You The Owners Manual Radio Show

A deadly secret lurks within our spice racks, medicine cabinets, backyard gardens, and private stashes. Scratch beneath the surface of a red pepper flake, a poppy seed, a magic mushroom cap, or an apple seed, and we find a bevy of strange chemicals. We use these to greet our days (caffeine), cure our infections (penicillin), calm our nerves (CBD), and even kill our enemies (cyanide). But why do plants and fungi produce such chemicals? And how did we come to use and abuse some of them? Based on cutting-edge research, MOST DELICIOUS POISON: The Story of Nature's Toxins—From Spices to Vices by Noah Whiteman (October 24, 2023; Hardcover) reveals the origins of toxins produced by plants, mushrooms, microbes, and even some animals, the mechanisms that animals evolved to overcome them, and how a co-evolutionary arms race made its way into the human experience, forever changing the trajectory of humanity. This perpetual chemical war not only drove the diversification of life on Earth but is also intimately tied to ou