Barbara J King

Barbara J King appears in the following:

'The Comfort of Crows' is fuel to restore spirts in dealing with ecological grief

Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Here the New York Times columnist and author of Late Migrations and Graceland Margaret Renkl brings alive in 52 chapters her love for the animals and plants in her yard and nearby parks in Tennessee.

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Greta Thunberg's 'The Climate Book' urges world to keep climate justice out front

Thursday, February 09, 2023

Activist Greta Thunberg was just 15 when she called on the world to take action on the climate crisis. Just as impressively, she has now pulled together essays by 100 scholars on what's needed now.

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'How Fast Did T. rex Run?' and other questions about dinosaurs examined in new book

Wednesday, August 03, 2022

British paleontologist David Hone set out to write a book that stresses what isn't yet known about dinosaurs — as much as what is known.

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'An Immense World' dives deep into the umwelt of animals

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Pulitzer prize-winning science journalist Ed Yong writes in a perfect balance of scientific rigor and personal awe as he invites readers to grasp something of how other animals experience the world.

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Jane Goodall encourages all to act to save Earth in 'The Book of Hope'

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

The primatologist says it's crucial that young people know how positive action can still shift the frightening trajectories of climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and the ongoing global pandemic.

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Susan Orlean writes about her fascination with all kinds of creatures in 'On Animals'

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Orlean's descriptions of the animals on the Hudson Valley farm where she once lived may evoke a warm feeling — but those of donkeys in Fez and others in her essays may conjure other emotions.

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'Graceland, At Last' Juxtaposes The Good And The Bad In The American South

Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Writer Margaret Renkl's sense of joyful belonging to the South co-exists with her intense desire for Southerners who face prejudice or poverty finally to be embraced and supported.

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Friendship Between A Woman And A Fox Leads To Transformation In 'Fox & I'

Thursday, July 08, 2021

The very antithesis of a fox-taming tale, Catherine Raven's memoir shows us that we are surrounded by wild animals who make thoughtful decisions and experience joys and sorrows on their own terms.

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We've Been Evolving For Millions Of Years, So Why Are Our Bodies So Flawed?

Friday, May 21, 2021

In his debut book Evolution Gone Wrong, Alex Bezzerides mixes the technical anatomical stuff we need to know with vivid examples and humorous phrases — in offering us some answers.

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'Mom Genes' Aims To Examine Biological Transformations Of Motherhood

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Abigail Tucker's descriptions of how radically women may change at the time of motherhood — and, as an extension, how this might affect their ability to focus on other things — gets pretty harrowing.

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There Are So Many Flavors Of Potato Chips; 'Hooked' Looks At Why

Wednesday, March 03, 2021

Investigative reporter Michael Moss explores how some food companies tweak their products to take advantage of evolved biology, creating room for novelty that triggers the brain to make us want more.

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'Exercised' Explains Why It Can Be Hard To Commit To Working Out — And Why We Should

Tuesday, January 05, 2021

Harvard University's Daniel Lieberman looks at exercise from an evolutionary point of view, concluding that we evolved to limit our physical activity where possible, saving it for survival activities.

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In 'Fevers, Feuds And Diamonds,' Paul Farmer Breaks Down Assumptions About Ebola

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

The anthropologist and physician teaches that the world needs not only medicine, but something more — a rejection of global racial inequalities and serious investment in the care of all people.

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'Kindred' Dismantles Simplistic Views Of Neanderthals

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Rebecca Wragg Sykes describes evidence showing that as innovative tool- and fire-makers, Neanderthals adapted to changing climates, adopted symbolic cultural practices and expressed profound emotions.

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Ever Wonder 'What It's Like To Be A Bird'? David Allen Sibley Has Some Answers

Sunday, April 19, 2020

David Allen Sibley's name is synonymous with his bird field guides. In researching this volume, he became convinced of something new: Birds make complex decisions and experience emotions.

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In 'Becoming Wild,' Carl Safina Takes Us Inside The Cultures Of Animals

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Combining the knowledge of a seasoned scientist and the skills of a good storyteller, the ecologist-author invites us to leave our cultural worlds and enter some animal ones to see just how they work.

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In 'Wildhood,' Scientists See Similarities In Adolescent Humans And Other Animals

Monday, September 16, 2019

Understanding the lives of animals can illuminate our own — and those of loved adolescents too. But authors Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers at times push cross-species links too far.

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'Gods Of The Upper Air' Traces The Birth Of Cultural Anthropology

Monday, August 05, 2019

Charles King tells the story of Franz Boas' powerful challenge to racial science — and of how others like Margaret Mead and Zora Neale Hurston contributed to that project.

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'Late Migrations' Essays Create A Jeweled Patchwork Of Nature And Culture

Friday, July 12, 2019

New York Times columnist Margaret Renkl astonishes with her essays, a woven tapestry that makes one of all the world's beings that strive to live — and, in one way or another, face mortality.

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'Giants Of The Monsoon Forest' Explores The Lives Of Working Elephants In Asia

Thursday, June 13, 2019

With details at once compelling and disturbing, geographer Jacob Shell describes the lives of the elephants of mountainous Myanmar and northeastern India that haul timber or transport people.

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