Tell Me More
Brief conversations with the thinkers, artists, makers and shapers of our world. Their insights on dozens of different topics are enlightening, provocative, and always surprising. Listen and learn something new every episode.
Our Editor's Take
Tell Me More is a Tufts University podcast that plays speeches and interviews from guests who visit the college. The varied hosts, including Julie Flaherty, Ronee Saroff, and Anna Miller, are editors and producers for the university. Tufts has a reputation for attracting innovative speakers. Now, listeners can hear those thought leaders even if they don't attend Tufts. Guests include a U.S. Attorney General, a Buddhist monk, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. The episode schedule is sporadic because speakers visit the campus throughout the year.
Guests on the podcast talk about complex topics such as climate change. They make the information understandable. The experts discuss issues that affect daily life, including difficulty paying attention. One episode contrasts the dangers of inattentiveness with the risks of hyper-focusing. Another show offers three perspectives on preventing loneliness. It's an essential concept as remote work and virtual relationships increase.
A Tell Me More episode called "Foods of the Future" shares several revelations. Scientists derived a liquid from silkworms that preserves produce. It is in use on spinach sold in the Northeast. Studies show that 40 percent of food goes in the trash. Is a silk coating an economical or effective way to reduce waste? Alternative proteins are also a predominant field of study. Cellular agriculturists can now grow cultured meat. Engineers take biopsies from farm animals' muscles and fat. They heat, oxygenate, enrich, and grow the cells into food. Researchers are learning how to mass-produce those cells in energy-efficient ways. That would enable them to create meat without live animals.
Food composition is changing. Pancakes made with cricket flour and sausage made with algae might become the norm. Rachel Cheatham, a Tufts professor and founder of the Foodscape Group, explains why. She says 75 percent of the global food supply comes from twelve plants and five animal species. Variety is necessary to sustain the planet. Scientists are developing caterpillar-derived protein cells for astronauts to grow in a bioreactor. If successful, they will feed four astronauts for three years on Mars. Futuristic food is one of many reasons to listen to Tell Me More.
Episodes
