Parasite (2026)
7/17/202626 min
Cyclospora can cause explosive diarrhea that can last a month. But you don’t need to swear off vegetables.
This episode was produced by Kelli Wessinger with help from Dustin DeSoto, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Federal and state health officials are investigating whether lettuce served at some Taco Bell restaurants has led to the widespread outbreak of cyclosporiasis. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.
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First 90 secondsSean Rameswaram· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Today Explained here with Dylan Scott from Vox to ask what the bug is cyclospora.
Dylan Scott· Guest0:11
So cyclospora is a parasite, and it is a particularly nasty parasite because if a human being consumes it, then that person can experience, and this, I wanna be clear, is the terminology that is used by public health authorities, explosive watery diarrhea.
Sean Rameswaram· Host0:33
Explosive diarrhea.
Dylan Scott· Guest0:35
Frequent diarrhea.
Sean Rameswaram· Host0:37
Huge gastrointestinal issues.
Dylan Scott· Guest0:40
If you get sick with this, it can last for up to a month. It's just a really unpleasant foodborne illness that is wreaking havoc across the United States, and particularly in the Midwest right now.
Sean Rameswaram· Host0:54
And so we have to talk about it on the show today. [trumpet blaring] Sorry. Support for this show today comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude. Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. With deep research, Claude's research capabilities go way deeper than basic web search. Comprehensive, reliable analysis with proper citations, turning hours of research into