Welcome to the THINKING Podcast, produced by HVMN.  Episode 35 features Jasmina Aganovic, president of Mother Dirt, a product that flips the switch on the normal school of thought of modern hygiene. Instead of cleaning bacteria from your skin, Mother Dirt aims to restore & maintain the good bacteria. What's the rationale behind this, you ask?  The microbiome.  The microbiome is a community of microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that inhabit a particular environment. The particular environment we're talking about here is your human body, which is home to 100 trillion microbes. Before you jump out of your skin, it's known that these microbes play an essential part in our bodily function and survival. The popular frenzy surrounding probiotics is fueled in large part by surging scientific and public interest in the human microbiome. Mother Dirt is playing a huge part in leading this new space in the dermatology industry by bringing microbiome-friendly products to consumers that are backed by their own clinical research. Geoffrey Woo and Jasmina discuss the nuances of bringing a potentially controversial product to market, the theory behind why modern society is too clean for our good, and the role of the microbiome beyond cosmetics/dermatology (recent studies have shown that lower blood pressure is associated with a healthy microbiome).