Remains to be Seen

Apr 29 2020 11 ep. 69 mins 35

Remains to be Seen Podcast artwork

We know where the bodies are hidden. An anatomy professor, an English professor, and a future med student talk about the history of the human body in medicine, anatomy, and culture. Topics discussed may include medical museums, anatomical grave-robbing, organ transplantation, disability studies, unusual bodies, prosthetics, implants, body modification...whatever catches our interest (and we are interested in some rather odd things).

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RTBS 02 03 "COVID-19: Rhetorics of Infection, Resources of Resistance"

Apr 29 2020 59 mins

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 for Bioethics & Health Law, and our own Jake Dechant of Pitt’s School of Nursing address the problems of understanding and dealing with

RTBS 02 02 "Do not open that airlock: Notes from the COVID-19 Bunker”

Mar 28 2020 49 mins

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 dwindling laptop battery as we tackle issues social and scientific, including the racist targeting of Asians in America, the pitfalls of publi

RTBS 02 01 "Voyage of the Damned: A Cruise through the Coronavirus Epidemic"

Mar 15 2020 78 mins

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 trouble. Along the way, we misidentify the inventor of PCR and riff on the exotic bathroom tissues of Japan and Australia, find out why

RTBS 01 08 “Of Medical Flesh and Blood Libel: The Polish ‘Cadaver Affair,’ Medical Education, and Inter-War Anti-Semitism”

Oct 24 2019 54 mins

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 medical students under the rallying cry “Christian Bodies for Christians!” attempted to drive Jewish students out of the medical schools on the

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

Jul 31 2019 69 mins

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 later applied to whole human cadavers in his exhibition Bodyworlds. We look at von Hagen’s predecessors, like 17th-century Dutch anatomist

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

Jul 23 2019 72 mins

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 on the evolution of facial expression in domestic dogs. How does a muscle in a dog’s forehead tug on human heartstrings? What happens whe

RTBS 01 05: “The Needle Has Landed: Vaccine Science and Anti-Vaccine Activism, Past and Present.”

Jun 18 2019 70 mins

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 anti-vaccine “experts” and “conspiracy cruises.” In an episode likely to lose us Jessica Biel and Jenny McCarthy as listeners, we delv

RTBS 01 04 "Missing, Presumed Dead: Dirty Secrets from the History of the Trade in Human Cadavers"

Jun 01 2019 94 mins

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 fascinating though sometimes morbid excursion through medical history. You will meet a lot of people who weren’t afraid to get their hands di

RTBS 01 03 "69 and Us: The Strange World of Commercial Genetic Testing"

May 03 2019 59 mins

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 disappointments, bogus diagnoses, and some very naughty doctors, with digressions into gangsta kiwis and the motherf***er gene. Don't forget to subscribe t

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

Apr 21 2019 93 mins

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 Sherwood Stratton a.k.a. "General Tom Thumb," The Hilton Sisters (conjoined twins), Myrtle Corbin "The Four Legged Girl," and the life, trial