Dr Karl Kruszelnicki AM

Science Communicator, Author

Peace, love and mung beans (well, soy beans) – the incomparable Dr Karl covers it all in his chat with Savva Savas on this episode of Three Food Memories.

He’s been a taxi driver, a hippie (his description), a steel worker and a roadie for rock and roll bands, but it’s his knack for making science and the wonderous world we live in seem accessible and exciting that has set Dr Karl apart.

Today an author of 47 books (yes, you read that right), Dr Karl grew up in Wollongong, NSW, the only child of Polish immigrants, with a huge garden that grew potatoes and had a chicken coup.

His food memories connect to both the family he grew up in (he’s a lover of pierogi, or polish dumplings) and the family he has had. But there's also a throwback to the eight years he spent eating on the cheap while living in a squat in Sydney’s inner city suburb of Glebe.

Dr Karl cares deeply about education. He's a vocal critic of the privatisation of education and the federal government's subsidies to private schools. Every Wednesday, he hosts a Q&A with a public school and has sent more than four tons of books and New Scientist magazines to public schools around Australia.