It still seems hard to believe, but for one disease, poop — yes, human poop — is nothing short a miracle cure. Microbiologist Christina Agapakis takes a look at Fecal Microbiota Transplants or FMT and what happens when you take the really complex gut microbiome from a healthy person and transplant it into the gut of a really sick person. For patients suffering from a one of the most common and deadly hospital acquired infections, Clostridium Difficile, or C Diff, one poop transplant can cure them, sometimes within hours. But, why?

Learn more about this episode here: http://transistor.prx.org/2015/03/the-straight-poop/

This episode was produced by Kerry Donahue and Sruthi Pinnamaneni, and mixed by David Herman. Photo of OpenBiome office door by Genevieve Sponsler.