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In Part 2, materials engineer Shagun Maheshwari unpacks what conventional menstrual pads are actually made of — up to 90% plastic — and what that means for the body and the environment. Phthalates, microplastics, greenwashing, and why she designed Papaya to degrade in a landfill, not just a composter.

Key topics in this part:
- Why conventional pads can be up to 90% plastic; heat-bonding and textile engineering
- Adhesives as a still-unsolved sustainability problem
- Phthalates and VOCs; endocrine disruption and absorbent vulvovaginal tissue
- Why fragrance can worsen period odour rather than mask it
- Antimicrobial properties and the delicate vaginal microbiome balance
- Microplastics vs nanoplastics, and how they reach tissue
- Why plastic doesn't biodegrade; what genuine biodegradability requires
- Greenwashing: "biodegradable top sheet," bamboo/cotton pads that still contain SAP, the label test
- Industrial composter vs landfill degradation standards
- Lifetime product volume (≈5,000–15,000 products); ~800-year SAP degradation
- Where to find Papaya; what's next for the product
- The case for putting people who experience the problem on the technical design team

Timestamps:
00:00 — Hookable intro
00:42 — Biohacking Eve intro
01:07 — Recap of Part 1
01:27 — Episode summary
02:27 — Conversation resumes: plastics in pads
08:00 — Endocrine disruptors, fragrance, microbiome
16:00 — Microplastics and how they reach tissue
22:00 — Why plastic doesn't biodegrade; greenwashing and the label test
28:00 — Composter vs landfill; lifetime volume
33:00 — Where to find Papaya
34:00 — Curveball questions
40:00 — Close → outro

References mentioned in this part:
- Super absorbent polymer / sodium polyacrylate (SAP); polyacrylate, polypropylene, polyurethane
- Phthalates; volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
- Industrial composting vs landfill degradation standards (≈90% in six months)
- Strange Pictures by Uketsu — Japanese mystery novel
- Agatha Christie; P.G. Wodehouse (Jeeves and Wooster); Joseph Campbell (the hero's journey)

Guest & product links:
Website: papayapads.com
Instagram: @papaya.india and @shagun.maheshwari
LinkedIn (Shagun): https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheshwarishagun/
LinkedIn (company): https://www.linkedin.com/company/papayaindia/
Pilots in other countries: bulk orders only — contact Shagun directly

Insta/TikTok: @BiohackingEve
Website: www.BiohackingEve.com

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Materials engineer Shagun Maheshwari spent five years building the world's first blood-coagulating menstrual pad. In Part 1, she explains why the industry tests pads against saline rather than blood, takes a conventional pad apart layer by layer, and reveals the reframe — keep dry, don't just absorb — that led to a pad which clots blood in place.

Key topics in this part:

• Why pads are tested against water/saline, and how menstrual blood differs
• The four-layer anatomy of a conventional pad (top sheet, ADL, core, back sheet)
• Super absorbent polymer (SAP) and why it collapses under body weight
• The reframe from "absorb more" to "keep the person dry"
• How a physical, charge-based clot works (vs the biological clotting cascade)
• The naturally derived long-chain sugar coagulant, and how it was found
• Whether some "period problems" are actually product-design problems
• Industry inertia around cheap, mass-produced SAP

Timestamps:

• 00:00 — Hookable intro
• 00:40 — Biohacking Eve intro
• 01:05 — Episode summary
• 02:05 — Conversation begins: from smart contact lenses to period pads
• 07:00 — Optimising for the wrong metric; periods vs product problems
• 14:00 — What's in blood, and why it's hard to engineer for
• 16:00 — Pad anatomy, layer by layer
• 20:00 — Why fluid comes back out under load
• 21:00 — How coagulation works inside Papaya's pad
• 28:00 — The coagulant material and how it was identified
• 31:00 — Cliffhanger → outro

References mentioned in this part:

• Mojo Vision — smart contact lens company
• Super absorbent polymer / sodium polyacrylate (SAP)
• Stayfree, Whisper/Always — pad brands referenced

Guest & product links:

• Website: papayapads.com
• Instagram: @papaya.india and @shagun.maheshwari
• LinkedIn (Shagun): https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheshwarishagun/
• LinkedIn (company): https://www.linkedin.com/company/papayaindia/

Insta/TikTok: @BiohackingEve
Website: www.BiohackingEve.com

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In Part 3, Ronny Szelinsky moves into the frontier: AI-based endometrial diagnostics, the seeding event that shapes your baby's immune system at birth, the emerging theory that endometriosis may be a microbiome disease, and a clinical prediction for where gynaecological medicine is heading over the next decade. The episode closes with the curveball section, including book recommendations and perspectives on the gender health gap.

Key Topics
Seeding: how the birth canal colonises the newborn with foundational bacteria, and what C-section babies miss
How to manually replicate seeding — and why most hospitals don't
Why each successive birth reduces the mother's microbiome diversity
AI diagnostics: inferring endometrial microbiome state from a vaginal swab (no biopsy)
Applications for fertility clinics; pre-IVF screening; personalised probiotic protocols
What is scientifically established vs currently speculative in the gynecological microbiome field
Endometriosis as a potential endpoint of chronic microbiome dysfunction: the emerging theory
Antimicrobial resistance and gynecological probiotics
Why antibiotics sometimes trigger irregular bleeding — and the microbiome explanation
Clinical prediction: microbiome assessment as routine gynaecological practice within ten years
Curveball: recommended books, electrolytes, Rwanda project, ideal sidekick

Timestamps
[Part 3 start] — Seeding: the birth canal microbiome transfer
[~05:00 into part] — C-section, missed seeding, manual replication
[~08:00] — Why microbiome diversity declines with each birth
[~10:00] — AI diagnostics: vaginal swab inference for endometrial state
[~16:00] — Fertility clinic use cases; personalised probiotic prescribing
[~20:00] — What is established vs speculative in the field
[~23:00] — Endometriosis and the microbiome theory
[~27:00] — Antibiotics, irregular bleeding, antimicrobial resistance
[~30:00] — Ten-year clinical prediction
[~33:00] — Curveball questions

References and Resources
Get Happy website: www.get-happy.com
Ronny Szelinsky — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronny-szelinsky
Darm mit Charme by Jill Enders (English: Gut — The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ)
Herzenssache by Prof. Michael Becker (not available in English) — book on the female heart and gender differences in cardiovascular medicine
Boundless by Ben Greenfield — longevity and biohacking reference book; both Ronny and Judith recommend.

Insta/TikTok: @BiohackingEve
Website: www.BiohackingEve.com