Efemmera Gendera’s Recommendations

Published in 1934, this is an amazing early work in the field of semiotics. While this text is dated and therefore has some highly gendered terminology, it is absolutely worthwhile to expand your mind in understand the subjective worlds of non-human species. Uexküll paints an amazing picture of how different species perceive the world both with his writing and his fantastic illustrations; a key takeaway (in my eyes) is the understanding that other organisms quite literally perceive space and time differently than we do. Uexküll's work went on to influence ethology (and therefore) behavioral ecology, as well as phenomenology and, by extension, existentialism.

The Big Biology podcast is a great listen, but this episode specifically covers some really cool stuff. Dr. Denis Walsh is hosted and discusses his idea of 'Situated Darwinism' that he elaborates on in his book titled "Organisms, Agency, and Evolution". He essentially argues that organisms (and their 'agency') are large drivers in evolution, going back to Darwin's original conceptions of evolution. Modern evolutionary biologists paint evolution as an interaction solely between genes and the environment but in the process we set up an organism as a byproduct of evolution and not as a driver. Dr. Walsh's work pushes back against this modern conception of evolution. I had the pleasure of hosting him for a talk while I was still at the University of Kentucky and can honestly say he's one of the nicest people I've ever met. I highly recommend his work.

This collection of essays is an amazing look into Efemmera's mind. Edited (and partially written) by Nicholson & Dupré, these essays contain accounts from scientists and philosophers discussing why biology needs a new ontology. Since the Enlightment era, we've based our sciences off of physics, which has historically viewed the world we live in as a collection of unchanging "things" - in-line with the atomistic conception of the universe. However, these essays pose that we actually need to go back to the Heraclitean (i.e. constant change) way of thinking because living things are, in fact, constantly changing.

This amazing documentary covers the work of Lynn Margulis, who revolutionized the field of Microbiology while being a full time mother and challenging well-accepted theories of evolution. Everyone know who her ex-husband was (i.e. Carl Sagan), but her work often flies under the radar with regards to the general public. It could be because she was challenging inherent ideas in capitalism and how we constantly conflate evolution with capitalistic ideas, but who knows? Either way, this is a required watch to those who are interested. I personally didn't watch this until I finished my undergraduate degree and my first reaction was: "Why the hell didn't anyone tell me about this?". So now I'm telling everyone: please watch this.

Instructions on how to leave no trace.

Important if you like trees!