Radiolab
Radiolab

Return of the Flesh-Eaters

March 13, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

  • The Format: This is a casual, investigative podcast episode from Radio Lab. It blends a narrative deep-dive with an interview, featuring the hosts and two expert guests.
  • The Key Players:
    • Lulff Nasser (Host): The main narrator, guiding the story with curiosity and relatable reactions.
    • Sarah Kari (Producer): The reporter who dug into the story, providing on-the-ground details and emotional weight.
    • Sarah Zhang (Guest): A science journalist for The Atlantic who first noticed the weird deer situation in Florida.
    • Sam Kean (Guest): A science writer who provides historical context and the "big picture" of the screwworm saga.
  • The Vibe: Fascinating and Morally Complex. The tone shifts from awe at a brilliant scientific solution to dread about its potential failure, ending with a heavy ethical debate about extinction.

🗝️ Key Themes & Topics

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:00) **🎙️ Introduction: Sarah Zhang & Sam Kean**
  • 2 (05:18) **The Single Most Original Thought of the 20th Century**
  • 3 (11:34) **The Secret Lab & The Island Test**
  • 4 (16:17) **Eradicating Screwworms from North America**
  • 5 (24:23) **The Barrier Breaks: Screwworms Return**
  • 6 (31:10) **The Gene Drive Debate: Extinction as a Tool**
  • 7 (37:41) **The Verdict: Should Screwworms Die Forever?**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

If a species is horrible enough, do we have the right to kill it forever?

Seventy years ago, a nightmare parasite feasted on the live flesh of warm-blooded creatures in North America: the screwworm. That is, until a young scientist named Edward F. Knipling discovered a crucial screwworm weakness and hatched a sweeping project to wipe them out. Knipling’s seemingly zany plan to spray screwworms out of planes all over the continent— with US taxpayer money— succeeded, becoming one of humanity’s biggest environmental interventions ever. 

Today, screwworms have been gone so long that none of us in North America even remember them. But now, they’re coming back. And they’re forcing us to ask: in an era of climate change and rapid mass extinction— should we kill off a species on purpose? 

Special thanks to James P. Collins, Max Scott, Amy Murillo, Daniel Griffin, Phil Kaufman, Katie Barnhill, Arthur Caplan, Ron Sandler, Yasha Rohwer, Aaron Keefe, Gwendolyn Bogard, Maria Sabate, Meredith Asbury, and Joanne PadrĂłn Carney

EPISODE CREDITS: 
Reported by - Sarah Qari
with help from - Latif Nasser
Produced by - Sarah Qari
Sound design contributed by - Sarah Qari
Fact-checking by - Emily Krieger

EPISODE CITATIONS:

**The latest information on screwworm outbreaks and precautions: 
screwworm.gov

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