationTom Vilsack, Secretary of United States Department of Agriculture
B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Have you ever wondered why there's only one variety of banana but a dozen or more varieties of apples at your grocery store? How about why bananas, grown across oceans, are half the price of locally grown apples? To get these answers, and to learn more about the most fascinating fruit in the supermarket, I'm joined by Dan Koeppel in this episode. Dan is the author of the book, Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. Tune in to learn… -How a seedless fruit continues to reproduce, -Why your grandpa's banana was different than your banana, -How & where you can try different varieties of bananas, -If the apple consumed by Eve in the Garden of Eden was actually a banana, -If bananas will still exist as we know them in the future, -& so much more! Grab a copy of Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World... On Indiebound at https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780452290082 On Amazon at https://amzn.to/32kidPx (affiliate link) -------------------------------- If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. For more episodes visit https://www.curiosityness.com/ Connect with Curiosityness... YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/curiosityness Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curiositynesspodcast/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Curiositynesstv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curiosityness Get your FREE Curiosityness sticker at https://www.curiosityness.com/freesticker/ Find Travis, the host of Curiosityness, on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travderose/ Or send him an email to travis@curiosityness.com
Anthony Basil Rodriguez is a New York-born independent photographer and filmmaker. Since childhood he has been oriented toward a range of visual worlds. As a teenager, Anthony began to carry around an old film camera that his younger brother had lying around from a school project. Eventually taking his hobby more seriously, Anthony obtained a job pushing carts in order to buy his first digital camera. One day after a thunderstorm he was discovered by a local news station knee-deep in floodwaters collecting photos of the aftermath. He spent the following three years submerged in live television, editing daily newscasts. During this time, he honed and developed a true eye and skill for editing, videography and ultimately storytelling. Since leaving the news industry Anthony has continued to push his craft, interlacing realms of photography, video and film. This work continues to bring Anthony around the world in pursuit of research and documentation of rare plants, disparate peoples and the flux of global society. One of his current projects, Growing Back to Nature, really caught my attention as it features foragers, citizen mycologists and seekers who are trying to carve out a future path based around a more holistic connection with our planet and what it is live more in tune with natural systems. TOPICS COVERED: Anthony Discovers a Talent for Visual Media Breaking into Television News Production Childhood Passion for Plants Ethnobotanical Adventures Bananas – The Fruit that Changed the World Worldwide Cultural Influence of the Banana The Jamaican Banana King How Traveling Extensively Changes Us “Growing Back to Nature” Docuseries Influence of William Padilla-Brown Wasteland Rebel and Zero Waste Lifestyle Changes in the Art & Craft of Film in the Social Media Age Power of Storytelling to Shape Society Getting Our Sh** Together Could be Fun EPISODE RESOURCES: Anthony Rodriguez Website: https://anthonybrodriguez.com/ Anthony Rodriguez IG: https://www.instagram.com/revofthought/ Growing Back to Nature Website: https://growingbacktonature.com/ Growing Back to Nature IG: https://www.instagram.com/growingbacktonature/ "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Banana-Fate-Fruit-Changed-World/dp/0452290082 "Conquest of the Tropics" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Tropics-Creative-Enterprises-Conducted/dp/0342184768 "When the Banana was King" (Book): https://www.amazon.com/When-Banana-Was-King-Jamaican/dp/9768202238 William Padilla-Brown Website: https://www.mycosymbiotics.net/ Reishi (Mushroom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingzhi_(mushroom)
In this episode, Biologists Being Basic (B3) hosts Joe, Kelsey and Robyn are joined by our friend Sean to discuss Fusarium wilt, a fungus that threatens bananas as we know them. Listen as we explore the history of this pathogen and its relationship with the yellow tropical fruit that US residents love to eat. Further Resources: If you want to learn more about bananas and their history, check out Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World, by Dan Koeppel (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/299017/banana-by-dan-koeppel/). For more technical peer-reviewed articles on TR4 resistant Cavendish strains, we recommend the following: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01670-6 and https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005197 For news articles that covered the primary research, check out: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/devastating-banana-disease-may-have-reached-latin-america-could-drive-global-prices https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/gm-banana-shows-promise-against-deadly-fungus-strain https://www.wired.com/story/fungus-could-wipe-out-banana-forever/ https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/16/751499719/devastating-banana-fungus-arrives-in-colombia-threatening-the-fruits-future https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49331286 If you have any questions or comments you can email us at biologistsbeingbasic@gmail.com or find us on twitter or instagram (@biosbeingbasic).
It was on this day in 1876 that the U.S. first fell in love with the banana, when it was introduced at the World's Fair in Philadelphia. Though, back then, eating a banana was quite a bit different than it is today. Plus: on National Doughnut Day, we mark the moment in 2012 when festival-goers in Ukraine proved doughnuts were as good for art as they were for snack time. Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World by Dan Koeppel 10 Things You Might Not Know About the 1876 Centennial Exhibition (Philadelphia Magazine) A Look at the Guinness World Records of Doughnuts In Celebration of National Doughnut Day (Newsweek) Treat yourself to the good life, as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/coolweirdawesome/message
I guess you could say that this is a book that has… appeal. Host Jason Snell.
“Time after time I’ve done an analysis of a company, and I’ve figured out a leverage point — in inventory policy, maybe, or in the relationship between salesforce and productive force, or in personnel policy. Then I’ve gone to the company and discovered that there’s already a lot of attention to that point. Everyone is trying very hard to push it in the wrong direction!” In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and I discuss Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System by Donella Meadows. In this article, Meadows goes through her twelve “leverage points” in which you can affect change in your company or any complex system, from least to most effective. “Magical leverage points are not easily accessible, even if we know where they are and which direction to push on them. There are no cheap tickets to mastery. You have to work hard at it, whether that means rigorously analyzing a system or rigorously casting off your own paradigms and throwing yourself into the humility of Not Knowing. In the end, it seems that mastery has less to do with pushing leverage points than it does with strategically, profoundly, madly letting go.” We cover a wide range of topics, including: All of Meadow’s 12 Leverage Points Positive and negative feedback loops The NRA and gun control How individuals can change the system in small and big ways Brexit and the Eurozone The paradigms that shape our thinking And much more. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our episode on The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt for its meta-theory of business, and our episode on Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse, about how employers and employees can create, change, and play in systems. Be sure to join our mailing list to find out about what books are coming up, giveaways we're running, special events, and more. Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show: The Titanic [10:43] Paleolithic diet [12:40] Ketogenic diet [12:40] The Bike-Shed Effect [14:17] Evernote [23:20] Rule of 3 and 10 [23:19] American Eagle [25:15] Zara [25:35] Cryptocurrency [30:15] Apple Inc. [35:00] The Big Mike – Banana Species [39:00] Slippery Slope Argument [41:47] Veil of Ignorance [42:00] The Selfish Gene Hypothesis [47:25] Intuit [54:00] 9-9-9 Plan [54:20] TurboTax [55:40] QuickBooks [55:40] The Florida Shooting [01:05:15] National Rifle Association — NRA [01:05:20] Net Neutrality [01:05:30] The Riddle of the Gun by Sam Harris [01:09:15] Game Theory [01:09:55] The Daily Wire [01:14:13] The Ben Shapiro Show – Podcast [1:14:13] Justworks [01:24:00] MomTrusted.com [01:24:47] AirBnB [01:35:50] Uber [01:35:50] Scott Galloway Says Amazon, Apple, Facebook, And Google should be broken up [1:39:22] Socialists of New York [1:53:59] Flatgeologists [02:01:50] Books mentioned: The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox [2:57] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Way of Zen by Alan Watts [3:00] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Finite and Infinite Games by James C. Carse [04:31] (Nat’s Notes) (book episode) Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter [07:36] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Into the Cool: Energy Flow, Thermodynamics, and Life by Eric D. Schneider and Dorion Sagan [07:23] The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb [16:49] Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Taleb [16:49] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Dr. Jordan B. Peterson [23:59] (Nat’s notes) (Neil’s notes) (book episode) Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World by Dan Koeppel [39:25] Merchants of Doubt: by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway [40:29] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician by Michihiko Hachiya [01:04:30] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) The Sovereign Individual by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg [01:47:50] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari [01 :49:24] (Nat’s notes) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn [02:01:07] Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett [02:02:00] (Nat’s notes) (book episode) People mentioned: Donella Meadows Elon Musk [3:10] (on this podcast) Bill Clinton [11:23] George H.W. Bush [11:23] Jordan B. Peterson [47:26] (on this podcast) Herman Cain [54:20] Emperor Hirohito [01:04:50] Ben Shapiro [01:14:04] Donald Trump [01:23:05] Adolf Hitler [01:43:23] Margaret Thatcher [01:44:40] Joe Rogan [01:48:23] Thomas Kuhn [02:00:35] Show Topics 02:01 — Meadows is a corporate consultant, who helps companies increase productivity through what she calls “leverage points”. Her focus is on companies, but it really could be applied to any system. Even the podcast itself! 3:17 — How people try to change complex systems by focusing on the wrong parts, or intervening in the right parts, but in the wrong ways. Meadows’ list of ways in which you can intervene from least to most effective. 6:53 — Each intervention point makes sense in connection to the others. Looking at them in simpler system helps understand their role in complex systems. The bathtub analogy. 10:30 — The 12th point: Constants, parameters, numbers. A person occupying a role doesn’t have as much leverage as the role itself. It’s easier to change small parameters than it is to change a broader picture. Eg.: changing the soda you drink instead of changing your whole diet. The Bike-Shed effect. 16:00 — The 11th point: The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows. The check account metaphor; the amount of money that’s usually left in your account, doesn’t come in or out. That’s your buffer, and can be changed. The size of your buffer can really affect your system. It can increase your security, but also liability. Tradeoff between creativity and redundancy. 20:41 — The 10th point: The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures). This rule is harder to immediately apply to the business case. The pipes metaphor; it’s sometimes necessary to set up a system entirely from scratch, or rebuild it, because it’s almost impossible to reach your goals with what’s already present. The rule of 3 and 10. 24:05 — The 9th point: The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change. The importance of consumer feedback. Systems with long loops of feedback, such as politics, have trouble self-regulating. At the same time, when there’s lots of immediate feedback, you risk overshooting. 35:08 — The 8th point: The strength of negative feedback loops (...). A negative feedback loop means a system that can turn itself off, such as a thermostat, which’ll stop working once the room reaches the desired temperature. It’s important to have a failsafe that’ll intervene on the event of a worst-case scenario, even if it’s rarely necessary. You can very easily miss the long-term effect of actions that don’t affect the short-term, such like monocultures (the or overworking yourself. 41:00 — Fake news. Ways you could keep fake news from spreading, and how that could slide into censorship. Social media and censorship. The ultimate goal of any company is always to make money. 48:21 — The 7th point: The gain around driving positive feedback loops. Positive feedback loops feed and grow on themselves (the more people have the flu, the faster it’ll spread), but a system with an unchecked positive feedback loop will destroy itself. At some point, a negative feedback loop must kick in, such as what’s happened with the birth rate in western countries. 51:07 — Poverty and wealth as functions of positive and negative feedback loops. Ways you could effectively lessen poverty. Taxing laws and lobbying. 56:00 — Tangent about payment methods. 58:00 — Adjusting positive feedback loops depends on the ultimate goal of the system. How to use commissions as incentives. 01:01:29 — The 6th point: The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information). Access to information, and how it affects people’s and company’s behaviors, and creates accountability. 01:05:01 — Accountability in the age of the internet. The NRA and gun control. The NRA as a symptom of America’s pro-gun mentality, not the source of the issue. 01:10:28 — Arguments for both sides of the gun control debate. Initiatives to lessen the instant fame acquired by mass shooters. Comparing different country’s policies without thought to the countries’ different situations. 01:17:12 — Misinformation on the topic of guns in the public and in media: what guns are actually available to the public, which models were used in mass shootings. 01:21:00 — Clickbait. McDonalds’ fries and baldness. 01:22:43 — The 5th point: The rules of the system. The rules of a system are more influential than the people who must play by the rules. Being both an employee and a boss. Benefits and health plans for employees, and how to attract and retain talent. 01:29:18 — The rules of a system can work as incentives and disincentives. 01:30:19 — The 4th point: The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure. The level to which people can change the system. Utilizing platforms in ways the creators had not originally intended. Unexpected behaviors from children and puppies. 01:33:33 — Religion and superstition. Bottom-up and top-down systems of power. 01:35:15 — Uber, AirBnB, free market and diversity in the market. 01:37:23 — The 3rd point: The goals of the system. The highest level related to the system itself: its ultimate goal. The goal of keeping the market competitive must trump the goal of each company to accumulate profit. Companies that have little to no competition at this point. 01:41:51 — Changing one player in the system doesn’t affect much, except when one individual player can drastically change the goals of the system. Trump, the Conservative Party and Russia. 01:44:20 — Brexit, the UK’s economy, and the Eurozone. City-states and how do you decide the borders of a country. 01:48:36 — The 2nd point: The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises. The mindset from which the system’s goals come from. Shared mythology and cultural paradigms in today’s society. Digital goods vs physical goods. Shared paradigms as a basis for cooperation and shared goals. 01:58:41 — The 1st point: The power to transcend paradigms. Ever-changing paradigms; your paradigms, as well as scientific paradigms, will keep changing. Not one holds all the truth. 02:05:30 — Wrap-up and sponsor time!. Perfecto Keto is perfect if you’d like to pursue a ketogenic diet! Their matcha MCT oil powder is highly recommended. Kettle & Fire will give you 20% OFF on their delicious bone broths — beef recommended for cooking, and chicken for a good, hot wintery drink! Four Sigmatic: get your mushroom coffee or your hot chocolate, all 15% OFF through our sponsored link. And you can always support us by going through our Amazon sponsored link and checking out our Support page. If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe at https://madeyouthinkpodcast.com
This week, we're taking on one of the most fragile commodities markets around. No, it's not oil (though we do get to that later in the program), it's the market for bananas. Dangerously reliant on a single, boring breed of the tropical fruit, banana growers now face a rampant disease that threatens one of the world's biggest food supplies. We talk to Dan Koeppel, author of "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World," about the development of a monoculture-based banana market and the pitfalls of having a single breed monopolizing the local supermarket. Speaking of monopolies, we then take a swift detour from the banana republics of yesteryear to visit the oil-drenched Middle East of today, where Saudi Arabia is considering an initial public offering of its massive state-owned oil company
Author and editor Dan Koeppel has discovered the banana that we all know and love, the Cavendish, is rapidly becoming infected with an unstoppable disease, which threatens to wipe out not only whole crops but whole economies. How and why this is happening and what can be done about it, is the core narrative of his book Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. More than just a food history, Dan's book transverses the globe, modern genetics, and past and present political struggles in a fast-paced narrative that reads more like a travelogue than a textbook. From genetic research labs in Belgium to plantations in the Philippines, to the creation of banana republics of Central America, to the banana (not the apple) as the most likely fruit in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, Koeppel weaves a rich story, where all these seemingly disconnected pieces come together. His work is a remarkable piece of journalism. Anyone interested in the politics and social history of food, or for those just bananas about bananas will appreciate it and this talk.
Guest Dan Koeppel speaks with Diane Horn about his book "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World".
The banana is the world's most important fruit. But it's under threat from a disease spreading around the world. We'll hear from Dan Koeppel, author of the book "Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World." And we'll visit a Guatemala banana plantation with guide Julio Cordova. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Web sites mentioned on this episode include www.bananabook.org
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