Public radio’s longest-running daily global news program.
©2025 The World from PRX
PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402.
The craving to eat dirt – or geophagy – is widespread, and the practice may actually have health benefits. A new report digs into the odd compulsion to eat earth.
The practice of eating dirt is known as geophagy and it’s much more common than you may think.
Sera Young, a professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University, reviewed nearly 500 papers about people all over the earth. .. who eat earth. Host Bruce Gellerman asks her about this abnormal appetite and bites the dust himself.