We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. this story isn’t the nursery rhyme we think it is. In a way, it’s a struggle, almost like a tiny war. And right on the front lines of that battle is another major player on the stage of pregnancy that not a single person on the planet would be here without. An entirely new organ: the placenta.In this episode, which we originally released in 2021, we take you on a journey through the 270-day life of this weird, squishy, gelatinous orb, and discover that it is so much more than an organ. It’s a foreign invader. A piece of meat. A friend and parent. And it’s perhaps the most essential piece in the survival of our kind.Special thanks to Diana Bianchi, Julia Katz, Sam Behjati, Celia Bardwell-Jones, Mathilde Cohen, Hannah Ingraham, Pip Lipkin, and Molly Fassler.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Heather Radke and Becca Bresslerwith help from - Molly WebsterProduced by - Becca Bresslerwith help from - Pat Walters, Maria Paz GutierrezEPISODE CITATIONS:Articles:Check out Harvey’s latest paper published with Julia Katz.Sam Behjati's latest paper on the placenta as a "genetic dumping ground". Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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Hey, Lulu here. So a few months back, our illustrator, Jared Bartman, got a difficult prompt. We asked him to design a cute tote bag based on our incredibly morbid episode, Cheating Death, and Jared was stumped. How do you create something plucky and cheerful and design forward about the inevitability? of dying. So he brooded and he doodled and then one day it hit him.
It is easily my favorite design ever. And because it's sort of this secret code about death, it's kind of like carrying carpe diem around on your shoulder. Bye. Bye. Bye. A zipper. So go take a peek at Radiolab.org slash join. That's Radiolab.org slash join. And that's all. Thank you. On with the show.
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Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
It's really similar. Hey, I'm Lulu Miller. And I'm Molly Webster. This is Radiolab. And today... It's like red velvet bread. Look at that.
It does look like a loaf of bread.
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