1KHO 915: Stop Sanitizing Childhood | Dr. Jack Gilbert, Dirt is Good

Ginny Yurich (0:00)

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Hey, friends, welcome back to the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast. And if this is your very first time here, welcome. I'm Ginny Yurich, and I'm really glad you found us. This episode is about to answer so many questions that we all have. Your baby drops the pacifier on the ground. Do you need to sterilize it before it goes back in their mouth? Or can you just lick it?

How often do kids actually need a bath? Is your house too clean? Should your kids be playing in the dirt? Should you get a dog? Should you take them to a farm? My guest today is Dr. Jack Gilbert, one of the world's leading microbiome scientists and co-author of a book I read years ago called Dirt Is Good. And I've wanted to have this conversation for a long time. We get into the science of germs, microbial diversity, developing immune systems, and why some of the things that make us parents cringe might actually be doing our kids some good. If you're new around here or you've been listening forever, make sure you're following the show. We have brand new conversations coming your way every week and you don't want to miss what's ahead.

Now, here's Dr. Jack Gilbert.

My name is Ginny Yurich and there is an incredible professor and author here today who wrote a book that I read a long time ago when our kids were younger, Dr. Jack Gilbert. He wrote a book with Dr. Rob Knight called Dirt Is Good. The cover of this book has got a child's hands that are completely covered in dirt, the advantage of germs for your child's developing immune system. Jack, welcome to you.

Jack Gilbert (4:01)

Hi, very nice to be here.

Ginny Yurich (4:03)

Thank you very much. All right. Will you give us a backstory here? You're working on the microbiome. You're a leading investigator of the microbiome as a scientist, along with Rob, Dr. Rob Knight.

What you say is people are coming up to you constantly and asking questions.

Jack Gilbert (4:20)

Yeah, 100 percent. The idea behind writing a book was to try and maybe deflect from some of the need to answer so many questions after a lecture. I'd give a public lecture and I'd be swamped with hundreds of questions. A lot of them are the same. What can I actually do? What we wanted to do was putting down the actual science, the published peer-reviewed rigorous science that was actually available to the public in a way that could be accessible. To give them an indication of what was actually known, what was maybe hyperbolic, what was maybe appropriate, and then massage it in a way with Sandra who helped us. She's a New York Times writer who helped us to structure the language in a way that could be more effective. Structure, so provide it in a way that people could access, so they can actually do something with the information. Because much of the scientific literature is impenetrable.