# The social lives of bacteria

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670/the-social-lives-of-bacteria
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670/the-social-lives-of-bacteria.md
Podcast: [The Documentary Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670)
Published: 2026-07-02T00:30:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0nw6b4m
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0nw6928.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-documentary-podcast-487670/episodes/the-social-lives-of-bacteria
Duration seconds: 1589

## Resource

Our bodies are filled with bacteria that have rich social lives and, just like people, these microbial neighbours and families do not always get along. In some cases, it is the bacterial equivalent of The Sopranos. Dr Sally Le Page delves into the bacterial dramas of loners, crowd-lovers, backstabbers and do-gooders that are fighting it out in the world and inside our bodies. Co-operation, cheating and selfish behaviour can all lead to benefits or disease so scientists are studying this behaviour to help produce new medicines and clean up our environment.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-documentary-podcast-487670/episodes/the-social-lives-of-bacteria/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-documentary-podcast-487670/the-social-lives-of-bacteria.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.