Slime

How Algae Created Us, Plague Us, and Just Might Save Us

By: Ruth Kassinger

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Say “algae” and most people think of pond scum. What they don't know is that without algae, none of us would exist.

There are as many algae on Earth as stars in the universe, and they have been essential to life on our planet for eons. Algae created the Earth we know today, with its oxygen-rich atmosphere, abundant oceans, and coral reefs. Crude oil is made of dead algae, and algae are the ancestors of all plants. Today, seaweed production is a multi-billion dollar industry, with algae hard at work to make your sushi, chocolate milk, beer, paint, toothpaste, shampoo, and so much more.

In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market.

With a multitude of lively, surprising science and history, Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.

©2019 Ruth Kassinger (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Lots of great info

Like others I found the reading too fast but setting the speed at 0.9 worked perfectly for me.

Some Pretty Good Content But Reader Detracts

I liked some of the content regarding the history of algae on the planet, and the role of algae in maintaining the ecological balance. At times, however, things became a bit too technical and it was hard to follow. Some of the author's personal stories were okay but most of these episodes did not really grab me. The main weakness here is the reader. She spoke too fast, and her attempts to change her voice for characters, especially when doing men, were mostly annoying. This is an important subject and I wish I could recommend this title, but I can't. The hard copy may be a better option.

Fascinating slime!

If you have studied fungi and lichens as I have (on an amateur biologist basis), this is totally engrossing. I like her humor and writing style just fine. My only criticism is that the narrator read too quickly for the material (or a novel...). I found that playing the book at 75% solved that problem. I hope that we humans will be forward-looking enough to let algae help us with climate disruption, especially in replacing fossil fuel with algae-derived fuel.

Narration

Great book. I found the languid, sing songily dramatic narration distracting. The prose hits those notes enough without adding to it. It is an important and informative book. Highly recommended.

Fairly entertaining and informative...but

A fairly entertaining and informative read (or listen), with new facts which I hadn't known about which were discussed with relish. However, i was a bit sad when Ruth Kassinger dragged up that 100+ year old misconception about taste buds and the tongue map or taste map is the chapter mentioning miso soup. Research, please. That was debunked over 40 years ago, but still seems to worm its way into all sorts of article, books, journals, etc. Other than that singular inaccuracy I was able to soldier on and finished the book with glee.