The Missing Microbes: What Modern Life May Have Changed

The Photovoltaic Podcast · Mar 7, 2026 · 5m

In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about the microbiome, but the deeper story behind it is rarely discussed. For most of human history, people lived in constant partnership with a vast and complex world of microbes. These organisms were not simply passengers in the body. They formed part of an ecological system that interacted with digestion, immunity, metabolism, and the wider biological environment in which humans evolved.Modern life, however, has changed that relationship in ways that are only now becoming clear. Urban living, altered diets, widespread antibiotic use, and reduced contact…