You flush and forget about your poop. But your poop doesn’t forget you. It can be a goldmine of information about your body. This is why people around the world are increasingly monitoring what folks let out in sewage – to learn about entire communities and cities. Experts say, monitoring a city’s collective poop can keep us safe. It can also bring in some surprising perks to secure our future. So, we imagine a future where Indian cities have full-blown sewage surveillance systems. What secrets can sewage reveal about us? And are there things we should be wary about?

Experts we spoke to:

Dr. Varsha Sridhar, a molecular biologist and the CEO of a company called Molecular Solutions Care Health.

Dr. Farah Ishtiaq, an evolutionary ecologist, and expert in infectious zoonotic diseases at the Tata Institute for Genetics and Society.

Mr. S. Vishwanath, an urban planner, an expert in all things water, and the director of the Biome Environmental Trust.

Dr. Deep Kumar Raman, a pathologist who answered several of my questions.

People who helped make this episode:

Imagined Tomorrow is created and hosted by Shreya Dasgupta. 

Theme music, sound design and editing by Abhijit Shylanath. 

Script edits, re-listens by Abhishek Madan.

Rahul Menon voiced Puneet, the fictional reporter, and Mathew Vetticad voiced Abhijeet, the fictional news anchor.

Parni Ray, Parvathy Nair, and Nihira Ram supported the production process.

Audiomatic helped us record the voiceovers for the fiction piece

Mae Mariyam Thomas offered generous mentorship during the initial drafts of the script.

Get in touch with us at imagined.tomorrow@gmail.com. Follow Shreya on Twitter @ShreyaDasgupta.

Transcript and references: