Return of the Flesh-Eaters

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 Padrón 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

Videos:

• Oral history interviews of Edward F. Knipling: here • (https://zpr.io/njhMedFN5jsZ) and here • ( https://zpr.io/VQReQbfznCrq • )

Podcasts:

• Here’s a Spotify playlist • ( https://zpr.io/PNMEM274G7vh • ) of all of our Golden Goose-inspired episodes!

• Sam Kean’s podcast The Disappearing Spoon • – his episode about screwworms is called The Screwiest and Perhaps Most Original Idea of the 20th Century • ( https://zpr.io/UYf6dR2yG3eN • )

• Our episode on CRISPR & gene drives • ( https://zpr.io/UYf6dR2yG3eN • )

• New to Radiolab? Check out our Radiolab Starter Kit • ( https://zpr.io/QpPnrHAZVQLR • ) playlist of all-time favorite episodes!

Articles:

• Sarah Zhang’s latest piece in The Atlantic • : American Milk Has Changed • ( https://zpr.io/xebbdq2MWV4L • )

• Her most recent piece on screwworms: The ‘Man-Eater’ Screwworm Is Coming • ( https://zpr.io/ECmjCs7ScbS4 • )

• Her initial reporting on screwworms: America’s Never-Ending Battle Against Flesh-Eating Worms • ( https://zpr.io/PNMEM274G7vh • )

• Gregory Kaebnick’s paper • ( https://zpr.io/yqNC3q5FbCcq • ) about screwworm eradication in Science

Archival materials:

• The USDA’s Screwworm Eradication Records • ( https://zpr.io/dY7zuVdGYKjf • ) contain lots of cool images and letters

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