Cover any beat long enough in the world of journalism, and you’re bound to start viewing your own life through the lens of the topic you cover. In her new book “Transient and Strange: Notes on the Science of Life,” NPR Science Correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce does exactly this in a collection of personal essays, weaving together the clarity and matter-of-fact style of a science writer with the personal prose of a memoirist. The result is an intimate portrait of her life, and how the subjects she’s covered in her science reporting over the years connect to personal events that have shaped her, from seeking advice from meteorologists and storm chasers on how to calm her children’s fear of tornadoes to how modern science and medicine both saved her husband’s life and yet was unable to help her bear longed-for children.

Today on AirTalk, Nell joins Larry to talk about her new book.