Blue Dot

Blue Dot: The heat is on: a conversation with Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First

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Jeff Goodell
Matt Valentine

Host Dave Schlom visits with Rolling Stone contributing editor and author Jeff Goodell about his latest book, The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. 

The book surged onto the New York Times bestsellers list earlier this summer as the planet grappled with surging heat waves, floods, and the devastating fires on Maui dominated headlines.

In his book, Goodell takes an in-depth, scientific look at what heat is and why it is such an insidious killer -- often taking the lives of people who are seemingly young and fit as well as the very young and elderly. From studying a massive ice sheet in Antarctica to going into the depths of time to investigate our adaptations to heat, it's a tour de force of a book and a fascinating conversation.

Dave Schlom is the longtime host and creator of Blue Dot. From surfing to Voyager in interstellar space, rock guitar to orcas in our imperiled oceans, the topics on Blue Dot are as varied as the host’s interests and connections -- which are pretty limitless! An internationally respected space history journalist, Dave is also deeply fascinated by all aspects of the grand workings of nature’s awesome machinery on scales ranging from galactic to subatomic. And topics take in all aspects of the arts and sciences.
Matt Fidler is a producer and sound designer with over 15 years’ experience producing nationally distributed public radio programs. He has worked for shows such as Freakonomics Radio, Selected Shorts, Studio 360, The New Yorker Radio Hour and The Takeaway. In 2017, Matt launched the language podcast Very Bad Words, hitting the #28 spot in the iTunes podcast charts.