During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad, scientists guarded a collection of 250,000 seeds as their city starved, and some chose to die rather than eat them. Award-winning journalist and author Simon Parkin reveals the full untold story.

Simon Parkin is a contributing writer for The New Yorker and The Observer, and author of The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, named a Best Book of the Year by Scientific American and The Economist, and an NYT Editors' Choice.

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00:00 The Extraordinary Story of the Seed Bank

04:36 The Siege of Leningrad: A Historical Overview

08:50 Nikolai Vavilov: The Visionary Behind the Seed Bank

13:45 The Moral Dilem ...