A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some father beans and a nice

key empty.

So if you know this famous clip from the Silence of the Lambs, you will know that this episode

we could be discussing one of three things. Kianti, Fava beans. Oh, I wish we were discussing

Kianti or Fava beans. But no, this episode we're all about cannibalism. Happy Halloween.

But honestly, although we began with Hannibal Lecter, this episode is really not a gore

fest. This is after all gastropod, where we look at the science and history of food.

And the science and history of cannibalism turns out to be fascinating. I'm Nicola Twilly,

by the way, the one who is not in danger of fainting this episode. And I'm Cynthia Graber,

the one who has never seen Silence of the Lambs because I'm far too squeamish. But there's

interesting stuff here. We've all seen those nature documentaries where the spider consumes

its mate after sex. But really, how common is cannibalism in the animal world? And why does

it happen? And how common is it among humans in the past and still today? All that plus

a caloric breakdown of the human body for those of you who want to turn cannibal but

are watching your weight? There's one thing I wondered when we first decided to do this

episode. And it's the question I just asked, really, how common is cannibalism in other

species? It's such a taboo among humans. Is there a biological reason eating each other

would be disgusting for other animals too? To find out, we called up Bill Shutt, who is

the author of a new book called Cannibalism, a perfectly natural history.

Well, it's really common. And that was a surprise to me. I'm a zoologist, but I was not a cannibalism

expert. Bill told us that up till quite recently, most zoologists, including him, thought

that cannibalism was pretty rare in all species. Except for a couple of strange creatures

...