The Devil’s Element #624

April 24, 2023

With fertilizers that supply phosphorus–what Asimov called “life’s bottleneck”– people broke the circle of life. Dan Egan’s new book The Devil’s Element traces the history of this essential element from curiosity to crop miracle. Egan documents the mayhem unleashed by a flood of phosphorus, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and discusses how people can act to stop phosphorus-fueled blooms of algae that are closing beaches, killing animals and sickening people.

Guests:

  • Dan Egan
Listen Now

Featured Book

The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance

Written by Dan Egan

Book Blurb Find On Amazon

Guest Bios

Dan Egan

Dan Egan is the author of New York Times bestseller The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. A journalist in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Freshwater Sciences, he is a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife and children.

Other Episodes About Biology

Our Friend, the Wasp

Is there an insect more universally despised than the wasp? What have they done to incur so much of our ire? No one likes them. Well... almost no one. Seirian Sumner, Professor... Read More

May 25, 2023

How birds go the distance

Birds carry out some of the most amazing feats of athleticism in the world. Hummingbirds cross the entire Gulf of Mexico, their tiny wings beating continuously for three days straight. A single... Read More

July 05, 2023

The Jewel Box

A lot of us learned basic ecology in primary school. Maybe we took a biology class in high school or secondary school and dug in a little more. We use terms like... Read More

July 31, 2023

Other Episodes About Chemistry

Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces

This week we’re zooming in on surfaces, where lots of action happens as things slip, grip, slide, and more. Our guest Laurie Winkless, author of the book "Sticky: The Secret Science of... Read More

July 08, 2022

Bone Proteins and Body Farms

Television dramas make it seem like easy work for forensic investigators to determine when a person has died. But figuring out the time since death can be tricky for bodies that have... Read More

August 31, 2022

Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of Life

Usually when we talk about electricity we're talking about the technology that runs the modern world, but electricity is a lot more integral to our existance than making our tech work. Without... Read More

October 17, 2022

Other Episodes About Environment

Brave the Wild River

In 1938, two botanists, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, made an ambitious voyage down the Colorado River driven by the desire to chronicle the plant life of the American Southwest. In her... Read More

June 19, 2023

Tenacious Beasts

In his book Tenacious Beasts, philosopher and writer Christopher Preston explores creature comebacks. Some of these stories highlight the evolutionary advantages that animals have racked up over millennia, while others are marked... Read More

August 14, 2023

Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

In the book Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet, journalist Ben Goldfarb details how roads have transformed our world. On this week’s show, Ben shares insights from... Read More

October 09, 2023

Other Episodes About Water

Let's Get Slimy

Algae. What springs to mind when you read that word? Maybe a seaweed forest? Maybe a pond covered in scum? Maybe a red tide? Those are all algae, and they can all... Read More

February 02, 2020

Sea Ice

This week, host Marion Kilgour discusses the effects of climate change on Arctic sea ice, and the Inuit communities that rely on the ice for wood, food, and roads. SmartICE is a... Read More

August 16, 2020

The Poopisode

Number 2. Poop. Crap. Doodoo. It's something that a lot of people just want to flush and forget, but others want to talk about it. Do they poop too much? Not enough?... Read More

October 25, 2022