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MS - The Forbidden Garden

We spend most of the hour with Simon Parkin, author of "The Forbidden Garden:  The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and their Impossible Choice."   The book tells the extraordinary and true story of the Plant Institute,  the world's first significant seed depository, located in Leningrad- and the courageous efforts of its staff members to safeguard the depository during the horrific months when the city was under siege from Nazi Germany.   We'll do a follow-up interview with Curzio Caravati, who is a participant in a similar sort of archive .... one devoted to preserving many varieties of potatoes.