The Audio Book Club

The Audio Book Club Meets Lab Girl

Slate critics discuss Hope Jahren’s memoir of plants and friendship. 

To listen to the Audio Book Club discussion of Lab Girl, click the arrow on the player below.

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Slate critics Susan Matthews, Laura Miller, and Katy Waldman discuss Lab Girl, Hope Jahren’s joyful memoir of plants, the scientific process, and friendship. How does Jahren negotiate, even rank, her identities as scientist, woman, mother, and platonic soulmate to her lab manager, Bill? Does the “Trees: they’re just like us!” gambit work—or is Jahren making a subtler argument about what it means to be a plant and a human?

Next month, the Audio Book Club will dig into Eligible, a contemporary update on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld. Read the book and stay tuned for our discussion in June!  

Visit our Audio Book Club archive page for a complete list of the more than 75 books we’ve discussed over the years. Or you can listen to any of our previous club meetings through our iTunes feed.

See all the pieces in this month’s Slate Book Review.

Podcast produced by Jayson De Leon and Andy Bowers.