It's Friday, March 6th, 2015, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds. I'm Indravis Gantis.

And I'm Kishore Hari. Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

You can find us online at motherjones.com

and our new Tumblr page, inquiringshow.tumbler.com, where you can find show notes and other

tidbits. We're on Twitter at Inquiring Show and on Facebook at Slaquiring Minds podcast.

This week's episode is sponsored by Casper.

Casper is an online retailer of premium mattresses for a fraction of the price.

Casper is revolutionizing the mattress industry by cutting the cost of dealing with resellers and showrooms and passing that savings directly to you.

To get $50 towards any one of their obsessively engineered mattresses, visit casper.com

slash inquiring minds and use promo code inquiring minds.

And this episode is also sponsored by the Great Courses.

The Great Courses brings the world's greatest professors to your fingertips.

With over 500 courses on science, history, philosophy, fine arts, and more, the great courses are available on digital download and streaming or DVD and CD.

And for a limited time only, the Great Courses is offering our listeners 80% off the original price of one of their courses, Origins of

the Human Mind. Go to the greatcourses.com-enquiring minds to find out more. So in the past

decade or so, there's been an explosion in research on the microbiome, the ecological community

of microbial organisms that live on and in our bodies.

And a lot of interesting findings have been published, linking diseases like diabetes,

autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and even MS,

with modifications to the number and types of microbes that live in our guts.

And some people with depression, anxiety, and even autism

...