If you're a fan of Interlochen Public Radio's award-winning podcast Points North, listen up. Host Dan Wanschura and lead producer Patrick Shea will be touring northern Michigan, offering an inside look into the show's recent hit series, [Un]Natural Selection.
The series examines humans' role as part of the ecosystem and explores the ethical line between mending our natural world and meddling with it.
Today, environmental agencies across the country spend much of their time and money responding to problems past generations have created and trying to foresee future challenges. We introduce foreign insects to control other foreign insects that are devastating plant life. We try to stop erosion on the Great Lakes, but our short-term fixes make long-term problems. We nearly killed off gray wolves and now consider hunting them again after the population has grown. We alter harvesting limits for deer, sturgeon, bear and moose. We manipulate fish genomes to “improve” them.
How do we know we’re fixing nature’s problems, not creating more?
Starting next week, you can learn more about the Points North podcast and how the [Un]Natural Selection series came to be. Here are the dates and locations:
September 6, 2022 - 3:00pm @ Petoskey District Library
September 6, 2022 - 6:00pm @ Charlevoix Public Library
September 7, 2022 - 5:30pm @ Mason County District Library
September 8, 2022 - 2:00pm @ Leland Township Library
September 8, 2022 - 6:30pm @ Traverse Area District Library
September 9, 2022 - 2:00pm @ Interlochen Public Library