# 522: The Information Is In Poop

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/embedded-1055969/522-the-information-is-in-poop
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/embedded-1055969/522-the-information-is-in-poop.md
Podcast: [Embedded](https://stenobird.com/podcast/embedded-1055969)
Published: 2026-03-06T02:26:00+00:00
Episode link: https://embedded.fm/episodes/522
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/makingembeddedsystems/embedded-ep522-joint-edit.mp3?dest-id=141180
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/embedded-1055969/episodes/522-the-information-is-in-poop
Duration seconds: 3280

## Resource

Sonia Grego speaks with us about a topic no one likes to talk about, but could be used to monitor personal dietary health and widespread disease outbreaks. Toilets! Sonia leads Duke University's Smart Toilet Lab and the spin out Coprata which makes the Microbiome Activity Tracker. As discussed in the show, when developing a project far from where it will be deployed, there are many common issues. The Lessons Learned chapter of Sonia's recent book gives an excellent introduction to the unexpected environment far from the comfort of desks. The book is (free online!) Engineering Field Testing of Non-Sewered Sanitation Systems: Compendium of Lessons Learned , See Sonia Grego at Duke Electrical & Computer Engineering , the Smart Toilet Lab as well as Sonia's company Coprata . Some terms that came up in the show: Coprolite : fossilized excrement ( Wikipedia entry has great(?) pics!) Scatological : material, humor, or language that relates directly to bodily waste Helminths : parasitic worms including roundworms, tapeworms, and fluke (oh look. more great images on Wiki entry ) Poop jokes Transcript

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/embedded-1055969/episodes/522-the-information-is-in-poop/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/embedded-1055969/522-the-information-is-in-poop.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.