Today we discuss organ donation, and parenting in the animal world. Organ donation: how can we modify incentives so that people who need organs have a good chance of getting them, but people with healthy organs are never sent to an early death because their organs are valuable? Then: a natural history primer on parental care and feeding ecology of some local mammals and birds. What can be learned from observing the successful parenting of both barn swallows and red foxes?
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Mentioned in this episode:
NYT 2025: Push for more organ transplants puts donors at risk: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/20/us/organ-transplants-donors-alive.html
NYT 2003: Bret letter to the editor on organ donation and incentives: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/18/opinion/he-gave-of-himself-so-that-i-could-live-3-letters.html
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life on organ transplants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp-pU8TFsg0
Cornell on barn swallows: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barn_Swallow/overview
Avian Architecture: https://amzn.to/4f4Hxh5 (commission earned)