Is There Really a Plastic Spoon in Our Brains?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Science, Education, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 11.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Headlines are screaming that we have tons of microplastics in our brains — the equivalent of an entire plastic spoon. OK, that sounds terrifying, but is it true? We talk to chemist Prof. Oliver Jones. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/PlasticSpoonBrain In this episode, we cover: (00:00) A plastic spoon’s worth of microplastics?! (05:21) Something dodgy here? (17:39) So how much plastic is in our bodies, really? This episode was produced by Rose Rimler, with help from Wendy Zukerman, along with Ekedi Fausther-Keeys, Meryl Horn, and Michelle Dang. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord. Fact checking by San Lemonick. Music written by Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, So Wylie, Bumi Hidaka, and Bobby Lord. Thanks to all the researchers we spoke to for this episode, including Dr. Roger Kuhlman, Prof. Martin Wagner, Dr. Elke Fischer, Dr. Marie-France Dignac, and Rachel Kozloski. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Verses.
0:05.5	So there are a lot of scientific papers out there that you will never read and that I will never read.
0:12.2	And only nerds really know about them.
0:15.2	But every now and then, there is a scientific paper that will break out of the ivory tower and go viral.
0:24.9	You see it all over the news, it's all over your feed, and sometimes these papers make these
0:30.2	very extraordinary claims that, I don't know, maybe sound a touch dodgy. It's hard to know what to make of them.
0:39.1	And that is where our brand new segment, viral papers, comes in.
0:44.8	And here with our very first viral paper is Science versus Senior Producer Rose Rimbler.
0:51.1	Hi, Rose.
0:52.1	Hi, Wendy.
0:53.1	I also have the honor of debuting the jingle for this new type of episode, which I know you had asked our very talented sound engineer to mix up a jingle.
1:05.9	He sent it to me, and I have it here for you to listen to it.
1:09.5	Yes.
1:10.1	So I was thinking the jingle could be something like,
1:14.2	viral papers, viral papers.
1:17.4	They're everywhere, but something's gone wrong.
1:23.5	Oh, that was just a suggestion.
1:27.6	I didn't think it was going to be the, I didn't think it was.
1:29.8	A good idea is a good idea, you know.
1:32.2	You can't, you can't just throw out a great melody like that.
1:37.8	Or vocal performance.
1:39.7	I thought it was a great light brainstorm session.
	...

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