Could a ‘Plastic Detox’ Help With Health and Fertility?
We talk with the fertility researcher and one of the couples in the documentary to hear what they think we should — and should not — take away from the experiment.
May 6, 2026
54 min
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3,325 of 3,393
May 6, 2026
Could a ‘Plastic Detox’ Help With Health and Fertility?
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Episode 3,325 of 3,393 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Could a ‘Plastic Detox’ Help With Health and Fertility?
Summary
The new Netflix documentary “The Plastic Detox” follows six couples struggling with unexplained infertility, asking them to cut plastic from their lives to see if that could help them conceive. While not a scientific study, the film explores the intriguing possibility that reducing everyday plastic exposure can actually improve our health. But how likely is this? We talk with the fertility researcher and one of the couples in the documentary to hear what they think we should — and should not — take away from the experiment.
Guests:
Shanna Swan, professor of environmental medicine, Icahn School of Medicine; founder and director, Action Science Initiative
Monique Tavares, owner, San Ramon construction company BL Pavers; participant, “The Plastic Detox”
Jasmine McDonald, associate professor of epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University
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