It's Monday, September 30th, 2019, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.

I'm Andrevis Gontas.

Each week, we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics,

and society collide.

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

You can find us online at inquiring.

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This is part two of a three-part series about very small things, and we're progressively

getting smaller. Last week, we talked to ants fedrophthygousin about insects and how

important they are, especially in a time when our climate is changing. This week, we talked to

Kelly Wienersmith, who's a parasitologist, so one step smaller things we can't see

with the naked eye. And it turns out that parasites can affect animal behavior, including ours.

And that to me was always fascinating. Kelly and her partner, Zach Wienersmith, wrote a book

called Soonish, 10 emerging technologies that'll improve

and or ruin everything, and it recently came out in paperback. So I wanted to take this opportunity

to talk to her just a tiny bit about the book, but mainly about her research and about how

amazing it is that things we can't even see can come in to our brains and affect our behavior.

Although, fair warning, we'll mostly be talking about non-human animals.

Kelly Weiner-Smith, welcome to inquiring minds.

Thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm excited to be here.

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