In Defense of Plants Podcast

I listen to ‘In Defense of Plants Podcast’ on and off. As with any long-running podcast, some are better than others. Yesterday, I listened to one of the best of any genre that I have listened to in a while. That was the interview with Dr. Ana Bedoya, researcher active in the Colombian Andes. The subject was fascinating, Ms. Bedoya presents very will - not too technical, but technical enough. My only complaint at all, and it is minor - Matt and others, please attempt proper (Latin) pronunciations of the botanical names. He slaughtered Podostemaceae completely beyond recognition!

The main reason I wrote this review is to address how Matt, the host, handles his introductions. He starts every interview by asking the guest “Tell us who you are and what you do”. Ok fine, that’s a proper way to start an interview, by explaining to the audience who the guest is. What bothers me is that the host isn’t doing the introduction himself. These are scientists and professionals in their field he’s interviewing, people who deserve respect. I’m not saying he is being disrespectful, but Matt is missing an opportunity to show his guests respect by having them introduce themselves. Take any talk show host for instance. Every one of them says an introduction for every guest. You wouldn’t have Jimmy Fallon announce the name of his guest, have the guest walk out, and then ask the guest who they are and what they do, that would be weird. It wouldn’t flow smoothly. It should be the host’s job to give the guest’s introduction for the sake of good presentation to the audience and breaking the ice with the guest. While pondering the justifications Matt might give for having his guests introduce themselves, the main one I can think of is, “My guest is the one who knows themself and their work the best, so if I introduce them, I probably wouldn’t summarize their career as well as they can.” Ok. This is where research comes in. I guarantee you can get a mostly full picture/summary of a somebody’s career over 10-20 minutes of online research, one that is at least suitable for a short, basic introduction at the start of a podcast. I said mostly full picture. If there’s some research project that the guest worked on a couple years ago and you forget to mention it in your introduction, that’s not a big deal. You can ask “did I miss anything?” after giving your introduction, I’m sure the guest would be happy to add something right there if you did miss something that would be good to mention. It would be a good jumping off point for the conversation. I’m sure the guest would prefer to mention something in their career that you missed in your introduction rather than doing the whole thing themselves. Matt, I know that this is the way you’ve handled every guest introduction for hundreds of episodes over multiple years of podcasting, but I see no reason other than habit as to why you shouldn’t introduce the guests yourself. It’s not too late to change and show your guests that extra bit of respect they’re missing out on. Be a host. Do the extra work, prepare an introduction, and say it yourself. But other than that, your podcast is a pretty good one.

Matt is a great researcher, asks interesting questions of his brilliant guests, & explores a wide breath of fascinating topics within botany.

The In Defense of Plants Podcast is a fascinating and educational foray into the plant kingdom. The host, Matt, is a knowledgeable botanist in his own right, but often interviews experts in specific areas of botany and conservation. In other cases, he takes the listener on audio field trips. You also might want to check out his collection of supporting videos posted on YouTube. They offer a chance to see lots of great plants in their natural habitat. Also make sure to check out the pictures and other materials on the show website. There’s more to see and read.

I was excited by the topics listed in the titles of this podcast but after listening to 7 or 8 episodes, it’s feeling painfully repetitive and lacking in substance. When the guests actually get to talk about the science in their work, it’s really interesting. Unfortunately, the majority of the podcast is often the host buttering up the guests and trying to show how passionate he is about the subject. Way too much time is spent talking about the guests’ career paths, how fascinating everything is to the host, and how important it is for people to care about these topics/the environment in general. I was listening to learn about the topics, not to be convinced to care about them. So maybe I’m just not the intended audience?

I appreciate the host’s deep knowledge but wish he could approach interviews with more of a « beginner’s mind. » Most of the conversation is commiserating, marveling, humble bragging but not on the substance of the research. Rarely do I come away with a better understanding of the subject, sadly.