How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves
Meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms and sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites. Many animals use medicine to treat themselves — something that for a long time has been thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. Now scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs. Presented at the Free Library of Philadelphia Listen to Big Ideas: Insects — nature's ultimate superheroes Speaker Jaap de Roode Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University Author of Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves
July 29, 2025
44 min
60 of 248
July 29, 2025
How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves
0:00 / 44:03
Excerpt playback isn’t available for this episode — use the full-episode link.
Search the Record
Moment search isn’t open for this episode yet
When it opens, you’ll be able to type any phrase and jump straight to the second it was said.
Progressive Liberal Party Episodes Around July 29, 2025
Episode 60 of 248 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Mao and Stalin — did they lead the way for tyrannical leaders like Trump?
How animals use natural medicine to heal themselves
Summary
<p>Meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms and sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites. Many animals use medicine to treat themselves — something that for a long time has been thought to be the exclusive domain of humans. Now scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.</p><p>Presented at the <a href="https://www.freelibrary.org/">Free Library of Philadelphia</a></p><p>Listen to Big Ideas: </p><p>Speaker</p><p><a href="http://deroodelab.org/">Jaap de Roode</a>Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory UniversityAuthor of Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves</p>
Topics
Episode details and artwork are published by the show’s own feed. Sentinel plays short cited excerpts and links every episode back to its publisher.