Prosanta Chakrabarty (@preaux_fish) is a systematist and an ichthyologist studying the evolution and biogeography of both freshwater and marine fishes. His work includes studies of Neotropical (Central and South America, Caribbean) and Indo-West Pacific (Indian and Western Pacific Ocean) fishes.

Prosanta is an Associate Professor and Curator of Fishes at the Museum of Natural Science and Department of Biological Science at Louisiana State University and is also a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

He has gone on research trips to Japan, Australia, Taiwan, Madagascar, Panama, Kuwait, and many other countries and discovered over a dozen new species including new anglerfishes and cavefishes in the process.

His latest books include A Guide to Academia: Getting into and surviving grad school, postdocs and a research job and Making a Big Splash with Louisiana Fishes. He is also a former Program Director at the National Science Foundation and was named a TED Fellow in 2016, and a TED Senior Fellow in 2018.





You can listen right here on iTunes

In our wide-ranging conversation, we cover many things, including:

* How the attitude towards science and scientific research has changed in DC since Trump
* What happens when science discover completely new species
* Why Prosanta is optimistic about the direction the world is headed
* What happens if and when we revive the Neanderthals
* How a fisherman found humanity's closing living fish relative thought extinction 65 million years ago
* Why biology is shifting away from the organismal view and towards biotech
* The reason Prosanta is pretty terrified about CRISPR
* How soon until we start to see newly engineered species of human
* The problems with containing CRISPR and gene editing
* Ways to redesign education for a more well-rounded individual
* What we can learn from fundamental scientific research why it needs more money
* When should we consider genetically editing humans and why it's probably inevitable
* Why evolution might be more complex than we think






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