Sex cells: the modern fertility business

Tim Cook is stepping down after overseeing 15 years of spectacular growth. We take a look at his successor. Japan’s rural women are disproportionately heading to cities, and their home towns are working hard to lure them back. And a historical examination of boredom, and why Brit ...  Show more

This week’s peace talks are endangered after American forces fired on and boarded a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. We visit Chernobyl’s ruined reactor to assess the damage done by a Russian drone to its enormous safety structure. The likes of McDonald’s and KFC have long bee ...  Show more

Companies are rushing to fill new niches for would-be parents: in vitro fertilisation extras, swish egg-harvesting “studios” and apps to track reproductive health. But some companies promise more than science can deliver. The worrying flare-up of piracy off west Africa presents n ...  Show more

Rick Bright exposed former president Trump's political meddling in the US COVID response. Now he is championing a new privately funded initiative to track viral spread and combat new variants. We discuss the challenges of collecting data on a rapidly spreading virus, from transmi ...  Show more

Today’s episode covers a topic that many parents-to-be have struggled with: fertility. In vitro fertilization offers a path to pregnancy for people fortunate enough to be able to access it. But predicting the success of an implanted embryo is hard. Now researchers are developing ...  Show more

In vitro fertilization is already a grueling path to pregnancy. With embryos gaining new legal protections, it could become a criminal one. By Jill FilipovicSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.