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Witness History

Body Worlds Exhibition

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.41.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2017

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1995 Tokyo University staged the first public exhibition to feature human corpses that had been preserved through the process of plastination using silicone. The process was developed by the German anatomist, Gunther Von Hagens - but it was Professor Takeshi Yoro of Japan who first suggested they should be put on public display. He speaks to Rebecca Kesby for Witness.

(Photo: Base-ball player at the Body Worlds exhibition of real human bodies, San Diego, California, 2009. Credit: Gabriel Bouys/AFP)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.7

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.5

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:18.0

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC

0:35.4

Sounds.

0:36.4

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:40.9

My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned

0:43.0

podcast for BBC Sounds.

0:45.0

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality,

0:49.0

featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:54.4

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

1:00.9

poltergeist, cricket and conspiracy theories, and that's just a few examples.

1:06.4

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over

1:11.1

at BBC Sounds.

1:12.2

Hello and thank you for downloading this witness history podcast from the BBC World Service

1:18.0

with me Rebecca Kessby.

1:20.0

And today we head to Japan in 1995 and the first highly controversial body world's

1:26.3

exhibition.

1:27.3

I've been speaking to the man whose idea it was to unveil plastinated human corpses to the general public and you may find some of the details

1:36.6

in this programme disturbing.

...

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