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“In medicine, pathogenesis refers to the origins and development (genesis) of a disease (pathos), with a particular focus on the way that pathogens infect our cells and the effect this has on our bodies. In the pages that follow, we will explore how viruses, bacteria, and other microbes impact aggregations of bodies–that is, the body politic, body economic, and body social … Over the last couple of years, COVID-19 has affected all our lives to such an extent that it has become a cliche to say that the pandemic is unprecedented and extraordinary. But when we place coronavirus in its historical and scientific context, it becomes very clear that there is little about it that is new or remarkable. Recurring outbreaks of infectious diseases have been a feature of human existence for millennia … We don’t make history in circumstances of our own choosing … It’s a bacterial world, and we’re just squatting here.”

Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our March 2024 book pick, “PATHOGENESIS: A History of the World in Eight Plagues” by Jonathan Kennedy.

“In medicine, pathogenesis refers to the origins and development (genesis) of a disease (pathos), with a particular focus on the way that pathogens infect our cells and the effect this has on our bodies. In the pages that follow, we will explore how viruses, bacteria, and other microbes impact aggregations of bodies–that is, the body politic, body economic, and body social … Over the last couple of years, COVID-19 has affected all our lives to such an extent that it has become a cliche to say that the pandemic is unprecedented and extraordinary. But when we place coronavirus in its historical and scientific context, it becomes very clear that there is little about it that is new or remarkable. Recurring outbreaks of infectious diseases have been a feature of human existence for millennia. Epidemics have played a critical role in, among other things, the transformation from a planet inhabited by multiple species of humans to one in which jomo sapiens reigned supreme; the replacement of nomadic foraging with sedentary agriculture; the decline of the great empires of antiquity; the rise of new world religions; the transition from feudalism to capitalism; European colonialism; and the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions. In other words, bacteria and viruses have been instrumental in the emergence of the modern world … We don’t make history in circumstances of our own choosing … It’s a bacterial world, and we’re just squatting here.”

Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our March 2024 book pick, “PATHOGENESIS: A History of the World in Eight Plagues” by Jonathan Kennedy.

About: This humbling and revelatory book shows how infectious disease has shaped humanity at every stage, from the first success of Homo sapiens over the equally intelligent Neanderthals to the fall of Rome and the rise of Islam. How did the Black Death lead to the birth of capitalism? And how did the Industrial Revolution lead to the birth of the welfare state? In this revelatory book, Dr Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires. Infectious diseases are not just something that happens to us, but a part of who we are. The only reason humans don't lay eggs is that a virus long ago inserted itself into our DNA. In fact, 8% of the human genome was put there by viruses. We have been thinking about the survival of the fittest all wrong: human evolution is not simply about our strength and intelligence, but about what viruses can and can't use for their benefit. Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through 60,000 years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world’s major religions. By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past—and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story by confronting our ongoing battle with infectious diseases globally. Kennedy shows how germs have been responsible for some of the seismic revolutions in human history, and how the crises they precipitate offer vital opportunities to change course.

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Join the Morbidly Curious Book Club Today: themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

“This had been the thing that bothered me most from day one: Doe cases got the least coverage, even though they were the ones that needed it most. So, I filed a fresh batch of FOIAs on the unidentified dead, the ones whose case numbers I'd been tracking in NamUs and whose nicknames were set to Google Alerts: Julie Doe. Dennis Doe. Christmas Doe. When I got the very first file, I knew these were the cases I needed to write about, above all. There was no one out there advocating for them. No family holding a memorial for Jane Doe 1980. Or if there were, it was under a different name. But maybe their attention could be attracted and connected to the unidentified. After all, if you can construct a story with the pieces that death has left behind, someone might recognize the life that preceded them.”

Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our February 2024 book pick, “LAY THEM TO REST: On the Road with the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless” by Laurah Norton.

About: A fascinating deep dive into the dark world of forensic science as experts team up to solve the identity of an unknown woman named “Ina Jane Doe,” exploring the rapidly evolving techniques scientists are using to break the most notorious cold cases, written by the host of the popular true-crime podcast, The Fall Line and One Strange Thing by Laurah Norton. Over the past six years, Laurah has worked tirelessly to cover unsolved murders, unidentified persons, and unexplained disappearances—-primarily those involving communities deprioritized by mainstream media or investigators. After she stumbled across the case of "Ina Jane Doe,” an unidentified woman whose decapitated head was found tucked in the brush of an Illinois park in 1993, Laurah has been more determined than ever to help this victim reclaim her identity so she can finally be laid to rest.

Laurah Norton is a writer and former academic with 15 years in the fields of literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and archival and primary research. Her work includes creation, writing, research, and hosting of podcasts ONE STRANGE THING and THE FALL LINE. Current literary projects include the book LAY THEM TO REST, and she is currently working on a suspense-thriller novel set in the early 2000s and tying together the Appalachian foothills of Georgia, folk magic, and forensic science. Other literary publications include fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction in journals and anthologies.

RESOURCES: Purchase Lay Them to Rest: https://www.laythemtorestbook.com/

https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/frequently-asked-questions#11-0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNx0drV5qhQ

https://www.peterstrain.co.uk/

https://clarksvillenow.com/local/what-happened-to-susan-lund-family-revisits-mystery-30-years-after-clarksville-womans-disappearance-death/

https://redgraveresearch.com/ https://redgraveresearch.com/index.php/cases/ina-jane-doe-illinois-1993

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNx0drV5qhQ&embeds_referring_euri=

https%3A%2F%2Fredgraveresearch.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title

https://www.wnct.com/on-your-side/crime-tracker/cold-case-files/cold-case-files-the-disappearance-of-asha-degree/

https://www.murderdata.org/ https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Centimorgan

https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Centimorgan)

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“Anthropodermic books demand that we wrestle with mortality and what happens when immortality is thrust upon us, and they have clarified my own moral vision as a librarian and caretaker of what remains of the past. All of these realizations came to me over time. I started off with simply a healthy dose of morbid curiosity.”

Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our January 2024 book pick, “DARK ARCHIVES: A Librarian's Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin.”

About: On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historical and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy--the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world's most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection. Along the way, Rosenbloom tells the story of how her team of scientists, curators, and librarians test rumored anthropodermic books, untangling the myths around their creation and reckoning with the ethics of their custodianship.

Megan Rosenbloom was the co-founder and director of Death Salon, the event arm of The Order of the Good Death, and a proponent of the Death Positive movement. She leads a research team called The Anthropodermic Book Project that aims to find the historical and scientific truths behind the world’s alleged books bound in human skin, or anthropodermic bibliopegy, and her bestselling debut book about this practice, titled Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin, was a New York Times Editors Choice and won the 2021 LAMPHHS Best Monograph Award. In a former life, she was a journalist in Philadelphia and continues to write for both academic and non-academic publications.

Megan’s publications mentioned: [https://meganrosenbloom.com/publications/

Harvard article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27721571

Purchase Dark Archives here, if unavailable see if there’s a used copy on PangoBooks!: https://bookshop.org/p/books/dark-archives-a-librarian-s-investigation-into-the-science-and-history-of-books-bound-in-human-skin-megan-rosenbloom/14220868?ean=9781250800169

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Welcome

An introduction, and our 2024 line up.