This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Solvable. I'm Jacob Weisberg.

The first thing you have to do is recognize you have a problem.

You've got to admit to it.

We haven't done that as a nation.

The problem is inadequate wastewater removal and sanitation infrastructure.

Do you think this is a problem that exists in all 50 states?

I know it exists in all 50 states.

Talking about human waste and the ills of causes, it's not so pleasant. A sense of humor helps. It is gross sometimes, but I've

gotten used to it. That's why I have my outfit. I have my black outfit with my boots,

so I won't be big by mosquitoes on raw sewage again.

Not talking about the problems caused by untreated sewage has led us to ignore the prevalence of diseases that people thought were largely gone from the United States.

We found evidence of hookworm and other tropical parasites.

Hookworm can penetrate the skin and usually end up typically in the gut, and it can create anemia because it feeds on the person's blood.

COVID-19 has underscored the health vulnerabilities that are linked with poverty and racial inequality.

Some of those health disparities are closely tied to inadequate wastewater treatment.

Catherine Coleman Flowers was recently awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant

for her work studying the problem of bad sewage and how to improve it.

That's the good news.

The bad news is she sees the problem getting worse with climate change.

Whether you're in Alaska where it's because of no infrastructure in some cases, or failing infrastructure because of melting permafrost, or if you're in a coastal state because of rising sea level, or you're in, like like where we are in Alabama with ground water

increasing because of sea level rise. All of these issues are issues that we're going to have

...