31 Mary Roach - The Science of Your Guts

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 25 April 2014

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mary Roach has been called "America's funniest science writer." Master of the monosyllabically titled bestseller, she has explored sex in Bonk, corpses in Stiff, and the afterlife in Spook. Her latest book, now out in paperback, is Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. It's, you know, completely gross. But in a way that you can't put down.What kind of things might you learn in a Mary Roach book about the alimentary canal, that convoluted pipeline that runs from where you food goes in all the way to where something else comes out? Well, how about why suicide bombers don't carry bombs in their rectums: Their bodies would absorb much of the explosion and prevent any chance of achieving their deadly objective. It's one of the "reasons to be thankful for your anus," observes Roach on this week's episode.On the show, Roach took host Indre Viskontas on a quick tour of the colon and discussed some uses of the alimentary canal that are surely outside the normal range of advised behavior (just Google "hooping"—not the Hula Hoop kind—and you'll see what we mean). But this isn't all funny; the science of the gut can help you live more, er, comfortably. We talk to Roach about all that and more on this week’s show.This episode also features a discussion of whether humans differ, genetically, in our sensitivity to pain, and on the latest dismal survey showing just how much scientific knowledge Americans refuse to accept.iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsStitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-mindsSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Friday, April 25th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.
0:05.9	I'm Chris Mooney.
0:07.0	And I'm Indrae Viscontas.
0:08.4	Each week we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.
0:13.9	We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.
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0:35.0	And I want to let you know that this episode of Inquiring Minds is sponsored by
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0:43.4	150,000 titles to choose from. And exclusively for listeners to this episode, Audible has a great
0:49.6	offer, a free audiobook. Yep, totally free. You just have to go to this specific URL to get it,
0:55.8	audiblepodcast.com slash inquiring minds. Again, that's audiblepodcast.com
1:01.4	slash inquiring minds. For today's show, I interviewed one of my favorite science writers, Mary
1:07.3	Roach, whose books seek to answer profound questions with meticulous research
1:11.9	and her signature sense of humor.
1:14.4	She's been called America's funniest science writer, and I would even venture to say she's
1:19.0	the world's funniest science writer.
1:21.3	And so far, every one of her books has been a bestseller.
1:24.3	They're the kinds of nonfiction books that you don't want to put down, and they cover taboo topics like human cadavers, the afterlife, and sex.
1:32.1	And now, what happens to food as it travels from our noses to our toilets?
1:37.1	And I have to say, it's a much more fascinating journey than I originally had thought.
1:41.2	It's marked, of course, by many unusual twists and turns as is her style.
	...

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