Jamie Lorimer’s THE PROBIOTIC PLANET calls for a rethinking of artificial barriers between science and policy and a sweeping overview of diverse probiotic approaches. Bruce Clarke’s GAIAN SYSTEMS is a pioneering exploration of the complex evolution of Gaia’s many variants. In a conversation that ranges from Lynn Margulis to science fiction, neocybernetics to COVID-19, Lorimer and Clarke ultimately seek insight into solving an environmental crisis of humanity’s own making. This conversation was recorded in November 2020.


BOOKS:
The Probiotic Planet: z.umn.edu/theprobioticplanet
Gaian Systems: z.umn.edu/gaiansystems


REFERENCES:
Helminth, a species of parasitic worm
Heather Paxson on raw milk cheese
Bruno Latour
Isabelle Stengers
Donna Haraway
James Lovelock
Lynn Margulis
Lyndisfarne Conferences
Stewart Brand
O’Neill cylinder
William Gibson’s Neuromancer
Stanisław Lem
Frank Herbert’s Dune

Planetary probiotics and Gaia’s variants.

Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna is a book that asks why so many big bluefin tuna have vanished from the Atlantic Ocean. Author Jen Telesca notes that the term “red gold” has emerged out of the exorbitant price her ruby-colored flesh commands on the global market; for reference, in January 2019, a 613-pound Pacific bluefin tuna sold at market in Tokyo for an astounding record of $3.1 million US dollars. To research this book, Telesca gained unparalleled access to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (also known as ICCAT) to show that the institution has faithfully executed the task assigned to it by international law: to fish as hard as possible to grow national economies. This interview between Telesca and editor Jason Weidemann was recorded in May 2020.

More about the book: http://z.umn.edu/redgold

A transcription of this conversation is available: z.umn.edu/t-redgold

Planetary probiotics and Gaia’s variants.

University of Minnesota Press

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