In this episode, we join forces with Pitt’s Center for Bioethics & Health Law to present a special Medical Humanities Mondays panel discussion on the COVID-19 pandemic. Mari Webel of Pitt’s Department of History, Lisa S. Parker of the Center

Do not open that airlock: Notes from the COVID-19 Bunker

Mar 28th, 2020 49m 23s

In this special gonzo episode, Emma, Jake, and Jeff broadcast on improvised equipment from their respective pandemic shelters as the COVID-19 crisis expands faster than any one person can appreciate. We race escalating morbidity and Emma’s dwi

Voyage of the Damned: A Cruise through the Coronavirus Epidemic

Mar 15th, 2020 1h 18m

In this episode, we delve accurately if irreverently into the Covid-19 epidemic. It’s everything you’ve always wanted to know (and probably a few things you didn’t) about how viruses reproduce, or where they hide when they’re not causing us tr

Of Medical Flesh and Blood Libel: The Polish ‘Cadaver Affair,’ Medical Education, and Inter-War Anti-Semitism

Oct 25th, 2019 54m 30s

In this episode, Natalia Aleksiun, Professor of Modern Jewish History at Touro College, joins us in the studio to discuss her work on Jewish medical students in Central Europe between the world wars. In Poland and elsewhere, nationalist medica

RTBS 01 07 “Plasticize Me: You Too Can Exhibit Human Remains for Entertainment and Profit”

Aug 1st, 2019 1h 9m

In this episode, your hosts turn their scalpels on the strange and ethically-murky world of human body exhibitions. We discuss Gunther von Hagens, the German anatomist who perfected techniques of plastination, a method of preservation that he l

RTBS 01 06: “The Fox and the Hound: Co-Evolving with our Furry Friends”

Jul 24th, 2019 1h 12m

In this episode, we sniff into the strange territory of domestication and co-evolution with our special guest Anne Burrows, Professor of Anatomy at Duquesne University and a member of the research team making big news this summer for their work

“The Needle Has Landed: Vaccine Science and Anti-Vaccine Activism, Past and Present.”

Jun 19th, 2019 1h 10m

As vaccine fever runs high, UHC Brackenridge fellow Lo Reese joins Emma, Jake, and Jeff in the studio for a discussion about vaccines and the people who fear them, from the early days of smallpox vaccination to the present day of discredited an

Missing, Presumed Dead: Dirty Secrets from the History of the Trade in Human Cadavers

Jun 1st, 2019 1h 34m

In this episode, we dig deeply into the troubling history of obtaining human bodies for anatomical dissection and medical education. From disappearing parents to New York Riots to companies that offer body parts for rent, we can guarantee a fa

69 and Us: The Strange World of Commercial Genetic Testing

May 3rd, 2019 59m 28s

In this episode, Jake, Emma, and Jeff poke their instruments into the brave new world of commercial genetic testing. In a time when the swab of a cheek can reveal many things--some welcome, some not--we encounter crime, romantic disappointment

RTBS 01 02 "The Human Side of Sideshow: Performing Prodigies and Unusual Bodies from Barnum to Brighton Beach"

Apr 22nd, 2019 1h 33m

Emma, Jake, and Jeff talk about people with unusual, non-normative, or prodigious bodies who took their gifts on the road, performing before delighted, titillated (and sometimes shocked) audiences. Historical figures discussed include Charles

Welcome to the Freakshow: The Human Side of Sideshow

Apr 22nd, 2019 1h 33m

Summer of the Pacemakers: From Cadavers to Medical Museums

Apr 14th, 2019 1h 3m

In this episode, Emma, Jake, and Jeff talk about their experiences in working with human remains in the anatomy lab, as well as their own medical implants, visits to medical museums, and bodies that explode while being cremated.

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