Breasts Unbound

Jan 23 2018 23 mins 683

Breasts Unbound Podcast artwork

Join the award-winning series Breasts Unbound for a revealing journey into everyone’s favorite organ. Host Florence Williams travels from Houston to Hollywood to the boob-shaped hills of Northern England to share the big and small story of breasts – why we have them, how we view them, and why they sometimes do weird things. Turns out, breasts have a lot to teach us. Coming December 5, 2017 to Apple Podcasts, and available now on Audible.

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Ep 8.: The Future of Breasts

Jan 23 2018 29 mins

Even though we still live in a big-boob bubble, more women are voluntarily reducing their breast size. Others are happily deciding to “go flat” after cancer. Trans women are learning how to lactate - are men next? Are we entering a post-boob universe, one in which we all take more control of what our individual breasts do and what they look like?

Ep. 7: The New Normal Puberty

Jan 16 2018 21 mins

Retailers are now selling bras with princess characters on them. Girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever before. In this episode, we talk to some families and experts at the center of the quest to understand how modern life is changing breasts and what it means for our future.

Ep. 6: What’s in Chelsea Handler’s Boobs?

Jan 08 2018 19 mins

In this episode, we talk to Chelsea Handler about her relationship with her large and well-publicized rack, and then find out what chemicals she has coursing through her bloodstream that might endanger her (and everyone’s) prized organs.

Ep 5: Bugs and Breastmilk

Jan 01 2018 29 mins

It can save babies’ lives and supply rarified fatty acids, antibodies and proteins. But breast milk also contains tons of mysterious sugars not digestible by babies. So, who are they for? And what can the answer teach us about the future of health and medicine, even for adults?

Ep. 4: What Men Can Teach Us About Breast Cancer

Dec 25 2017 26 mins

Mike Partain was born on a storied marine base in North Carolina. Thirty-nine years later, he was diagnosed with rare male breast cancer. Then he started finding old neighbors who were diagnosed, too. Thanks to these male outliers, scientists are learning more about what causes one of the deadliest women’s diseases in the world.

Ep. 3: Busting the Bust Myth

Dec 19 2017 20 mins

In modern-day America, we’re constantly bombarded with images of perfectly round, big, pneumatic knockers. Where did this ideal come from, and is it really everyone’s favorite boob type? Florence Williams administers the “Swami test” to find out which breast size most men prefer and tries to get to the bottom of some cherished, misguided myths.

Ep. 2: Knocking on Evolution’s Door

Dec 12 2017 27 mins

Every mammal has mammary glands, but only humans have permanent, rounded, full-on breasts. Why? What are breasts really for, anyway? The answers matter, because they influence how we see each other and see ourselves. Florence Williams walks up the largest breasts in the world (they’re in England) and talks to Oxford’s Desmond Morris, author of the classic, The Naked Ape.

Ep. 1: 55 Years of Plastic Implants

Dec 04 2017 31 mins

Florence Williams explores the history of a medical device that changed silhouettes around the world, and she finds the oldest living pair of silicone implants - in 84-year-old Texan Timmie Jean Lindsey, who has to decide whether or not to remove them for the sake of posterity and a museum. “It’s my luck, they’ll get lost in the mail,” says Lindsey.

Coming Soon

Nov 15 2017 2 mins

Breasts have been bared, flaunted, measured, inflated, suckled, pierced, tassled -- and in every way fetishized by our society. Host and science journalist Florence Williams (prize-winning author of BREASTS: A Natural and Unnatural History) delves deeper into the mysteries of the human breast with funny and enlightening reporting. She tackles the big questions of why they evolved i