Corpse Demon | Radiolab Podcast

From the Radiolab podcast: Where vultures, Zoroastrianism and modern medicine meet. Heaven and hell, Judgement Day, monotheism — these ideas all came from one ancient Persian religion: Zoroastrianism. Also: Sky Burials. Zoroastrians put their dead on top of a structure called The Tower of Silence where vultures devour the body in a matter of hours. It’s clean, efficient, eco-friendly. It’s how it’s been for thousands of years. Until 2006. That’s when a Zoroastrian woman living in Mumbai snuck up into the tower and found bloated, rotting bodies everywhere. The vultures were gone. And not just at the tower — all across the country. In this episode, Avir Mitra follows the Kenyan bird biologist, Munir Virani, as he gets to the bottom of this. A mystery whose stakes are not just the end of an ancient burial practice, but the health of all the world’s ecosystems. The answer, in unexpected ways, points back to us. 🎧 Subscribe to Radiolab wherever you listen to podcasts: https://bit.ly/3trXDLe 🔎 Subscribe to Radiolab on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3I9KI53 🖋 Subscribe to Radiolab’s Newsletter: https://radiolab.org/newsletter 🌱 Check out Radiolab's Starter Kit Playlist: https://bit.ly/3sX8f4P 👍 Like this video ✏️ and leave us a comment! Follow Radiolab: Instagram —   / radiolab   Twitter —   / radiolab   Facebook —   / radiolab   Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab today: https://radiolab.org/the-lab Guests in this episode include: Munir Virani, Cawas Desai, Jasmine Mitra. Photo illustration Jared Bartman