Presentation

2015 Presentation: Mara Grunbaum

Mara Grunbaum is the rare species of human who melds science with humor. The Brooklyn-based science writer and editor is the author of the new book WTF, Evolution?!, which was born from her hilarious blog of the same name. In WTF, Evolution?!, Grunbaum pokes fun at evolution for some of its most galling and baffling creations. Penis-fencing flatworms, giraffe neck weevils, carnivorous potatoes: “Really, evolution? Go home, you’re drunk.”

In this presentation, Grunbaum will team up with local actor Cat Lee Covert[2] to perform preposterous dialogues in which evolution does its best to defend questionable decisions, such as putting a pearlfish inside the anus of a sea cucumber or allowing the tsetse fly to give live birth.

“Gross, evolution.”

“Miraculous, you mean.”

Grunbaum has written for adults and kids in Popular Science, Discover, Scholastic's Science World and SuperScience magazine and other publications, and one time she fact-checked a planet to death. She is a graduate of NYU's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. Before returning to New York, she worked for several years as a freelance reporter in Portland, Oregon, where she wrote about local politics, poverty and social justice.

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