Conversations with Tyler: Mary Roach

Mary Roach, best-selling, award-winning, and delightfully witty science author, will join Tyler Cowen for a wide-ranging dialogue as part of the Mercatus Center's Conversations with Tyler series.

Since getting her start in 1986, Mary Roach has published eight books, including her latest Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. In Grunt, Roach explores questions most civilians never consider: Why are shrimp more dangerous to sailors than sharks? Why is a zipper a problem for a sniper? How is diarrhea a threat to national security?

Roach's work isn't afraid to "go there" as she explores taboo topics such as sex, the nitty gritty of life in space, dead bodies, and what happens to food after you eat it. Roach's perspective frequently comes from a first-hand experience as she offers up herself - and sometimes her husband - to participate in unconventional science experiments, including agreeing to wear ultrasound equipment during coitus.

Mary Roach is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void,  Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Packing For Mars is a New York Times Editor's Choice and a One City, One Book selection for San Francisco. Stiff has been translated into 26 languages and Spook was a New York Times Notable Book. Mary has written for National Geographic, Wired, New Scientist, The New York Times Book Review, The Journal of Clinical Anatomy and Outside, among others.

There will be a book signing immediately following the event.