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Lives of Weeds
- Opportunism, Resistance, Folly
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
Lives of Weeds explores the tangled history of weeds and their relationship to humans. Through eight interwoven stories, John Cardina offers a fresh perspective on how these tenacious plants came about, why they are both inevitable and essential, and how their ecological success is ensured by determined efforts to eradicate them. Linking botany, history, ecology, and evolutionary biology to the social dimensions of humanity's ancient struggle with feral flora, Cardina shows how weeds have shaped - and are shaped by - the way we live in the natural world.
Weeds and attempts to control them drove nomads toward settled communities, encouraged social stratification, caused environmental disruptions, and have motivated the development of GMO crops. They have snared us in social inequality and economic instability, infested social norms of suburbia, caused rage in the American heartland, and played a part in perpetuating pesticide use worldwide. Lives of Weeds reveals how the technologies directed against weeds underlie ethical questions about agriculture and the environment, and leaves listeners with a deeper understanding of how the weeds around us are entangled in our daily choices.
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- Innovation Inspired by Nature
- By: Janine M. Benyus
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes listeners into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; and many more examples.
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Dated but good
- By stephen taylor on 09-05-21
By: Janine M. Benyus
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Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
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A must read for everybody! Not just nature lovers.
- By Steve Ebert on 06-11-20
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Mycophilia
- Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms
- By: Eugenia Bone
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
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Absolutely awful, insufferable, racist author
- By Rs 🦇 on 11-25-19
By: Eugenia Bone
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Farmageddon
- The True Cost of Cheap Meat
- By: Philip Lymbery, Isabel Oakeshott
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Farm animals have been disappearing from our fields as the production of food has become a global industry. We no longer know for certain what is entering the food chain and what we are eating - as the UK horsemeat scandal demonstrated. We are reaching a tipping point as the farming revolution threatens our countryside, health, and the quality of our food wherever we live in the world.
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Excellent insight of industrial farming
- By Grazyna on 04-19-14
By: Philip Lymbery, and others
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Uncultivated
- Wild Apples, Real Cider, and the Complicated Art of Making a Living
- By: Andy Brennan
- Narrated by: Brett Barry
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before the advent of conventional farming methods - which have focused on constant growth, human intervention, and genetic homogeneity - the apple had already grown to become the ubiquitous all-American symbol it is today. Known for their hardiness, ability to adapt to new environments, natural diversity, and plentiful bounty, wildly grown apples were once known as “America’s fruit” throughout the trading world.
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Really good narrator
- By Landon & Sarah on 03-28-24
By: Andy Brennan
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The Tree
- A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter
- By: Colin Tudge
- Narrated by: Enn Reitel
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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There are redwoods in California that were ancient by the time Columbus first landed and pines still alive that germinated around the time humans invented writing. There are Douglas firs as tall as skyscrapers and a banyan tree in Calcutta as big as a football field. From the tallest to the smallest, trees inspire wonder in all of us, and in The Tree, Colin Tudge travels around the world - throughout the United States, the Costa Rican rain forest, Panama and Brazil, India, New Zealand, China, and most of Europe - bringing to life stories and facts about the trees around us.
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Not the book described in the Audible summary
- By E. Miller on 04-28-17
By: Colin Tudge
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Teaming with Microbes
- The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
- By: Jeff Lowenfels, Wayne Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris Lutkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life - not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms.
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Poor delivery
- By Brian C. on 06-05-20
By: Jeff Lowenfels, and others
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Lentil Underground
- Renegade Farmers and the Future of Food in America
- By: Liz Carlisle
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of the "Lentil Underground" begins on a 280-acre homestead rooted in America's Great Plains: the Oien family farm. Forty years ago, corporate agribusiness told small farmers like the Oiens to "get big or get out." But 27-year-old David Oien decided to take a stand, becoming the first in his conservative Montana county to plant a radically different crop: organic lentils. Unlike the chemically dependent grains American farmers had been told to grow, lentils make their own fertilizer and tolerate variable climates, so their farmers aren't beholden to industrial methods.
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Fingers on the pulse of sustainable ag
- By shakinfist on 06-30-20
By: Liz Carlisle
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Banana
- The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
- By: Dan Koeppel
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Banana combines a pop-science journey around the globe, a fascinating tale of an iconic American business enterprise, and a look into the alternately tragic and hilarious banana subculture (one does exist) - ultimately taking us to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world's most beloved fruit.
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Very Good Book - History, Science, and Economics
- By Jose on 11-08-17
By: Dan Koeppel
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Slime
- How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us
- By: Ruth Kassinger
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market. Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.
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Fairly entertaining and informative...but
- By Timothy on 08-27-19
By: Ruth Kassinger
What listeners say about Lives of Weeds
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Heather
- 10-18-23
Informative on the weeds that surround us
As someone interested in botany and see all of these weeds on a daily basis, this was a great book. Weird pronunciations on things but got the point across!
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- TSP
- 11-08-22
Review from a weed professional
I got this audiobook because I am also a weed professional and am always seeking out relevant books.
Few of the weeds described in this book are problematic where I work, but the information is important regardless. The progression of plant to weed is profoundly interesting. The problem of relying on single herbicides for too long to deal with a problem is well covered.
The performance is disappointing. The narrator's voice is fine, but reads a bit off tempo or robotic--notably with occasional pauses, Christopher Walden-like. It sounds like the narrator is reading the work for the first time and not is not very fluid. Additionally, some fairly important words are very obviously mispronounced... such as Glyphosate. Since I'm listening to the book, there are other things that seem off... such as "private hedge" which I assume from context has to be "privet hedge." I don't know, maybe I'm easily frustrated, but a work about weeds should have the pronunciation of herbicides right.
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- Vas Sladek
- 07-29-22
The best book on weeds I've read or listened to
The New York Times magazine ran a story some months ago about Palmer's Amaranth, a weed which can't be touched by herbicides. And it's discussed in one of the chapters. Sure, weeds are annoying in agriculture but that's because we rely on chemicals too much. Weeds are plants, they interact with nature and people and they evolve.
It was marestail that got GMO crops in trouble. Buy RoundUp ready seeds from us, and spray roundup on the weeds liberally because it doesn't affect the crop plants. Until the weeds evolve like the marestail and develop resistance! The farmers were told this couldn't happen.
Respect weeds, and expect them to evolve. Some will fade away, and some new ones will rise up. What people do matters. Farming has to change. I also highly recommend Gabe Brown's "Dirt to soil". He shows that you can make great profits from farming WITHOUT relying on chemicals.
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- Michael Smith
- 02-28-24
Wow.
Very eye-opening. I was fascinated in different ways in each chapter. This is a very good book.
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- emsgr
- 01-16-22
Interesting read.
I had the pleasure of listening to John Cardina’s book, Lives of Weeds as I drove up to New Hampshire. I especially enjoyed listening to the evolutionary backdrop of the lowly dandelion. I've a new appreciation for this common beauty and its ability to adapt and survive. No more tug-of-war with its never ending root system for me. When it comes to the rules of my lawn, if it’s green, it stays. Weeds are everywhere. My own backyard contains a bounty of unidentified weeds.
Come spring I will venture into the weedy corners of my yard and attempt to identify some of my own resident weeds. Reading Lives of Weeds has inspired me to want to learn a little bit more about the weeds around me.
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- Kent
- 10-31-23
A must read/listen
If you want to know about the challenges that face our modern production of food, you have to listen to this book. It tells the story of how these weeds interact with our lives and modern agriculture.
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