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Welcome to the Archives bonus episodes!

In 2024, I launched this podcast to delve deeper into our book club's nonfiction selections by engaging directly with the authors—the experts behind these compelling works. Over the years, our club has explored some exceptional books, and today, I am thrilled to spotlight one of our most acclaimed reads: "THE BLACK ANGELS: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis" by Maria Smilios. This remarkable book has earned and incredible 9.4 out of 10 rating on our BookClubs website and remains unrivaled at the top of our charts. I’m very excited to chat with Maria today.

“It was a glorious moment, long-awaited and widely celebrated. Newspapers worldwide rang with banner headlines announcing the ‘wonder drug.’ Images from that day show the ‘incurables,’ the patients slotted to die, in the hallways laughing and dancing. Standing behind them are the Black nurses, their faces still, their eyes fixed and hesitant. They knew a more solemn story. Now only a small handful remain, including Virginia, who lives among the ruined buildings, keeping her promise to remember them, the Black nurses, the ones ‘time and people tried to erase,’ 'the women who ‘did their jobs,’ and who came to be known as the Black Angels.”

About the book:

“New York City, 1929. A sanatorium, a deadly disease, and a dire nurse shortage. So begins the remarkable true story of the Black nurses who helped cure one of the world’s deadliest plagues: tuberculosis. During those dark pre-antibiotic days, when tuberculosis killed 1 in 7 people, white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, began quitting. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, city officials summoned Black southern nurses, luring them with promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the strictures of Jim Crow. But after arriving, they found themselves on an isolated hilltop in the remote borough of Staten Island, yet again confronting racism and consigned to a woefully understaffed facility, dubbed “the pest house” where “no one left alive.” Spanning the Great Depression and moving through World War II and beyond, this story follows the intrepid young women, the “Black Angels,” who, for twenty years, risked their lives working under dreadful conditions while caring for the city’s poorest—1,800 souls languishing in wards, waiting to die or become “guinea pigs” for experimental (often deadly) drugs. Yet despite their major role in desegregating the NYC hospital system—and regardless of their vital work in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View—these nurses were completely erased from history. The Black Angels recovers the voices of these extraordinary women and puts them at the center of this riveting story celebrating their legacy and spirit of survival.”

themorbidlycuriousbookclub.com

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Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our June 2024 book pick, “THE DAYE I DIE: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America” by Anita Hannig.

"The Day I Die is a major work of nonfiction that tackles the one issue we'll all eventually come to face-our final days, hours, and minutes. With clarity and empathy, award-winning anthropologist Anita Hannig uncovers the stigma against the practice of assisted dying, untangles the legalities and logistics of pursuing an assisted death in America today, and profiles the dedicated advocates and medical personnel involved. In intimate, lyrical detail, Hannig explains why someone might choose an assisted death and how that decision impacts their loved ones. In a time when nearly 80 percent of Americans die in hospitals and nursing homes, medical assistance in dying could transform the way we die for the better, allowing more people to define the terms of their own death.”

Excitingly, we have chapters sprouting up around the world. Find them here: https://bookclubs.com/join-a-book-club/the-morbidly-curious-book-club -- if you don't see your city, send me an email!

[email protected]

References and mentioned links:

• https://anitahannig.com/about-me/
• https://deathwithdignity.org/news/2024/03/annual-oregon-dwd-report-data/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9451602/
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/dutch-woman-euthanasia-approval-grounds-of-mental-suffering
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/europe-slowly-shifting-attitudes-towards-assisted-dying
• https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/16/dutch-woman-euthanasia-approval-grounds-of-mental-suffering
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_suicide_in_the_United_States#cite_note-6
• https://katu.com/news/politics/oregon-ends-residency-rule-for-medically-assisted-suicide
• https://news.gallup.com/poll/235145/americans-strong-support-euthanasia-persists.aspx
• https://www.patientsrightscouncil.org/site/assisted-suicide-state-laws/
• https://www.bmj.com/content/384/bmj.q271
• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/medical-assistance-dying.html

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I had the opportunity to chat with Kristel and Helen Leonard, both featured in our May book, "Without a Prayer" by Susan Ashline. Kristel is the sister of Lucas Leonard, who was murdered at the Word of Life [Cult]. This is an incredibly special episode, I'm so glad I get to share it with you!

Relevant links:

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusanAshline

https://lukesthunder.blogspot.com/

https://www.icsahome.com/

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Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our May 2024 book pick, “WITHOUT A PRAYER: The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult ” by Susan Ashline.

Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar—he’d practiced witchcraft and conspired to murder his parents, among other horrific crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas arrived at the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas’ church (and a good amount of them family) would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess? The full story has never been told—until now. Emmy-nominated journalist Susan Ashline delves deep into the Leonard family history, the darkness within the Word of Life Christian Church, and what led Lucas, his family, and his community to that fateful night.

Susan Ashline is the author of the nationally acclaimed true crime book Without a Prayer: The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult. She is an Emmy-nominated journalist whose career spans more than twenty-five years. Her work has received major awards, including a first place Associated Press award for general excellence in individual reporting, and a Gannett Gold Medal award. Susan graduated from the University of Massachusetts, and she studied at the University of New Mexico and the State University of New York.

Resources and links:

https://www.icsahome.com/

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusanAshline

https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Jacket_Off_the_Gorge/NePoEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

https://www.reddit.com/r/askfuneraldirectors/comments/18np4eb/transporting_deceased_loved_one_over_state_lines/

https://www.us-funerals.com/when-death-occurs-away-from-home/

https://www.syracuse.com/crime/2019/08/word-of-life-christian-church-book-reveals-wild-saga-of-church-founders-death.html

https://www.romesentinel.com/news/update-former-word-of-life-church-set-on-fire-in-chadwicks-man-charged-with-arson/article_29d8a10a-9a6f-5600-bfc0-5d0b6d1db262.html

https://lukesthunder.blogspot.com/

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Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our April 2024 book pick, “DATE BABY: My Life in a Psychological Experiment” by Susannah Breslin.

What if your parents turn you into a human lab rat when you’re a child? Will that change the story of your life? Will that change who you are? When Susannah Breslin is a toddler, her parents enroll her in an exclusive laboratory preschool at the University of California, Berkeley, where she becomes one of over a hundred children who are research subjects in an unprecedented thirty-year study of personality development that predicts who she and her cohort will grow up to be. Decades later, trapped in what she feels is an abusive marriage and battling breast cancer, she starts to wonder how growing up under a microscope shaped her identity and life choices. Already a successful journalist, she makes her own curious history the subject of her next investigation. From experiment rooms with one-way mirrors, to children’s puzzles with no solutions, to condemned basement laboratories, her life-changing journey uncovers the long-buried secrets hidden behind the renowned study. The question at the gnarled heart of her quest: Did the study know her better than she knew herself? At once bravely honest and sharply witty, Data Baby is a compelling and provocative account of a woman’s quest to find her true self, and an unblinking exploration of why we turn out as we do. Few people in all of history have been studied from such a young age and for as long as this author, but the message of her book is universal. In an era when so many of us are looking to technology to tell us who to be, it’s up to us to discover who we actually are.

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...with comment from the author of Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom.

Thank you, thank you, for all the messages you guys sent me, and the posts you’ve tagged me in. A happy morbidly curious friend over here!

I spoke with author Megan Rosenbloom who wrote the book “Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin” (my book club’s pick for January) about this decision and I love her response:

“It’d be a different situation if there was a repatriation request at play here or a family member of an identified individual or representative of that individual’s known community. There can be respectful stewardship of problematic artifacts that preserve the evidence of past actions, provide context, and allow students and researchers to continue to learn from them, but that is not possible when a few voices can push an institution into destroying objects entrusted to their care. It could also set a precedent for institutions feeling that they must also destroy their anthropodermic books because Harvard did, driving the existence of the rest of these books on the private market further underground, where they might be treated less respectfully and will also be unavailable to researchers. There could be far-reaching implications from this decision.”

This is going to be a domino effect, and I’m not looking forward to the future decisions institutions may make. These books are much safer where they currently are, in my humble opinion.

https://library.harvard.edu/statement-des-destinees-de-lame

https://library.harvard.edu/about/news/2024-03-27/qa-houghton-library-about-book-des-destinees-de-lame

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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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“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.