Podcasts · Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
312 | Thomas Levenson on the Mutual History of Humans and Germs
· 1 h 32 min · Episode 312
Episode 312 | Thomas Levenson on the Mutual History of Humans and Germs
The germ theory of disease is a crowning achievement of science, up there with modern physics, continental drift, and evolution via natural selection. (Even if there will always be cranky skeptics.) But the road to widespread acceptance isn't always an easy one. Why did it take so long between Anton van Leeuwenhoek seeing "animalcules" in a microscope (1670s) to Louis Pasteur's work on pasteurization and vaccination (1860's)? Thomas Levenson is the author of a new book exploring this fascinating history: So Very Small: How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs--and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease.
Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/04/21/episode-312-thomas-levenson-on-the-mutual-history-of-humans-and-germs/
Support Mindscape on Patreon.
Thomas Levenson received a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Harvard University. He is currently Professor of Science Writing and director of the graduate program in science writing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of numerous books and has written and produced a number of science documentaries for television.
• Web site • MIT web page • Wikipedia • Amazon author page • Bluesky
Links in the notes 9
- https://www.youcanknowthings.com/germ-theory-2/
- https://www.amazon.com/Very-Small-Discovered-Microcosmos-Germs/dp/0593242734/
- https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2025/04/21/episode-312-thomas-levenson-on-the-mutual-history-of-humans-and-germs/
- https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll
- https://thomaslevenson.com/
- https://sciwrite.mit.edu/person/thomas-levenson/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Levenson
- https://www.amazon.com/stores/Thomas-Levenson/author/B001HCU6CW?ccs_id=d724e4f4-782a-4c0a-ba29-d9af618833f1
- https://bsky.app/profile/tomlevenson.bsky.social
Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.