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Parasites and Personality

Episode 4 of 40

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight wonder who controls your thoughts and actions. You, or the things that live inside you? From 2019.

If you think you’re in control, think again.

What invisible forces might be guiding your behaviour, your decisions, your most intimate emotions?

Becky Ripley and Emily Knight take a trip into the bizarre nightmare world of the undergrowth, and watch ‘zombie ants’ stumble forward, blindly following the orders of the deadly fungi controlling their brains.

Parasites often get the upper hand of their hosts, manipulating their behaviour in sometimes horrifying ways. But is that true of humans too? Could we be unknowingly subservient to creatures that live inside us?

Do they wish us well, or might they be plotting our downfall?

Featuring entomologist Dr David Hughes from Penn State University, and neuroscientist John Cryan from University College Cork.

Produced and presented by Becky Ripley and Emily Knight.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2019.

Available now

15 minutes

Last on

Thursday09:30
BBC Radio 4 Extra

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Sea-Sponges and the Illusion of Self

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Screaming Marmots and the Sound of Fear

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Broadcasts

  • Thu 20 Jun 201913:45
    BBC Radio 4
  • Tue 10 Dec 201909:30
    BBC Radio 4
  • Fri 24 Sep 202119:45
    BBC Radio 4
  • Thursday09:30
    BBC Radio 4 Extra

Podcast

  • Naturebang

    Making sense of what it means to be human by looking to the natural world.