Barrett Klein

Entomologist Barrett Klein describes the importance of insects to life on Earth, as well their influence on our culture and civilization. Narrator Sean Patrick Hopkins has a tone of curiosity and wonder as he takes the listener on a comprehensive tour of the insect world, covering topics such as insects' influence on developments in science and engineering, mind-altering experiences guided by insects, insect dance, and insects' influence on the arts, like music and fashion design.

Who among us hasn’t spontaneously slapped a stinging bee, swatted a blood-sucking mosquito, or squished an ant marching intrepidly across the kitchen counter — without giving the loss of those tiny lives a second thought? One likely candidate is entomologist Barrett Klein.

It’s easy to write bugs off as pests, but consider the ways in which they have positively impacted our lives If you were asked to select five insects that have most profoundly altered humanity since Homo sapiens first fashioned tools and harnessed fire, which insects would you choose? With 1.1 million described species and ten quintillion individual insects hopping, buzzing, burrowing and swimming about, this could seem like a daunting exercise.