{"podcast":{"title":"The Common Descent Podcast","slug":"the-common-descent-podcast-466591","podcast_index_feed_id":466591,"rss_url":"https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/feed.xml","website_url":"http://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com","image_url":"https://pbcdn1.podbean.com/imglogo/image-logo/1598752/CommonDescentLogo.png","author":"Common Descent","episode_count":379,"summary":"Join David and Will as they explore the paleontologists’ perspective on various topics in life and earth history. Each episode features a main discussion on a topic requested by the listeners, presented as a lighthearted and educational conversation about fossils, evolution, deep time, and more. Before the main discussion, each episode also includes a news segment, covering recent research related to paleontology and evolution. Each episode ends with the answer to a question submitted by subscribers on Patreon. New episodes with new topics every fortnight!","last_synced_at":"2026-07-17T04:20:14.679099+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591"},"episode":{"title":"Episode 241 - Digestion","slug":"episode-241-digestion","published_at":"2026-04-12T00:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591/episode-241-digestion","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591","url":"https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/e/episode-241-digestion/","audio_url":"https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/qeeunrf3ppqg9krg/Episode_241_Digestion.mp3","summary":"The world is full of food, but in order to make the most of it, living organisms need to be able to break it down and extract the useful nutrients. This episode, we explore the fundamental process of digestion and the many, many ways that life has adapted this process to various diets. And we’ll take a look at what the fossil record has to tell us about ancient diets and the evolutionary history of digestive systems. In the news: predator bites, coelacanth lungs, Cambrian claws, and squid evolution. Time markers:Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00News: 00:05:55Main discussion, Part 1: 00:38:10Main discussion, Part 2: 01:23:30Patron question: 02:06:50 Check out our website for this episode’s blog post and more: http://commondescentpodcast.com/ Join us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Got a topic you want to hear about? Submit your episode request here: https://commondescentpodcast.com/request-a-topic/ Lots more ways to connect with us: https://linktr.ee/common_descent The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org Musical Interludes are \"Professor Umlaut\" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0","meta_description":"The world is full of food, but in order to make the most of it, living organisms need to be able to break it down and extract the useful nutrients. This e…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":8370,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-common-descent-podcast-466591/episodes/episode-241-digestion/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast-466591/episode-241-digestion.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}