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Renegade Naturalist Radio #5: Interview with Charles C. Mann, Bestselling Author of 1491 and 1493

January 13, 2013 By Daniel Botkin Leave a Comment

https://www.danielbbotkin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/RenegadeRadio_Ep05_Mann.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:50 — 10.9MB)

Renegade_Mann_featureimageRenegade Naturalist RadioThis episode of Renegade Naturalist Radio features journalist and bestselling author Charles C. Mann, author of 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, followed in 2011 by 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (audio player above.)

In addition to his immensely popular and highly readable books, Mann is also a correspondent and contributing editor for Science, Atlantic Monthly, and Wired magazines, and writes for several other publications. In his most recent books, Mann has analyzed the voyage of Christopher Columbus and the birth of globalization in terms of world trade and ecological collision.

In this interview, Mann talks about the voyage of Christopher Columbus and the birth of globalization in terms of world trade and ecological collision and his ability to write accessible books that tackle important environmental topics. About his writing style, Mann explained to Botkin that he takes a different approach to his subject matter than other, more academic tomes.

"I think it goes right back to Aristotle, who said that there are two ways to explain a subject: One is in terms of the subject itself, and that would be like a physics textbook or a geometry textbook where you start from the actions. The other is in terms of how people come to know about something. Often, I'll take the tack of trying to explain something in terms of how it came to be known."

Mann is also the co-author of The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics; The Aspirin Wars: Money, Medicine, and 100 Years of Rampant Competition; Noah's Choice: The Future of Endangered Species and @ Large: The Strange Case of the Internet's Biggest Invasion. In 2006, 1491 received the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Keck Award for best book of the year.

Dan spoke to Mann from his home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

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Filed Under: People & Nature, Renegade Naturalist Radio Tagged With: authors, Environment, globalization, renegade naturalist radio

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From Daniel B. Botkin, Ph.D

Daniel Botkin
I believe we are mostly on the wrong track in the way we try to deal with the environment. Everything I do, study, learn, and advise about the environment is different from the status quo. Throughout my career, I have tried to understand how nature works and use that understanding to figure out how we can solve our most pressing environmental problems.

My process over the past 45 years has been to look carefully at the facts, make simple calculations from them (sometimes simple computer models) and then tell people what I have learned. It’s surprising how rarely people bother to look at the facts. This has surprised me every time I’ve started a new ecology research project or work on an environmental issue.

In the course of my work and studies, I have learned many things and I want to tell you about them. That is the purpose of this website.

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Books by Dan Botkin

The Moon in the Nautilus Shell  Strange Encounters
Powering the Future  No Man's Garden
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Jabowa Forest Model for Windows 7.
This forest model, used around the world, was developed first in 1970 by Daniel B. Botkin, James F. Janak and James R. Wallis

JABOWA remains the most completely detailed and well validated forest growth model available, accounting for 95% or more of the variation in real forests where it has been tested.

The book Forest Dynamics: An Ecological Model (available as an eBook) provides a complete description of the model and the rationales behind its development.

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The Bockstoce and Botkin Historical Sea Ice Data Study has a new home at the University of Alaska website. The data include more than 52,000 daily observations in an unbroken 65 year record from 1849 – 1914.

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