Tangle - Alabama's IVF ruling.

Episode Date: February 26, 2024

Alabama's IVF ruling. Last week, Alabama's Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of couples suing an Alabama storage facility under the state's wrongful death law after their frozen embr...yos were lost in an accident. The groundbreaking ruling, in a case dubbed LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C., treated the embryos as children who should be afforded certain legal protections, a theory championed by some anti-abortion groups that has now gotten its first validation from a major U.S. court.You can read today's podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story here and today’s “Have a nice day” story here.You can also check out our latest YouTube video where we tried to build the most electable president ever here and our interview with Bill O’Reilly here.Today’s clickables: A quick note (0:53), Quick hits (1:58), Today’s story (4:10), Left’s take (8:55), Right’s take (12:34), Isaac’s take (16:25), Listener question (22:03), Under the Radar (25:07), Numbers (25:46), Have a nice day (26:48)You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. The response to our first-ever Tangle Live event was better than we could have imagined and we're excited to announce we're running it back on Wednesday, April 17th in New York City! We'll be gathering the Tangle community at The Loft at City Winery for a conversation between special guests about the 2024 election moderated by founder Isaac Saul with an audience Q&A afterwards. Choose Seated General Admission tickets or VIP Tickets that include a post show meet- and- greet, Tangle merch, and the best seats in the house. Grab your tickets fast as this show is sure to sell out!Buy your tickets hereWhat do you think of the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling to grant personhood rights to frozen embryos resulting from IVF? Let us know!Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada, which is Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at flucellvax.ca.
Starting point is 00:01:00 From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about Alabama's IVF ruling, which sent some shockwaves throughout the political world last week. We're going to talk about exactly what happened and what to take away from it, how broad this ruling's implications could be, all that good stuff. And as always, I'll share a little bit of my perspective. Before we jump in, a quick reminder for those of you who may have missed it,
Starting point is 00:01:54 we are coming to New York City, April 17th. We've already booked one of our guests for a panel we're going to have on the 2024 election. I'm very excited to share who that guest is. I can't do it quite yet, but our tickets are on sale at citywinery.com. There is a link to those tickets in today's episode description. We are close to being sold out. April 17th is the date. If you have not gotten your tickets left, if you're in New York, if you're in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, even Washington, D.C. For Philly event, we had people coming from California and Texas and Virginia. If you want an excuse to come to New York and hang out and come see the show, we very much encourage you to do so. I think it'll be a pretty special night,
Starting point is 00:02:34 not just a live version of our podcast, but also a gathering of the Tangled community and a chance to connect with other like-minded folk. So go check it out. With that out of the Tangled community and a chance to connect with other like-minded folk. So go check it out. With that out of the way, we'll kick things off today, as always, with some quick hits. First up, former President Donald Trump defeated former UN ambassador and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley in the South Carolina primary on Saturday. Trump won by roughly 20 points and has now swept every contest that counted for Republican delegates. Number two, Russian authorities returned the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his family one week after he died at an Arctic penal colony. Separately,
Starting point is 00:03:21 the United States levied 500 new sanctions against Russian individuals connected to the imprisonment of Navalny, as well as Russia's defense and financial sectors. Number three, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a two-page outline of his plans for post-war Gaza that included Israel's military operating indefinitely in the territory, as well as the shuttering of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, also known as UNRWA. Separately, Israel officials are considering an evacuation plan for Rafah this week ahead of a planned ground invasion. Number four, Hungary's parliament will vote on Sweden's bid to NATO today. If passed, Sweden could become the 32nd country to formally join the alliance.
Starting point is 00:04:02 And number five, Rana McDaniel, the leader of the Republican National Committee, said she is going to step down next week. We want to begin tonight with shockwaves being felt in the world of reproductive health care following a bombshell IVF ruling by Alabama's Supreme Court. In Friday's unprecedented decision, the all-Republican court ruled that frozen embryos are the legal equivalent of children. This morning, outcry in Alabama, the state's largest hospital stopping all IVF procedures, fearing a lawsuit after a controversial court ruling has patients angry and confused. The University of Alabama at Birmingham announcing it's pausing all IVF treatments, saying it's saddened as it evaluates the potential that our patients and physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care. Last week, Alabama's Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of couples suing a South Alabama storage facility under the state's wrongful death law after their frozen embryos were lost in an
Starting point is 00:05:18 accident. The groundbreaking ruling in a case dubbed LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine PC treated the embryos as children who should be afforded legal protections, a theory championed by some anti-abortion groups that has now gotten its first validation from a major United States court. The case combined two lawsuits filed by three sets of parents who underwent in vitro fertilization procedures to have babies and opted to have their remaining embryos frozen. IVF involves combining sperm and egg cells in a lab to create embryos, then implanting one or more of those embryos in a woman's uterus. Extra embryos are often frozen and stored.
Starting point is 00:05:56 In December 2020, the parents claimed that a patient entered an unsecured doorway at the Mobile Alabama Hospital where the embryos were being stored and removed several embryos from the cryogenic nursery. The parents' suit stated that the patient's hand was freezer-burned by the low temperatures, causing them to drop the embryos and kill them. The parents sued for wrongful death, but a lower court dismissed the case, saying cryopreserved in vitro embryos do not fall under the definition of a person or child. However, the state Supreme Court overruled the court's decision, saying extrauterine children located outside the uterus when they are killed are in fact children and are covered under the state's wrongful death of a minor law. That decision was driven by an amendment to the
Starting point is 00:06:39 state constitution passed in 2018 when Alabama voters passed a ballot measure that granted fetuses full personhood rights, though it did not mention frozen embryos. The law applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation, the court wrote. It is not the role of this court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy. That is especially true where, as here, the people of this state have adopted a constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding unborn life from legal protection. The court did not go as far as saying the embryos have the same rights as people, nor did it rule that fetuses have constitutional rights. Rather, the court ruled that both are
Starting point is 00:07:20 covered under the wrongful death law and the fetal personhood amendment passed by Alabama voters in 2018. So, now what? Well, three major IVF clinics in Alabama immediately suspended services after the ruling, saying they needed time to figure out the legal implications. At least 11 states have broadly defined personhood as beginning at fertilization in their state laws, meaning a ruling like this could lead to similar lawsuits popping up across the country. About 2% of the births in the United States are now done through IVF. Over the weekend, both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Alabama said the state needs legislation to protect IVF after the ruling, and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he has no intention of prosecuting families or providers involved in IVF. While some anti-abortion groups are celebrating the ruling, others express concern about how it might impact families who are trying
Starting point is 00:08:10 to have kids but struggling to get pregnant. Abortion rights groups suggested the ruling is just the tip of the iceberg and pointed to the words of Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker, who quoted the Bible in his opinion. Human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God who views the destruction of his image as an affront to himself, Parker wrote. Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory. Today, we're going to examine some arguments from the right and the left
Starting point is 00:08:40 about this ruling, and then my take. We'll be right back after this quick commercial break. Long before Fox News hosts were caught for saying one thing in private and another on air, two leading conservatives left the network in protest of the network's tolerance of election denialism. Such claims were incompatible with their efforts to build a media company dedicated to the truth. Jonah Goldberg and Steve Hayes had launched the Dispatch in 2019 to build an enduring presence in the center-right for sane conservatism. No insulting clickbait, no false outrage, no annoying autoplay videos, just reliable journalism that prioritizes context, depth, and understanding. Today, a growing community of more than 400,000 rely on The Dispatch to help make sense of a political world gone crazy. Get news and analysis that is more
Starting point is 00:09:36 than a scripted reality show. Tangle readers claim your exclusive 90-day all-access free trial today by visiting thedispatch.com slash tangle. That's thedispatch.com slash tangle. First up, we'll start with what the left is saying. The left is very concerned about the ruling, saying that it puts the entire practice of IVF in jeopardy. Some say the legal implications may mean that frozen embryos must be implanted as a destroyed embryo could lead to a murder charge. Others recognize that the ruling is somewhat narrow but still fear for its ramifications on women's reproductive health. In CNN, Mary Ziegler wrote about the twisted irony of the Supreme Court's ruling.
Starting point is 00:10:20 In the United States today, recognizing the value of an embryo or fetus sets a precedent that no state can permit access to abortion and that anyone who chooses abortion may be committing a crime, Ziegler said. The irony in the Alabama court's decision is that more Americans who want to be parents will be unable to achieve that dream. The ruling is extraordinary not only in declaring personhood before birth, but also in applying the idea to embryos that haven't been implanted in the uterus. But the ruling is not just bizarre, its consequences may be profound. If an embryo is a person, it can no longer be destroyed, donated for research, or potentially even stored, she said. Some abortion opponents argue that if embryos are persons, each one that is created must be implanted, and that would make even storing embryos for future use impermissible. If any of that comes to pass, and in Alabama it likely will,
Starting point is 00:11:11 that will transform how in vitro fertilization works and will mean a lower rate of success for Americans who already struggle to start a family. In Slate, Mark Joseph Stern said the decision is even worse than it sounds. Judges are once again playing doctor, to the extreme detriment of women trying to build families, Stern said. It means that a medical professional who inadvertently damages or destroys a microscopic embryo has maimed or killed a legal person and is on the hook for punitive damages that could run into the millions. Any accidental damage to an embryo and even a failed thawing or transfer could trigger a calamitous wrongful death suit. And what about unused embryos?
Starting point is 00:11:48 The Alabama Supreme Court's decision suggests that if patients refuse to pay for their storage, the clinic must simply preserve them for free forever lest it get slapped with a suit. According to the majority, this amendment requires courts to interpret the rights of the unborn child equally with the rights of born children. In practice, that appears to mean that every state law involving children must be extended to embryos, including criminal laws, up to and including homicide, Stern said. Does the destruction of an embryo, intentional or not, now constitute murder in Alabama? The majority ominously reserve this question for a future case. In Vox, Rachel Cohen criticized the decision that invoked God to claim that frozen embryos count as children under state law. This decision and its very obvious fallout are a victory for an extremist wing of the anti-abortion movement I've been covering for the last two years. These particular activists believe in the radical idea of fetal personhood,
Starting point is 00:12:43 meaning they want to endow fetuses and embryos with full human rights and legal protection, Cohen said. It's also a reminder that the overturn of Roe v. Wade is about more than just abortion. It has ramifications for the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including birth control and fertility treatments. The ruling was somewhat narrow and did not weigh in on the future of other frozen embryos, Cohen said, and there's a world where this decision could be relatively contained. The case is also not over. The state Supreme Court is sending it back to a district court for further litigation.
Starting point is 00:13:14 In short, this victory for the fetal personhood movement isn't fully set, but medical providers and patients are already left trying to piece together answers that nobody yet has. Alright, that is it for what the left is saying, which brings us to what the right is saying. The right supports the ruling, saying that a court is simply enforcing a standard defined by state law. Some say the law should go further and end the practice of IVF since it means the killing of unborn children. Others note that IVF is very popular and that this decision means that legal protections would and should be coming. In Newsweek, Josh Hammer said the ruling embodies America's legal heritage. The groaning from the left-wing media and political class can be easily explained.
Starting point is 00:14:04 The Alabama case entails a dispute over the destruction of unborn human life, and there is no greater sacrament for the contemporary secular leftist than the destruction of unborn human life, Hammer said. The Alabama Supreme Court had held in an uninterrupted line of cases that an unborn child constitutes a minor child under the state's wrongful death statute, regardless of stage of embryonic or fetal development. Crucially, neither the plaintiffs nor defendants contested this understanding, and the question was not before the court. The only legal question in LePage was thus whether the court should legislate from the bench and decree that which the Alabama
Starting point is 00:14:40 legislature had opted not to do itself, read into the law an extra uterine exception that would retain the wrongful death statute's inclusion of unborn children developing in utero, but remove legal protection for embryos developing outside the womb. The court appropriately declined to do so. That's it. That's the whole case. And the spectator, Ellie Gardy, called IVF Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages 6 months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca.
Starting point is 00:15:40 Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Several conservative leaders have responded to the Alabama Supreme Court's decision by denouncing it, Gardy said. Conservatives need to wake up to reality. In vitro fertilization is an ugly, evil practice that not only kills millions of children, but also has led to a society in which we commodify children as assets to be bought and sold and women as bodies that can be purchased. Conservatives should pursue the end of IVF just as adamantly as abortion
Starting point is 00:16:31 because IVF entails killing or freezing many children to create just one. This is because each in vitro treatment typically produces 12 to 15 children of a particular set of parents. Nikki Haley's response to the Alabama Supreme Court decision suggests that some support for IVF is due to ignorance of its evil. Haley correctly maintains that embryos are human persons and rightly denounces the evil of murder. Yet she somehow misses the fact that there is no IVF without murder, Gardy wrote. Other states have laws similar to Alabama's wrongful death of a minor act. They, too, should recognize that those laws apply to embryos produced through IVF. It is the fastest way to slow the mass slaughter of innocents. The Wall Street Journal editorial board said a supermajority supports IVF,
Starting point is 00:17:17 including many conservative leaders, and you can expect Alabama to protect it. Mike Pence has a long political record on behalf of the pro-life cause, and in his recent memoir, he revealed that his wife underwent IVF. Karen and I struggled for more than five years with unexplained infertility, he told CBS. I fully support fertility treatments, and I think they deserve the protection of the law, the board said. A memo circulated Friday by the National Republican Senatorial Committee pointed to survey data showing supermajority support for IVF. Donald Trump weighed it in on Truth Social. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, he said, I strongly support the availability of IVF for
Starting point is 00:17:55 couples who are trying to have a precious baby. The same goes for leaders in Alabama, the board continued. Given the clarification that's likely coming, the pausing of IVF procedures in Alabama amid the legal uncertainty could produce needless heartache for couples. But with Rogon, the people reign supreme on abortion policy, and that will be true on in vitro fertilization. Alright, that is it for the right and the left are saying, which brings us to my take. So anytime we cover a controversial ruling like this, I always try to break it up into two parts, the legal arguments and the practical outcome. Because this case was decided in an election year, I also think it's worth discussing the political ramifications of what just happened. On the legal merits, this ruling is not that surprising. There's been some creative jurisprudence from Alabama's high court to get to the point where frozen embryos could be protected
Starting point is 00:18:55 by law, as Vox's Ian Millhiser laid out. But still, this is both a logical extension of those rulings and the logical next phase of the anti-abortions legal movement. Alabama voters passed an unqualified fetal personhood bill, and the combination of that bill with the wrongful death language for children made this outcome perfectly plausible. Josh Hammer noted under what the right is saying that the Alabama Supreme Court has held in an uninterrupted line of cases that unborn children are granted the same legal protections as minor children under the state's wrongful death statute. This has been true regardless
Starting point is 00:19:29 of the stage of embryonic or fetal development. This argument was not even before the court, as both sides accepted it in the case. What was under debate was effectively if the court should make exception for quote-unquote extra uterine embryos, that is, embryos existing outside the uterus. I would not have been shocked or surprised had the court gone in either direction in this case, but ultimately the justices argued that the natural, ordinary, commonly understood meaning of the word child includes embryos, and argued this was true when the wrongful death of a minor act was passed in 1872. State lawmakers then considered the unborn as full legal persons, the majority argued. Whether or not you agree with that is irrelevant.
Starting point is 00:20:11 The court was on pretty solid legal ground to make that interpretation. As for the practical outcome, it's hard to think of any other words besides terrible. Let's start with the easy stuff first. I want to be clear that I don't think the hospital here is innocent. The details of this case are bizarre. Who walks into a hospital and starts fishing around in freezers? But at the very least, the hospital seems negligent. It did not do a good job caring for a very precious thing that belonged to these parents. But as one of the dissenting justices put it, the plaintiffs had good reason to pursue a court decision under the wrongful death statute. It allows them to collect more money. Justice Will Sellers, who dissented, said these cases concern nothing more than an attempt to design a method of obtaining punitive damages, end quote. The ruling is also likely to have narrow implications.
Starting point is 00:21:01 Alabama's criminal homicide or assault law encompasses children in utero, which would exclude frozen embryos. So I doubt we see criminal cases start popping up where someone is charged with homicide for damaging a frozen embryo. Again, this was a civil lawsuit. Alabama's attorney general has already said no such prosecution will happen. So why is this outcome terrible? Because it undermines the very process of bringing more children into this world. I know so many friends and family members who have benefited from IVF. When I read writing like Ellie Gardy's under what the right is saying describing IVF as evil, I have no way to reconcile that with my baby cousins or best friend's kids that are the
Starting point is 00:21:42 product of IVF. It's just impossible for me to see these children as the product of evil rather than remarkable scientific advancements that have allowed more and more people to have families. Of course, that is informed in part by my moral and ethical position on life and the fact that I see inherently more value in a newborn baby than a frozen embryo. To me, a half-dozen frozen embryos never becoming children is worth it for the one that does become a child, especially when the alternative is no new children. I'm pro-family, pro-kids, pro-procreation, and I want as many people who desire it to have the opportunity to have children as possible. This lawsuit undermines
Starting point is 00:22:23 that, not theoretically, but practically. Alabama's IVF clinics immediately suspended operations after this ruling. Even in cases where IVF clinics are allowed to operate, they could now be confined to practices that we know don't work as effectively and will, with absolute certainty, lead to fewer and fewer children being born. That is to say nothing of how much more expensive the already outrageously expensive treatments will become. Worse yet, we can expect similar lawsuits to pop up in other states across the country. Finally, on a political note, this is a disaster for Republicans. According to internal Republican polling, 85% of Americans support IVF. Even former Vice President Mike Pence, perhaps the most high-profile pro-life
Starting point is 00:23:05 politician in America, has expressed his support for IVF. Pence speaks openly about having had children through IVF. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said he supports IVF treatment because it has been a blessing for many moms and dads who struggle with fertility. Republican legislators in Alabama are already promising to safeguard IVF. None of that, though, is going to stop Democrats from reminding voters that those assurances are only necessary because of a conservative legal movement. Abortion is the issue most helping Democrats win elections right now, and this ruling is truly the nightmare scenario many Democrats have warned about. Now, they'll get to use it to their political advantage, no matter how many Republicans try to distance themselves from it. We'll be right back after this quick break.
Starting point is 00:24:02 All right, that is it for my take, which brings us to your questions answered. This one's from Ben in Arizona. Ben said, I've seen a lot on social media about Project 2025, the conservative plan to completely reshape the executive branch if Trump wins in 2024. Many of the postings I've seen painted as a fascist overthrow, an end to democracy, etc. Are these posts simply fear-mongering? How legitimate are these claims? Okay, so I think these fears are mostly overblown. I know it's a democratic viewpoint that democracy is on the ballot in 2024, and as I've said
Starting point is 00:24:37 repeatedly, I think Trump's role in attempting to undermine Joe Biden's victory is by far the biggest mark against him as president. It's obviously fair, indeed, it's imperative to criticize Trump for that, just as it's fair to be concerned about reports that he would use the Justice Department to prosecute his political opponents in response to the way he believes he has been prosecuted. But as for Project 2025, no, it won't undermine democracy. Project 2025 is a roadmap for a conservative presidency if Trump were to win in November. A lot of people have framed this as a plan to, quote, cement America as a right-wing authoritarian state, end quote, and it has some pretty far right elements, which I'll get to. But the platform is mostly a benign political agenda.
Starting point is 00:25:23 Project 2025 is built on four pillars. Policy agenda, quote, specific proposals for every major issue facing the country pulling from the expertise of the entire conservative movement. Personnel database, that's identifying conservatives from all walks of life to serve in the next conservative administration. Training, that's bringing together experts who have served in prior administrations and can share their knowledge, and a 180-day playbook, a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days. You know what that sounds like to me? Pretty normal preparation. The kind of preparation Trump didn't do his first time in office. If you're a liberal and some of that language startles you, I suggest just reading it again but replacing conservative with the word liberal and see how it sounds then. Most of this fear is about actual conservative
Starting point is 00:26:09 policy rather than fear of democracy being undermined. Yes, it includes more far-right agenda items like dismantling the FBI or eliminating the Department of Education. Those are also unrealistic promises that are never going to come to fruition, especially not in what is likely to be a more divided government. By design, the federal government moves slowly, and Project 2025 isn't going to be able to cement the U.S. as an authoritarian state in four years, even if that was its goal, which I don't think it is. Finally, remember, the vast majority of what Project 2025 promises are fully under the purview of the chief executive, and by nature, those changes can be undone by future administrations. All right, that is it for your reader question today. A reminder, if you have a question you
Starting point is 00:26:55 want answered in the newsletter, you can email me, Isaac, I-S-A-A-C, at readtangle.com. tangle.com. Next up is our under the radar section. The New York Times published a lengthy investigative piece this week on a decade-long partnership between the CIA and Ukraine. A new generation of spies is being trained by the CIA that are now operating across Russia, Europe, and other countries like Cuba. Reporters got a tour of a secret post dug into the ground in the Ukrainian forest, which is part of a CIA-supported network of spy bases constructed in the past eight years that includes 12 secret locations along the Russian border. The New York Times has the story, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, that is it for our Under the Radar section. Next up is our Numbers section.
Starting point is 00:27:54 The number of states that have language in their constitution's laws or policies granting rights to fetuses is 11. The number of states not including Washington, D.C., where abortion is protected by state law is now 21, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. The number of state-level abortion protections passed in 2023 was 129. The number of eggs that are required to give a woman undergoing IVF a good chance of having at least one normal embryo, according to the Reproductive Medicine Associates, is 10 to 12. The likelihood that one normal embryo fertilized through IVF results in a pregnancy is 65%, according to the RMA. The support for in vitro fertilization, according to a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is 85%. The support for in vitro fertilization among pro-life advocates is 78%, according to a memo from the NRSC.
Starting point is 00:28:46 All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day section. Scientists have discovered the biological mechanism of hearing loss caused by loud noise and now may have found a way to prevent it. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh discovered that noise-induced hearing loss stems from cellular damage in the inner ear associated with the excess of free-floating zinc, a mineral that is essential for proper cellular function and hearing. The research team found inner ear zinc levels spiked in mice hours after they heard loud noises, disrupting normal cell-to-cell communication. Mice who were treated with a compound to trap excess zinc were less prone to hearing loss and were more protected from
Starting point is 00:29:24 noise-induced damage. UPMC has the findings, and there's a link to it in today's episode description. All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to support our work, you can go to readtangle.com forward slash membership. And don't forget, we are coming to New York City, April 17th, Wednesday, live event. Tickets are now on sale on citywinery.com. There's a link to those tickets in today's episode description.
Starting point is 00:29:57 We'll be right back here same time tomorrow. Have a good one. Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Law. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kabak, Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bokova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Magdalena Bokova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the
Starting point is 00:30:25 podcast was produced by Diet75. And if you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to retangle.com and check out our website. We'll see you next time. Witness to a crime? Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. The flu remains a serious disease. Last season, over 102,000 influenza cases have been reported across Canada,
Starting point is 00:31:17 which is nearly double the historic average of 52,000 cases. What can you do this flu season? Talk to your pharmacist or doctor about getting a flu shot. Consider FluSilvaax Quad and help protect yourself from the flu. It's the first cell-based flu vaccine authorized in Canada for ages six months and older, and it may be available for free in your province. Side effects and allergic reactions can occur, and 100% protection is not guaranteed. Learn more at FluCellVax.ca.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.