Showing results by author "Amy Stewart" in All Categories

The podcast that loves to hate running. While other podcasts will celebrate your journey, encourage you to go faster and further, and run free, we’d rather talk about bleeding nipples, getting chased by horses and getting horribly injured. Keep it real with Stewart and Amy.

Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly. A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. Amy Stewart, best-selling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

They destroy plant diseases. They break down toxins. They plough the earth. They transform forests. They’ve survived two mass extinctions, including the one that wiped out the dinosaur. Not bad for a creature that’s deaf, blind, and spineless. Who knew that earthworms were one of our planet’s most important caretakers? Or that Charles Darwin devoted his last years to studying their remarkable achievements?

Every great drink starts with a plant. Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley. Gin was born from a conifer shrub when medieval physicians boiled juniper berries with wine to treat stomach pain. The Drunken Botanist uncovers the surprising botanical history and fascinating science and chemistry of over 150 plants, flowers, trees, and fruits (and even a few fungi).

Constance Kopp doesn't quite fit the mould. She towers over most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been isolated from the world by a family secret. When a ruthless factory owner runs down their buggy, a dispute over damages turns into a war as he unleashes his gang. The sheriff enlists her help, and it turns out that Constance has a knack for outwitting the criminal element which might just lead her onto a new path in life.

In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes---creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world's most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop traffic, to the Japanese beetles munching on your roses, Wicked Bugs delves into the extraordinary powers of many-legged creatures

Nell'autunno del 1915, Constance Kopp, dopo aver scartato sdegnosa il mestiere di giardiniera e intagliatrice, per non parlare di quello di governante, si destreggia nel suo nuovo mondo: la prigione dello sceriffo Heath, ad Hackensack, in New Jersey. Il suo posto da vicesceriffa è in bilico, perché le ingessate leggi dello Stato ancora non prevedono che quella carica possa essere ricoperta da una donna. E così viene retrocessa a direttrice della sezione femminile, dove sorveglia le detenute o rincorre giovani ragazze in fuga sui treni.

Amy Stewart vuelve a la carga con otra inolvidable aventura protagonizada por las aguerridas hermanas Kopp. En 1915, nadie esperaba que una mujer persiguiera a los fugitivos de la ley por las calles de Nueva York, pero Constance Kopp no hizo nunca lo que los demás esperaban de ella. Tras salir en todos los periódicos cuando, junto a sus dos hermanas, plantó cara al dueño de una fábrica y a sus matones, el honorable sheriff Heath decidió nombrarla su ayudante, convirtiéndola así en una de las primeras oficiales de policía del país. 

Tras "Una chica con pistola" y "Mujer policía busca problemas", la nueva aventura de las hermanas Kopp. Tras conseguir por fin la placa que la acredita como ayudante del sheriff, Constance Kopp está lista para enfrentarse a cualquier cosa. En la cárcel de Hackensack, le horroriza ver que muchas mujeres son acusadas de dudosos cargos de conducta incorregible o de moral depravada, como Edna Heustis, que se fue de casa de sus padres para trabajar en una fábrica de armamento, o Minnie Davis, la chica de dieciséis años a quien no corresponde enviar a un reformatorio estatal.

Cuando Amy Stewart se topó con un artículo de 1914 que contaba cómo el coche del propietario de una fábrica había embestido la calesa en la que viajaban las hermanas Constance, Norma y Fleurette Kopp, y la manera en que la disputa por los daños causados había derivado en una escalada de amenazas y disparos, que terminaría con Constance convertida en ayudante del sheriff, este captó de inmediato su interés.