Plant People

Join Dr. Alex McAlvay, Assistant Curator at NYBG’s Center for Plants, People, and Culture, and Dr. John de la Parra, Director of the Global Food Portfolio at the Rockefeller Foundation, as they chat about the problems in modern agriculture (like monocrops!) that are threatening our food security worldwide. Together, they'll share some of the ways that historical farming methods might help solve these problems, diversifying our daily menu and making our food system more resilient against climate change.

In the first episode of Season 2, we explore the resilience and creativity of the Bronx through the eyes of acclaimed author Ian Frazier, whose new book—Paradise Bronx: The Life & Times of New York’s Greatest Borough—is an ode to the City’s greenest and most diverse borough. Frazier’s love for the neighborhoods of the Bronx introduces us to a rich history of rebuilding and revitalization driven by the people who call it home, even as the borough grew and evolved around institutions like the New York Botanical Garden, which was first established in the 1890s.

Through Ian’s perspective, we’ll navigate the Bronx’s complex past, from its historical landscapes and development, to environmental and municipal neglect—and its incredible bounce-back efforts over the decades.

Are you a plant person? If you’re not quite sure, we can help get you there—with Season 2 of Plant People, dropping March 10! 
 
 After an award-winning first season for NYBG’s podcast about the ways plants and people help each other thrive, we’re BACK with an all-new season of in-depth talks featuring gardeners, authors, scientists, and activists. Jump back in with NYBG President Jennifer Bernstein as she dives deep into topics like global food security, gardening as resistance, extreme botany in the world’s most challenging environments—and of course, NYC’s greenest borough, The Bronx.
 
 

In our final episode of the season, we sit down with Merlin Sheldrake, biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, to talk fungi. Mushrooms are a culinary sensation, but they’re also lifeforms that we’re still trying to understand. Join in as we learn how the grim work of fungi—death, decay, and “the end” of organic life—is key to the survival of all living things, and far from a foraging fad, mycology is at the root of Earth’s ability to function. 

In this week’s episode, we’re joined by renowned culinary historian, author, and NYBG Trustee Dr. Jessica B. Harris, curator of the African American Garden at NYBG. Over the last three years, this important collection has used plants to tell the stories of migration, dispossession, and reclamation that inform so much of the African American experience—and define much of what American cuisine is today. As we take a stroll through the space, come hear about the ways the African diaspora has, over the course of more than 500 years, transformed the Western Hemisphere with its cultures, labor, and agricultural know-how.

We’re joined by renowned food journalist, author, and broadcaster Dan Saladino, who's been a host on the BBC’s Radio 4 show The Food Programme for almost 20 years. Recently, he published Eating to Extinction, which explores humankind’s relationship with food, including the world’s most uncommon bites and the communities that produce them—from rare cider apples on the brink of extinction to the vanishing Old Cornish cauliflower, and a variety of Indigenous plant-based edibles from around the world that many have never experienced. Together we’ll look at how stories of endangered plant cuisines have inspired Saladino throughout his career, and discuss the future of food security—and how the preservation of these endangered eats is integral to the health of our planet and humanity at large.

 In this week’s episode, we catch up with Doug Tallamy, Professor of Agriculture & Natural Resources at the University of Delaware. As an expert in their Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, he knows a thing or two about the benefits of planting natives, and feeding the birds and the bees is high on the list. Find out how healthy ecosystems rely on these plants to thrive, and how the home garden is just the start. 

In episode 6, NYBG’s VP of Urban Conservation, Dr. Eric Sanderson, takes us on a quick trip around the landscape of New York City—both today and in the distant past. He’ll get into the sudden rise of catastrophic floods worldwide, and how our relationship with plants centuries ago is impacting our situation right now. Then we talk solutions, ecosystem restoration, and the ways that the future of fighting floods will rely on the well-being of plant life. 

In episode 5,  we cover the surge in home horticulture spurred by the pandemic, with apartment dwellers and homeowners all over the country—and indeed the world—filling their homes with greenery at a time when almost everyone was stuck indoors. NYBG’s Marc Hachadourian, Senior Curator of Orchids and Director of Glasshouse Horticulture,  joins us for a chat on the ways conservatory and botanical garden horticulture have influenced our day-to-day lives with plants, from popularizing certain species of houseplants to their impact on cultivation and care. We’ll also discuss the other side of this sudden leap in everyone’s passion for houseplants, including wild plant poaching and the conservation efforts being made to stop it.  

Guest: Marc Hachadourian

Dr. Evelyn Beaury joins us for a look at the state of invasive plant species in the United States, which threats are greatest to the well-being of our native ecosystems, and how changing climates and land-use patterns can expedite the spread of invasive species.  From knotweed in the northeast U.S. to kudzu in the south and cheatgrass in the west, hear how these species can overwhelm native plants and habitats—and discover ways that each of us can make a difference to stop them. 

Guest: Dr. Evelyn Beaury