Never Home Alone; The Species We Live With w/ Rob Dunn

Hello, everybody! Today, I bring you an interview with Dr. Robert Dunn. He is William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University. He is known for efforts to involve the public as citizen scientists in arthropod surveys and bacterial flora studies. His projects include studies of belly button biodiversity, mites that live on human faces, ants in backyards, and fungi and bacteria in houses. He’s the author of five books, his most recent one being Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live.

In this episode, we focus on Never Home Alone. We discuss how living in homes changed our dynamics with other species, particularly species of insects, bacteria and fungi, and how some of them adapted to the home environment. We talk about how some of them are neutral, others beneficial, and still others detrimental to our health, and also about the importance of being exposed to biodiversity. We also get into the effects that the most common pets (cats and dogs) might have on us. We discuss food processing, how our houses promote the development of harmful species, and, finally, how in the future we might be able to garden the microorganisms we need.

https://youtu.be/i-zl9pergMI

Link to podcast version (Anchor): http://bit.ly/2uL2L1v