CURRENTLY READING
The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus And A World Out Of Balance by Dan Egan
Monday, July 8 through Friday, July 26, 2024
Read by Norman Gilliland.
Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is today causing toxic algae blooms and “dead zones” in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. Meanwhile, diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide ― which risks rising conflict and even war.
(WW Norton; ISBN-10: 1324002662)
Theme: Virgil Thomson, Louisiana Story, New London Orchestra
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Latest Episodes
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The Devil’s Element 11 of 15
The implementation of the ethanol mandate sees a change in agriculture as farmers begin growing corn and soybeans for gasoline production, contributing to the environmental toll.
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The Devil’s Element 10 of 15
Following the ban on phosphates in detergents and the passing of the Clean Water Act in the 1970s, the nation’s lakes, rivers and streams see almost immediate recovery. But the […]
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The Devil’s Element 9 of 15
As the Canadian government decides to set aside land for what would later become known as the Boundary Waters, they call upon a team of ecologists to conduct “whole lake […]
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The Devil’s Element 8 of 15
The 1950s see the rise of high-foaming detergents caused by the addition of phosphates. But quite quickly, the public finds those phosphates’ foamy bubbles contaminating their lakes, rivers and streams.
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The Devil’s Element 7 of 15
Following the Spanish Civil War, geologists are dispatched to an area now known as the Western Sahara. There they find the largest cache of phosphate rock ever discovered.
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Coming Next
West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
Monday, July 29 through Friday, August 23, 2024
Read by Jim Fleming.
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane…
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