Biologist Lee Dugatkin discusses his latest book, which is about Kropotkin, 'The Prince of Evolution' on Skeptically Speaking podcast.

Lee Dugatkin has written numerous books on the evolution of co-operation and in his latest book, The Prince of Evolution, surveys the life and work of Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin.

He begins the interview on Skeptically Speaking discussing Kropotkin's early life before moving on to his early natural history and geography work in Siberia, described as 'a colder version of the HMS Beagle voyages'. The link between his science and anarchist politics takes up a significant portion of the interview, including his imprisonment, how he coped with prison life, and his escape in 1876.

The book is the most recent work of popular science to discuss Kropotkin's scientific work - previously, Stephen Jay Gould had written about him in an essay 'Kropotkin Was No Crackpot'. More recently geneticist Steve Jones devoted a whole chapter to Kropotkin in his book Coral, and in 2010, historian Oren Harman discussed his work in The Price of Altruism.

An excerpt of the book is at Scientific American.