Silk & Venom: James O'Hanlon in-conversation

There are more than 50 000 species of spiders. They surround us in our daily lives and, contrary to popular belief, the vast majority are completely harmless to humans.

In Silk & Venom, James O’Hanlon takes us from his backyard to all corners of the globe (and even outer space!) to explore these fascinating creatures and show us why they’re not so scary after all.

You’ll encounter everything from miniscule jumping spiders with super intelligence to giant tarantulas whose venom could one day save your life.

Clearing up spider myths and misconceptions, James O’Hanlon introduces readers to the beauty of their lives, including remarkable hunting techniques, the fascinating engineering of spider silk and the spiders that live in extremes — from underwater to the slopes of Mount Everest.

James O’Hanlon has travelled around Australia and the globe uncovering the secret lives of insects and spiders. If it is small, mysterious and lacks a backbone, James has an insatiable desire to find out what it is and what it does. He has published over 30 academic papers and his popular science writing has appeared in ABC News, Australian Geographic, The Conversation and Biosphere Magazine. He is an award-winning science communicator and was the 2021 recipient of the Varuna–New England Writers’ Centre fellowship.

Dr Caitlyn Forster is an associate lecturer at the University of Sydney. When she's not teaching students about the wonderful world of insects, she's usually training bees and flies to forage on fake flowers to understand how they make decisions, or working with comic artists to create science comics.