Climate Change is Unleashing New and Deadly Microbes
We talk with science writer Shayla Love, who warns that a warming planet might be making microorganisms mutate in a concerning and even deadly way.
June 17, 2026
54 min
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3,385 of 3,393
June 17, 2026
Climate Change is Unleashing New and Deadly Microbes
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America the Jesuit Review Episodes Around June 17, 2026
Episode 3,385 of 3,393 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Climate Change is Unleashing New and Deadly Microbes
Summary
We tend to focus on how climate change affects coral reefs, sea turtles and polar bears on melting ice. But we rarely focus on how climate change is affecting microbes — the bacteria, fungi and viruses we can only see with microscopes — which outnumber all other life on earth. So says science writer Shayla Love, who warns that a warming planet might be making those microorganisms mutate in a concerning and even deadly way. And that melting ice may even unleash new, unfamiliar microbes. We talk with Love about her New Yorker article, “Our Warming Planet Is a Petri Dish for New and Deadly Microbes.”
Guests:
Shayla Love, science writer; her recent New Yorker article is “Our Warming Planet Is a Petri Dish for New and Deadly Microbes”
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