Phage Against the Machine

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2021

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you thought food poisoning was just a matter of the occasional stomach upset from a dodgy shrimp or two, the CDC has some unsettling numbers for you: foodborne bacteria is responsible for at least 48 million cases of illness, more than 130,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths a year in the U.S. alone. And those numbers aren't going down. But wait: a new fighter has entered the ring! Say hello to the bacteriophage, a small-but-mighty bacteria-busting virus that can wipe out entire colonies of harmful pathogens—and that is starting to be sprayed on packages of cold cuts near you. While most Americans haven’t heard of phages (as they’re commonly called), they’ve been saving lives in the former Soviet Union for decades now. So why has it taken so long for the U.S. to get on board? How do these teeny-tiny bacteria fighters work, and what’s their connection to Elizabeth Taylor and chlorinated chicken? Should we—and could we—get our food systems on the phage train? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My boss at a time, a professor called Glenn Morris.
0:06.0	He was walking around in a very sad mood when the N.I. asked him what was going on.
0:10.6	And apparently he was treating a patient who just underwent a very sophisticated surgical
0:16.2	procedure.
0:17.2	I think it was an organ transplantation.
0:18.5	The surgery itself had gone well, but the patient developed an infection.
0:22.0	And the antibiotics the doctor was using just weren't working.
0:24.8	The patient was dying.
0:25.8	And I asked without thinking, how come that bacteriophages didn't handle it because I knew
0:30.8	bacteriophages could kill bacteria that could not be killed with antibiotics.
0:36.0	And at that point, Glenn looked at me.
0:37.8	Was that look that I realized that this is the first time he heard about this type of
0:42.5	application for bacteriophages?
0:44.3	Glenn is probably not alone here.
0:46.5	I hadn't even heard of what some people call bacteriophage or pages.
0:51.1	Is there usually called in the US?
0:52.6	I had literally no idea what they even were until just a few years ago.
0:58.1	It's entirely possible that this is the very first time you've ever heard of them.
1:02.6	But we are going to be spending quite a bit of time with these tiny, potentially life-saving
1:06.6	creatures today.
1:07.6	Don't worry, you are in fact listening to Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food
1:11.1	through the lens of science and history.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.