This is an I-Hard podcast.

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Howdy, Extraordinaries?

The pop science community was alight recently after a paper came out that found evidence suggesting that raccoons are showing signs of domestication.

Now, if you've been listening to our recent listener questions episode, you know that I'm

wary of raccoons as pets, in large part because they carry a nasty parasite called raccoon roundworm.

But what if raccoons are starting down the road to domestication, and we can get rid of that parasite in domesticated raccoons?

I don't see raccoons producing any valuable product. We probably won't be raising meat raccoons or dairy raccoons anytime soon, for example.

So that probably leaves raccoons as pets, which sounds super cute. So

will our children or grandchildren be taking their pet raccoons on walks when we're older?

And just how far down the domestication trail have raccoons actually traveled? And, you know,

while we're at it, taking another step back, just how well do we actually understand how domestication works in the first place?

We're going to dig into all of those questions today.

Welcome to Daniel and Kelly's domesticated universe.

Music Hi, I'm Daniel.

I study particles and aliens, and I consider myself only partially domesticated.

Hi, I'm Kelly Weiner-Smith. I study parasites and space, and I consider myself mostly partially domesticated. Hi, I'm Kelly Weiner-Smith.

I study parasites and space, and I consider myself mostly feral.

You do round up to a wild animal, don't you?

I think so, yeah, yeah.

Has that changed since you lived on the farm?

You know, for a long time, it has been the case that you probably shouldn't bring me nice places because I will say inappropriate things.

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