Regina Barber

—Haren Darwin and her colleagues reported their findings that people with this mutation might be especially good at doing something else, right?

Right.

Specifically related to tuberculosis.

And we should also note that this work is currently under review at the Journal of Science.

So it hasn't actually been given like peer review, a thumbs up yet, right?

Yeah, exactly.

And there was a note in your article, I remember that you said that like, this is a hypothesis, right?

Like, it might not have helped TB.

So we should just be like a little cautious about kind of making that connection.

Thank you, Katie, for validating my struggle and showing that there might be a positive to it.

Oh, I'm going to.

Thank you so much for coming on our show.

Of course, anytime.

This episode was produced by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez, and edited by Burley McCoy.

Britt Hansen checked the facts, and Gilly Moon was the audio engineer.

Bette Donovan is our senior director, and Colin Campbell is our senior vice president.

I'm Regina Barber.

Thank you for listening to Shortwave from NPR.

In North America, raccoons are everywhere.

The common raccoon is native to forest habitats, but a lot of them live in urban areas close to humans, like the one that I'm pretty sure lives in my front yard.