Everybody's Got One
Radiolab21 Mar 2025

Everybody's Got One

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 Bressler
with help from - Molly Webster
Produced by - Becca Bressler
with help from - Pat Walters, Maria Paz Gutierrez

EPISODE 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 radiolab@wnyc.org.

Leadership 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.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(652)

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl

This is the story of a three-year-old girl and the highest court in the land. The Supreme Court case Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl is a legal battle that has entangled a biological father, a heart-brok...

3 Okt 202545min

Voice

Voice

Over the course of millions of years, human voices have evolved to hold startling power. These clouds of vibrating air carry crucial information about who we are–and we rely on them to push ourselves ...

26 Sep 20251h 6min

The Spark of Life

The Spark of Life

In the 1920s, a Russian biologist studying onion roots made a surprising discovery: underground, down in the darkness, it seemed like the cells inside the onion roots were making their own … light. Th...

19 Sep 202536min

Los Frikis

Los Frikis

How a group of 80’s Cuban misfits found rock-and-roll and created a revolution within a revolution, going into exile without ever leaving home.  Reporter Luis Trelles brings us the story of punk rock’...

12 Sep 202533min

Screaming Into the Void

Screaming Into the Void

In August we performed a live taping of the show from a theater perched on the edge of Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River, overshadowed by the wide open night sky. Three stories about voids. One ...

5 Sep 202557min

Music Hat

Music Hat

With this episode, we’re putting on our music hat. For a program that relies so much on scoring and sound, it’s not often we talk about the musicians and the music they make that inspire us. Today, th...

29 Aug 202531min

The Medical Matchmaking Machine

The Medical Matchmaking Machine

As he finished his medical school exam, David Fajgenbaum felt off.  He walked down to the ER and checked himself in.  Soon he was in the ICU with multiple organ failure.  The only drug for his conditi...

22 Aug 20251h 1min

Weighing Good Intentions

Weighing Good Intentions

In an episode first released in 2010, then-producer Lulu Miller drives to Michigan to track down the endangered Kirtland’s warbler. Efforts to protect the bird have lead to the killing of cowbirds (a ...

15 Aug 202524min

Populært innen Vitenskap

fastlegen
tingenes-tilstand
liberal-halvtime
jss
rss-zahid-ali-hjelper-deg
sinnsyn
forskningno
villmarksliv
rekommandert
rss-overskuddsliv
rss-paradigmepodden
vett-og-vitenskap-med-gaute-einevoll
nordnorsk-historie
tidlose-historier
dekodet-2
rss-inn-til-kjernen-med-sunniva-rose
fjellsportpodden
kvinnehelsepodden
diagnose
rss-nysgjerrige-norge