Author Mary Roach on ‘Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law’

Episode notes

(Photo: W. W. Norton & Company)

Mary Roach on what happens when animals break the law, killer beans, danger trees and more

Mary Roach is the author of nine books, all of them nonfiction. Most of them have one-syllable titles: Grunt. Stiff. Gulp. Bonk.

Mary covers science in a very particular way – she finds branches of research that don’t often make it into newspapers. 

She’s a very particular kind of science writer. The things she obsesses over can seem weird or gross or marginal. Mary’s passion and humor leave you just as wrapped up in them as she is.

In Grunt, it’s the science of war, and how soldiers on the battlefield are kept alive. In Stiff, it’s an examination of how we as a society have interacted with cadavers: past, present and future.

Mary’s newest book is called Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. It’s a book about how humans have tried – and failed to manage nature. 

Bears that break into dumpsters. Moose stepping into traffic. Gulls that eat papal flower arrangements. 

Mary returns to Bullseye to talk about her latest book. We’ll talk with her about how the book impacted how she interacts with animals in her day-to-day life. Plus, we’ll discuss why killer beans and danger trees are included in a book that is mostly about stories from the animal kingdom.