cover of episode Everybody's Got One

Everybody's Got One

2025/3/21
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This chapter introduces the placenta, an organ that grows during pregnancy and plays a crucial role in the development of the fetus. The discussion highlights the common misconceptions about the placenta and its importance in pregnancy.
  • The placenta is a new organ that grows during pregnancy.
  • It is developed by the fetus, not the mother.
  • The placenta acts as a conduit for nutrients and oxygen to the fetus.
  • Harvey Kleiman's research on placental stem cells offers new insights.
  • The placenta has often been an afterthought in pregnancy discussions.

Shownotes Transcript

We all think we know the story of pregnancy. Sperm meets egg, followed by nine months of nurturing, nesting, and quiet incubation. 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, which we originally released in 2021, 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.

Special thanks to Diana Bianchi, Julia Katz, Sam Behjati, Celia Bardwell-Jones, Mathilde Cohen, Hannah Ingraham, Pip Lipkin, and Molly Fassler.

**EPISODE CREDITS: **Reported by - Heather Radke and Becca Bresslerwith help from - Molly WebsterProduced by - Becca Bresslerwith help from - Pat Walters, Maria Paz Gutierrez

EPISODE CITATIONS:

**Articles:**Check out Harvey’s latest paper) published with Julia Katz.Sam Behjati's latest paper) on the placenta as a "genetic dumping ground". 

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