Are modern rules around cleanliness, parenting, and social contact shaping your gut health more than you realise? In this episode, Professor Tim Spector explains how gut microbes are shared between people - through relationships, daily contact, and the environments we live in - and why this matters for long-term health. You’ll learn how human contact may be influencing your gut in ways most of us never consider. Tim explains why supporting gut microbiome is less about control and more about balance, and you’ll learn simple ways to support a healthier gut through food, social connection and lifestyle habits. If your gut reflects the people you live with and the places you spend time, what small change could you make this week - in your home, your habits, or your social life - that might support your gut for the long term? 🌱 Try our science-backed and tasty wholefood supplement Daily 30+: https://zoe.com/daily30?utm_medium=zoe_podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=d30 Get our brand-new app and Gut Health Test designed by world-leading gut health and nutrition scientists to build healthy eating habits 👉 Join ZOE: https://zoe.com/buymembership?utm_medium=zoe_podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=BAU Follow ZOE on Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/zoe/ Timecodes 📚Books by our ZOE Scientists The Food For Life Cookbook | https://amzn.to/4amfIMX Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati | https://amzn.to/4blJsLg Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector | https://amzn.to/4amZinu Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector | https://amzn.to/4hU1Df5 Free resources from ZOE: Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint | https://ZOE.com/brainhealth?utm_medium=zoe_podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=betterbrainhealth How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health | https://zoe.com/2026?utm_medium=zoe_podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=How to eat in 2026 Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition | https://zoe.com/freeguide?utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=freeguide Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks | https://zoe.com/gutguide?utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=gutguide Better Breakfast Guide | https://zoe.com/breakfastguide?utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=youtube&utm_campaign=breakfastguide Mentioned in today's episode Risk of Asthma and Allergies in Children Delivered by Cesarean Section, The Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (2024) | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38908434/ Can maternal-child microbial seeding interventions improve the health of infants delivered by Cesarean section?, Cell (2022) | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9237654/ Dietary Exposure to Antibiotic Residues, Frontiers (2022) | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9433903/ The person-to-person transmission landscape of the gut and oral microbiomes, Nature (2023) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05620-1 Gut micro-organisms associated with health, nutrition and dietary interventions, Nature (2025) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09854-7 Intergenerational transmission of diet-induced obesity, A&R (2021) | https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7113102/ The indoors microbiome and human health, Nature Reviews Microbiology (2024) | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-024-01077-3 Cohabiting family members share microbiota with one another and with their dogs, Microbiology and Infectious Disease (2013) | https://elifesciences.org/articles/00458 Infant pacifier sanitization and risk, Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (2021) | https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(21)00221-9/fulltext Have feedback or a topic you'd like us to cover? Let us know here: https://gf6hx47iu5g.typeform.com/topicsuggestion Episode transcripts are available here: https://zoe.com/learn/category/podcasts