Matt Simon on the Plastics Crisis

Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin

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Tv & Film, Music, Music Interviews, Arts, Performing Arts, Film Interviews

4.4 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

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Summary

It has been found at the top of Mount Everest, the bottom of the ocean, and even inside the human body: plastic, once revered as a modern miracle, is now a global threat. Minimally recycled, it never fully disappears; instead, it simply breaks down into tiny particles called microplastics, which contaminate the air we breathe and the water we drink. In “A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies,” science journalist Matt Simon exposes the far-reaching consequences of this omnipresent material on both our environment and our health. Simon, formerly a staff writer at “WIRED” and now a senior staff writer at Grist, a non-profit media organization focused on climate solutions, joins host Alec Baldwin to discuss the alarming impact of plastic pollution, ways to reduce personal exposure, and the urgent solution he believes is needed to tackle this environmental crisis.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing from I Heart Radio.
0:08.0	It is found everywhere on Earth from the peak of Mount Everest to the bottom of the ocean.
0:14.4	It's in our drinking water and even inside our own bodies.
0:18.6	What is this omnipresent substance?
0:21.6	Plastic. Plastic has infiltrated our lives to such a
0:26.1	degree that it's almost impossible to live a day without encountering it. My
0:31.8	guest today is an expert on this topic. Matt Simon is a science
0:36.8	journalist and author of A Poison Like No Other, How Microplastics
0:41.9	corrupted our planet and our bodies.
0:45.0	Matt Simon previously worked as a staff writer for Wired
0:50.0	and currently serves as senior writer at Grist,
0:53.0	a non-profit media organization focused on climate solutions.
0:58.0	In his book, Simon estimates that humans have produced
1:01.8	more than 18 trillion pounds of plastic,
1:04.9	twice the weight of all the animals on earth.
1:08.4	He believes we are in a plastic crisis.
1:11.8	I wanted Simon to begin by distinguishing some terms that have been
1:16.1	floating around including the difference between a micro plastic and a nanoplastic.
1:21.6	Well we could actually start at macroplastics, the big stuff, bottles and bags that we know of,
1:26.4	they're floating around on the ocean, we're all aware.
1:28.4	Microplastics are defined as bits that are smaller than 5 millimeters,
1:32.0	which is about the width of a pencil eraser, it's a good way to think of us.
	...

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