2024-02-29
52 分钟What surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about the most fundamental substance we all take for granted.
You may not want to do this, but let me ask you to rewind your memory to March 2020, when Covid-19 was starting to lay us all low.
We were hoarding toilet paper.
We were wiping down grocery deliveries.
Some people, meanwhile, were taking on bigger challenges.
My name is Amy Kirby, and I am the program lead for the national Wastewater surveillance system at CDC.
To most people, wastewater surveillance system may not seem particularly germane to a global pandemic.
But most people aren't.
Amy Kirby people will sometimes look at me and say, well, you just think wastewater is the answer to everything.
And I'm like, but it is the answer to a lot of things.
Today on Freakonomics radio, three surprising stories about water.
The first one is microbial.
The second is racial.
And the third, geopolitical.
This is not a problem of the Saudis coming and stealing Arizona's water.
This is a problem that Arizona has.
Bad water policy.
Water, water, everywhere.
But you have to stop to think.
This is freakonomics radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything, with your host, Stephen Dubner.
Amy Kirby is a microbiologist and epidemiologist who grew up in Atlanta, and that's where the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is headquartered.