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As we in the United States approach a full year of spending even more time than usual at home, and away from friends and family, we\u2019re all a little bit lonely. But even though it might feel as if your immediate family and your pets are the only signs of life in your house\u2014you're not as alone as you might think. The modern American house is a wilderness: thousands of species of insects, bacteria, fungi, and plants lurk in our floorboards, on our counters, and inside our kitchen cabinets\u2014not to mention the microbes that flavor our food itself. The trouble with wilderness, however, is that we always want to tame it. Cleaning, bleaching, sterilizing, and killing the organisms in our houses has had unintended\u2014and dangerous\u2014consequences for our health and the environment. Biologist Rob Dunn, a professor in the department of applied ecology at North Carolina State University, joins us to impart some advice about how to graciously welcome these unbidden guests into our homes. This episode originally aired in 2018.

Go beyond the episode:

• Rob Dunn\u2019s Never Home Alone
• Dig deeper into the experiments mentioned in the show, like the sourdough project or the world\u2019s largest survey of showerheads
• Cat people: track your cat to reveal its secret life\u2014and what it brings into your home\u2014in this citizen science project
• More opportunities to participate in scientific research about everything from belly button ecology to counting the crickets in your basement through Your Wild Life

Tune in every week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek.

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