Dr. Lawrence David

speaker

102 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 5 Aug

Dr. Lawrence David’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 1.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Science Friday · What do people eat? Plant and animal DNA in sewage provide clues · 5 Aug 2026 podcast

I think for the reasons that you brought up, right?

You kind of assume that a lot of the DNA should be digested.

And then as it passes through things like the sewer and wastewater, you think that it might be broken down.

And then finally, one of the things that we were doing in our pilot experiments was piggybacking on the samples that got collected in the pandemic for tracking things like viruses.

And I had thought that maybe the same kinds of sampling procedures that are looking for viruses won't work for food.

But it turned out they did.

I think that one of the things that just stands out to me and that still just really fascinates me is that

When we count, it's got to be probably north of 100 different animal species across the cities that people are eating.

And then maybe close to 200 plant species that show up just day to day in how we live our lives or how cities live.

And I think I had never really...

counted that or thought in my head.

How many plants and animals does it take for people to eat in, say, a town across a day?

And I think there's something really cool and beautiful about that.

There's this idea that diversity has been lost in our food systems.

And actually, there's still quite a bit

You know, I think one of the biggest has to do with food availability within cities or between cities.

And I think one of the things, for example, that comes up is when recommendations go out that people should, say, eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Are people doing that?

Are they doing it in season?

And then who gets to do that?

Showing 41–60 of 102 · page 3 of 6