A compelling, often hilarious and occasionally horrifying exploration
of how modern medicine came to be!
Wondering whether eating powdered mummies might be just the thing to
cure your ills? Tempted by those vintage ads suggesting you wear
radioactive underpants for virility? Ever considered drilling a hole in
your head to deal with those pesky headaches? Probably not. But for
thousands of years, people have done things like this--and things that
make radioactive underpants seem downright sensible! In their hit
podcast, Sawbones, Sydnee and Justin McElroy breakdown the weird and
wonderful way we got to modern healthcare. And some of the terrifying
detours along the way.
Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and
gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid
listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast
on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey
through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only
hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider
applying boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of
sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost
certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life
(we're looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if
this is a miracle cure (it's not) or a scam.
