So what do you know about placentas?

I know nothing. I know I know I would say the amount I know about placentas is that they are

vaguely

Like I know that like a placenta is also called an afterbirth. Is that right? Is that a thing? Is that is that right?

This is Latif Nasser. He's a science historian. He also works for the podcast radio lab and

Latif's right. The placenta, you know, the organ that keeps the baby alive inside the uterus is also

Sometimes called the afterbirth. That's because you deliver it after delivering your baby.

I can remember seeing my placenta. My daughter was having some breathing issues at first when she was

born and the doctors were working on her on the other side of the room. So I actually met my placenta

before I even met my kid. I remember my midwife telling me, oh the baby looks like you.

Then turning and asking me, do you want to see your placenta? I was like, sure.

So she brought it over in this plastic basin. I remember staring at my glistening red placenta

and thinking it looked like the most delicious piece of meat I had ever seen.

Later on that memory freaked me out. You know, like this this idea that I had kind of wanted to

eat a piece of myself. I'd make myself feel better by reminding myself how exhausted I had been

from the childbirth, you know, from two days of labor and nearly four hours of pushing. I mean,

I was starving too. Anything would have looked appetizing. But here's the thing. Maybe wanting to eat

my placenta wasn't just some weird delirious instinct. You know, lots of animals eat their placenta.

Some people too. So you eat it? Yes. I've never, that has never even, that's not a thing in my

knowledge of human experience. This is the longest shortest time. I'm Hillary Frank. I know a little

bit about placentas and what people do with them. Lot of though, he knows nothing. After all, he's

addued with no kids. Today, Lottif and I are going to come together to learn about placenta consumption

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