Radiolab artwork

May 15, 2026 · 46m, Episode 693

Your Friendly Neighborhood Hookworms

From Radiolab

— Player

?t=90 · ?t=1:30 · ?t=1h2m3s

0:00--:--
Timestamp sharing

— Episode notes

For most of human history, people went about their daily lives with a worm or two (or fifty) in their guts. Only in the past century, with pharmaceuticals and sanitation practices, have we made significant strides towards deworming the whole of humanity. And that’s typically been thought of as a good thing, because having too many worms in your body can–quite literally–suck the life out of you. But is it possible to have… too few worms? Science wonders if deworming ourselves has actually led to an increase in certain chronic diseases. On this episode, we dive...

— Timestamp deep links

Share any moment by clicking "Copy @ timestamp" in the player above. Supported formats: ?t=90 (seconds), ?t=1:30 (mm:ss), ?t=1h2m3s (hms).