Hey, Nate Rod here with an ask for you casual listeners out there. Can we invest more in this

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the show, which is starting right now. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey there, shortwavers. I don't know if you've heard, but there's this illness called

cyclosporiasis that has been wreaking havoc on thousands of people across the U.S. this

summer, as they've likely eaten contaminated produce. Joseph Kim is a science

reporting fellow at NPR, and he has been following this story, and he's here to fill us in on all

of the details. Hey, Joe. Help me out. What is cyclosporiasis? So cyclosporiasis is an intestinal

infection caused by parasites of the genus psychospora.

Okay.

They look like the soccer balls we saw at the World Cup.

And when they get inside people's digestive systems, people know.

Because the symptoms that show up later include farting, abdominal cramping, and watery, sometimes explosive diarrhea.

It's pretty bad.

Okay.

Yeah, man, if I had any of those symptoms, I would definitely notice them.

So that sounds awful.

Yeah, does not sound fun.

So I talked about it with Dr. Rebecca Wirtz.

She's a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and an infectious

disease physician.

...