The Missing Link

The gut microbiome – or the amalgamation of bacteria, fungi, archaea and viruses that reside in the digestive tract of living beings – is receiving a lot of attention from the scientific community. Many researchers say it holds important clues to human health, decoding which has led to its own slew of interventions, including pharmaceutical pills and fecal transplants. But the gut microbiome has undergone its own evolution, whose history is congruent with the enforced lifestyle and cultural changes brought about by colonization and migration. Today, we are in conversation with Dr. Fergus Shanahan, professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at University College Cork (UCC), National University of Ireland, to understand the connections between the gut microbiome and the history of colonization. Dr. Shanahan is also the founder and director of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Center (APC) in Cork, Ireland, which is among the largest gut microbiome research centers in the world. We are also speaking with Dr. Rupa Marya – a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and founder of the Do No Harm Coalition, which is committed to addressing disease through structural change – to unpack how gut microbiota relates to radical acts of decolonisation, and what that means for the future of health and disease. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Sound Design, Associate Producer: Vibhav Saraf Marketing Collateral Design: Hitesh Sonar Art Director: Neha Shekhawat Executive Producer: Karla Bookman

In 2022, a research paper sounded the alarm – the ocean is losing its memory. The ocean is vast, its memories ancient. Believed to be where life on Earth first originated, this large body of water holds an enormous amount of information. But with human-induced global warming, it’s almost as if the ocean is developing amnesia, according to the researchers who studied this phenomenon. But how does the ocean lose its memory? What does it mean for the ocean to have memory in the first place? Here, Dr. Hui Shi, a researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research who was also the lead author of the 2022 research paper, and Dr. Heather Spence, a marine biologist and composer, help us understand what ocean memory means, both for our present, and future. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Sound Design, Associate Producer: Vibhav Saraf Marketing Collateral Design: Hitesh Sonar Art Director: Neha Shekhawat Executive Producer: Karla Bookman

When NASA released the sound of a black hole in 2022, the internet had varied reactions: shock and awe, with many calling it a ‘cosmic horror.’ The sound captured our imagination and achieved a new pinnacle in space exploration and science. Blind and low-visibility astronomers can now study the universe and learn more insights about it than we already have. Disability scholars have long said that reframing disability not as a lack, but as diversity, can fundamentally change how we create and absorb knowledge. It took listening to a black hole to help us understand what that means. Today, we’re talking to Dr. Kimberly Arcand, who pioneered the sonification of the cosmos, to understand how she did what she did – and more importantly, why. We’re also making sense of the why with Dr. Nirmala Erevelles, a disability scholar, who shows that getting to hear a black hole isn’t just a paradigm shift in astronomy, but for humanity as a whole to understand why it’s important to not just “include” but actively center disabled bodies in research. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Sound Design, Associate Producer: Vibhav Saraf Marketing Collateral Design: Hitesh Sonar Art Director: Neha Shekhawat Executive Producer: Karla Bookman

The Hydra is a tiny, impassive creature. Cut it in half, and you have two whole Hydra with the same genetic material. Chop off its head, and it simply regrows one. It’s an ability that hasn’t caught the attention of the powerful elite – yet. But if it did, it could show them the futility of a project they’re currently embroiled in. The longtermist project. In this episode, we have Daniel Martinez, who studies hydra, and Emile P. Torres, who studies long termism, who show us how to think about our future – by simply looking into the undying present of the Hydra. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Sound Design, Associate Producer: Vibhav Saraf Marketing Collateral Design: Hitesh Sonar Art Director: Neha Shekhawat Executive Producer: Karla Bookman

We were promised an AI revolution, but it didn’t quite pan out. Thinking about how AI perceives gender helps us see the cracks. Here are Sandy Stone and Morgan Klaus, who connect the dots between gender and AI. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Sound Design, Associate Producer: Vibhav Saraf Marketing Collateral Design: Hitesh Sonar Art Director: Neha Shekhawat Executive Producer: Karla Bookman

The monarch butterfly can migrate 3,000 miles. But humans see migration differently – we’ve drawn borders and we control who crosses them, where, and how. What if the little butterfly, through its migration across borders, can fundamentally change how we see the world and who moves through it? We’re speaking to anthropologist Dr. Columba González and conservationist Neha Sinha, who tell us about the connection between monarch butterflies and human migration. In ‘The Missing Link,’ The Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science. Credits: Hosts: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Writing and Production: Rohitha Narharisetty and Ananya Singh Sound Design, Associate Producer: Vibhav Saraf Marketing Collateral Design: Hitesh Sonar Art Director: Neha Shekhawat Executive Producer: Karla Bookman Note: Since the recording of this episode, Dr. González has moved to the New School for Social Research, where she is an assistant professor of Anthropology.

In ‘The Missing Link,’ the Swaddle’s science podcast, we take a look at humanity’s most urgent questions – and the answers that might be lurking in unexpected science.