The German scientist Andreas Weber is unlike any other biologist I’ve met. He certainly knows all about things like metabolism and life cycles, but he’d rather talk about love as a basic biological principle, or what it might be like to perceive the world as a flower does. So when I was in Berlin a few years ago, I contacted Andreas, and he suggested we walk in the semi-wild Grunewald Forest. He’d planted a small tree in the forest, and because there was a drought, he brought a large jug of water, along with his old poodle. We then found a small glade to record an interview. He talked about the wind as if it were alive and described what he called an ”erotic ecology.” I was riveted.
When Andreas recently came to Madison for a conference, I was eager to talk with him again. He’s just written a book, not yet published in English, titled “Being Edible: Toward a Mystical Biology.” He says life is all about eating and being eaten, which may sound gruesome, but to hear Andreas describe how a flower eats sunlight, it comes across as a miraculous process. I found his perspective both profound and uplifting. You can listen to our interview in this week’s show, “Love in the Time of Extinction.”