We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. But this story isn’t the nursery rhyme we think it is. In a way, it’s a struggle, almost like a tiny war. And right on the front lines of that battle is another major player on the stage of pregnancy that not a single person on the planet would be here without. An entirely new organ: the placenta.
In this episode we take you on a journey through the 270-day life of this weird, squishy, gelatinous orb, and discover that it is so much more than an organ. It’s a foreign invader. A piece of meat. A friend and parent. And it’s perhaps the most essential piece in the survival of our kind.
This episode was reported by Heather Radke and Becca Bressler, and produced by Becca Bressler and Pat Walters, with help from Matt Kielty and Maria Paz Gutierrez.
Special thanks to Diana Bianchi, Julia Katz, Sam Behjati, Celia Bardwell-Jones, Hannah Ingraham, Pip Lipkin, and Molly Fassler.
Check out Harvey’s latest paper published with Julia Katz, who we spoke to for this episode.
Support Radiolab by becoming a member today at Radiolab.org/donate.
No Special Duty
Neanderthal's Revenge
Origin Stories
Radiolab After Dark
La Mancha Screwjob
Frailmales
Debatable
Hello, My Name Is
The Other Latif: Cuba-ish
NULL
In the Dust of This Planet
Inheritance
The Right Stuff
Stress
The Helen Keller Exorcism
Life in a Barrel
Speed
The Wordless Place
Hello
Forests on Forests
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
This American Life
Planet Money
99% Invisible
Freakonomics Radio
The Indicator from Planet Money