"Science Vs" Podcast Episode: Is Human Composting The Greenest Way To Die?

With the recent legalization of human composting in California, this week’s episode of the Science Vs podcast from Gimlet, a Spotify Studio, explores the science of human composting to ask the questions - should we be composting human bodies? what’s the greenest way to die? how does human composting happen? - and more. 

In the new episode, host Wendy Zukerman and Science Vs editor Blythe Terrell take a trip to an industrial park in Washington state to find out if our bodies should go the way of our veggie scraps and become compost. But will people get on board with spreading Grandpa in the garden? They'll learn the science of what's going on here (and will get to run their fingers through some real human compost!).

Some key takeaways from the episode include:
In the US, it's estimated that cremation emits about a billion pounds of CO2 each year. Metals inside us – like mercury tooth fillings, also go up in smoke. 

Embalming involves injecting formaldehyde into a corpse to preserve it, but formaldehyde can be dangerous. It's classified as a carcinogen, and embalmers are at a higher risk of some cancers - like leukemia and pancreatic cancer - than the general population. 

Composting can actually kill pathogens. When it gets hot enough over a certain amount of time, lots of different dangerous pathogens struggle to survive. But although compost piles can kill a bunch of different pathogens, you could have some survivors that can handle the heat of the compost pile. 

We don't know if human composting is the most environmentally friendly way to deal with our dead, it's just so new. But we do know that by putting our carbon in the Earth – we're not pumping it into the atmosphere – like we do with cremation.

This season on Science Vs, you’ll be hearing a lot more from the rest of the Science Vs team with all the nerdiness you can handle as the podcast continues to dig into some big upcoming topics this season, including: the male birth control pill, hypnosis, ADHD, the unlucky number 13, and more.