Air Date: 5-30-25 | Episode 756
This week we welcome Carl Zimmer author of Airborne to talk about this seminal book on the airobiome and airborne disease transmission. This book traces the history of airborne disease transmission and introduces us to the people whose shoulders we stand on.
Carl Zimmer is the author of fifteen books about science. His latest book is Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe. Zimmer writes the “Origins” column for the New York Times. His writing has earned a number of awards, including the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he contributed to the coverage that won the New York Times the public service Pulitzer Prize in 2021.
Three of his books have been named Notable Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. His book She Has Her Mother’s Laugh won the 2019 National Academies Communication Award. The Guardian named it the best science book of 2018.
Zimmer is a familiar voice on radio programs such as Radiolab and professor adjunct at Yale University. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom both a species of tapeworm and an asteroid have been named.
