Passion or paycheck, profession or play, beauty or the butt? We tackle the art world’s opposing objectives to redeem or exploit our excrement, the politics of status (and Brad Pitt’s pet rat), the importance of whimsy, and how every poo has a...

In this Dinosaur-sized episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) joins paleontologist Carl Mehling for a deep dive into fossilized dung (called “coprolites”), the scientific method, and why truth is often controlled by the storytellers. Wanna borrow a...

In this fast-paced hour, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) sits down with water and wastewater governance expert Raul Pacheco-Vega for a discussion that leapfrogs from the culture of flushing and bottled water, to the politics of poverty and what it means to...

In 2005, Professor Olga Gershenson sent out a call for academic papers on public toilets--"the holy of holy for nerds." Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender, the book that resulted, virtually created the toilet studies field. But along with the...

What do you call a woman who’s not at home, and needs a private place to pee? A “public woman,” or “prostitute.” At least that’s what London’s men thought at the turn of the 20th Century. How far have we come? This World Toilet Day (Nov...

Faster than a speeding bowel! More powerful than a laxative! Able to leap small-minded men in a single bound! In this episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) sits down with real-life Superwoman Christina Irene: writer, trainer, stand-up comedian, and a...

This past August, Shawn Shafner traveled to Brattleboro, VT to join Urine Diversion Summit 2016—a conference brimming with pee-ple making waves over how we “make water.” While The Puru didn’t want to disrupt the flow, he was able to divert a...

This past August, Shawn Shafner traveled to Brattleboro, VT to join Urine Diversion Summit 2016—a conference brimming with pee-ple making waves over how we “make water.” While The Puru didn’t want to disrupt the flow, he was able to divert a...

What do you get when you mix 5,000 gallons of urine and 5 acres of hay? It might just be the future of our food. In this episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) talks to Kim Nace, co-founder of the Rich Earth Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont, where...

When is a five gallon bucket of poop more than just a five gallon bucket of poop? In this episode, Shawn Shafner (The Puru) s(h)its down with Sasha Kramer, co-founder and Executive Director of SOIL, and engineer/academic Kory Russel of re.source....