“When people think about evolutionary biology, they think of ‘survival of the fittest.’ It is the first thing that comes to people's minds, and it is a gross misconception of evolution, and it's consistently been weaponized against people, and that's specifically Black people, people of color, Indigenous folks and disabled people specifically… It was coined by a eugenicist. I will not say their name. It was not Darwin's theory.”

For this second episode, host Mollie Holmberg (she/her) talks with Dr. Haley Branch (she/her) at the Yale School of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology about how her training in ballet informs her approach to studying plants; debunking “survival of the fittest” and other common misconceptions about evolution that are foundational to eugenics; publishing science that upsets the worst men on the internet; what caring for plants teaches us about disabled life; and her efforts to make field work in ecology and evolutionary biology more accessible for disabled scientists. To find out more about Dr. Branch’s work on desert plant ecophysiology, ableism in evolutionary biology, and building spaces for disabled scientists in higher ed, you can visit her website at https://haleyabranch.weebly.com/.

Links to other work and websites discussed in the show:

• Branch, H.A. et al. (2022) “Discussions of the “Not So Fit”: How Ableism Limits Diverse Thought and Investigative Potential in Evolutionary Biology.” The American Naturalist, 200(1), 101-113. https://doi.org/10.1086/720003
• Turner, S.E. et al. (2014) “Social consequences of disability in a nonhuman primate.” Journal of human evolution, 68, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.01.002

If you have any comments or questions about the show, you can reach us at [email protected]

Transcript by Mollie Holmberg.

Theme music for the show is roswell by Fog Lake off the Free Music Archive and licensed under CC BY 4.0.