Susan Freinkel

Reporter Susan Freinkel talks about what happens to brains of children who have been exposed at a young age to pesticides. She’s joined by Lee Fang, who reports on how the pesticide companies have influenced regulations in Washington and at the local level. Both Freinkel and Fang are contributors to The Nation magazine. Freinkel is the author of the book Plastic: A Toxic Love Story and her article Warning Signs: How Pesticides Harm the Young Brain and Fang’s article The Pesticide Industry vs. Consumers: Not a Fair Fight appear in the March 31, 2014, issue of The Nation magazine.

Find consumer guides about pesticides and produce and more at the Environmental Working Group's web site: ewg.org.

Susan Freinkel describes why the plethora of plastics has created a major problem—we’ve produced as much plastic in the last 10 years as we did in the entire 20th century, and plastics draw on dwindling fossil fuels, leach harmful chemicals, litter landscapes, and destroy marine life. In Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, Freinkel tells the story of plastic through eight familiar objects: comb, chair, Frisbee, IV bag, disposable lighter, grocery bag, soda bottle, and credit card. She combs through scientific studies and economic data, reporting from China and across the United States to assess the real impact of plastic on our lives, and how we can learn to live without it.

Until reading the first chapter of Susan Freinkel's new book, you might not realize just how many things in your life are made of plastic, from your gym clothes to your refrigerator. But what does all this new — and sometimes life-saving, or at least life-altering — material mean for how we live our lives? And what are the consequences of a single-use culture? We talk with Freinkel about her new book, "Plastic: A Toxic Love Story" and ask, "paper or plastic?"