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Inquiring Minds

46 David Casarett - The Science of Death

Inquiring Minds

Inquiring Minds

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

4.4848 Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2014

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On the show this week we talk to University of Pennsylvania professor of medicine David Casarett about his book Shocked: Adventures in Bringing Back the Recently Dead.Casarett explains the science of resuscitation—and what exactly it means to be “dead.” We talk about cryonics, the idea that you might be able to preserve your brain—or your whole body—by freezing it immediately after you die, and then bring it back to life in the future once science figures out how to do that. We also talk to Casarett about how likely it is that one day we might be able to put humans in a state of hibernation or suspended animation.This episode also features a conversation with Tara Smith, an epidemiologist who is an expert on the Ebola virus, and has been debunking a large number of myths about the latest outbreak.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, August 8th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.

0:05.2

I'm Chris Mooney.

0:06.1

And I'm Indravis Gantus.

0:07.5

Each week we bring you a new, in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.

0:13.0

We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.

0:16.8

You can find us online at motherjones.com slash inquiring minds.

0:21.1

You can also find us on Twitter at Inquiring Show and on Facebook at slash Inquiring Minds podcast.

0:27.4

And you can subscribe to the show if you don't already on iTunes, Stitcher, or any other podcasting app.

0:43.2

And I wanted to let you know that this episode of Inquiring Minds is sponsored by Audible.com. They are a leading provider of spoken audio information and entertainment,

0:48.4

with over 150,000 titles to choose from. And exclusively for listeners to this episode,

0:53.7

Audible has a great offer,

0:55.1

a free audiobook. Yep, totally free. You just have to go to this specific URL to get it,

1:00.6

audiblepodcast.com slash inquiring minds. Once again, that's audiblepodcast.com

1:05.9

slash inquiring minds. This week, I interviewed David Casaret. He's a physician, researcher, and tenured professor

1:12.1

at UPenn's School of Medicine. He's published more than 100 articles and book chapters in leading

1:17.3

medical journals, and he's the real deal. He's just released a book called Shocked, documenting the

1:22.9

history and state of the art of resuscitation, essentially bringing people back from the dead.

1:28.8

It's a fascinating read, and it quickly calls into question the very notion of death, what it

1:33.4

means to be dead. And it turns out that the line between life and death is much blurrier

1:37.8

than we might think. Here's a clip from the interview. I notice as I talk to both researchers

1:43.2

and emergency room physicians and paramedics in writing this book,

1:48.2

that a lot of people I talked to would use these air quotes as they talk about somebody who's dead.

...

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