Wednesday August 3, 1 - 2 pm: The Wild Life of Our Bodies

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Midday-wildlifeofbodies-8-3-11.MP3

In The Wild Life of Our Bodies, biologist Robert Dunn shows the influence of wild species (be they tapeworms or tigers) on our well-being and world, and how nature still clings to us – and always will. We evolved in a wilderness of parasites, pathogens and natural "partnerships," Dunn says. But we no longer see ourselves as being part of nature and the broader community of life. In the name of progress and "clean living," we have scrubbed much of nature off of our bodies, and have tried to remove whole kinds of life – parasites, bacteria and predators – to allow ourselves to live free of wild danger. Nature, in this new world, is the landscape outside, a kind of living painting that is pleasant to contemplate but also nice to have escaped.