The Shark Inside You

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is episode three of Swimming with Shadows: A Radiolab Week of Sharks. Today, we take a trip across the world, from the south coast of Australia to … Wisconsin. Here, scientists are scouring shark blood to find one of nature’s hidden keys, a molecular superhero that might unlock our ability to cure cancer: shark antibodies. They’re small. They’re flexible. And they can fit into nooks and crannies on tumors that our antibodies can’t. We journey back 500 million years to the moment sharks got these special powers and head to the underground labs transforming these monsters into healers. Can these animals we fear so much actually save us? Special thanks to Mike Criscitiello, David Schatz, Mary Rose Madden, Ryan Ogilvie, Margot Wohl, Sofi LaLonde, and Isabelle Bérubé.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Becca BresslerProduced by - Becca Bressler and Matt KieltyOriginal music from - Matt Kielty and Jeremy BloomSound design contributed by - Matt Kielty, Jeremy Bloom, and Becca Bresslerwith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Diane Kellyand Edited by - Pat Walters Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:03.1	Okay.
0:04.4	All right.
0:05.6	Okay.
0:07.0	All right.
0:08.5	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:11.4	Radio Lab.
0:11.9	From W. N. Y.
0:13.9	C.
0:14.8	See?
0:15.1	Yeah.
0:19.4	The one thing I have to apologize for is I'm still kind of stuffed up, so you're going to hear nose is being blown frequently, but I will do it off mic.
0:27.7	Oh, that's okay. I'm not particularly sensitive to nose blowing, so.
0:31.7	This is Radio Lab. I'm Lulu Miller, and today is day three of our week of sharks.
0:36.2	Do you feel good? You're in a zone?
0:38.2	I'm in a zone.
0:39.4	And today's story comes to us from producer Becca Bressler.
0:42.2	Yeah.
0:42.6	Well, I do think that this is maybe the most interesting story I've ever worked on.
0:47.0	Ooh.
0:47.8	And it's actually kind of weirdly fitting that you're sick right now.
0:50.9	Okay.
	...

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