Death, Sex & Money - Why Autopsies Are in Decline and Why it Matters
Death, Sex & Money
Slate Audio
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the 1950s, about 50% of patients who died in a hospital in the U.S. received an autopsy. Today, that figure is in the single digits, which is a big loss according to two people who care a lot about this topic:
One is Dr. Alex Williamson, an forensic and pediatric pathologist who performs autopsies and talks to families of the deceased about what he learned in the process. The other is Sam Ashworth, a novelist who went looking for a storytelling device and found an obsession. This week, both men explain why autopsies are important and what they can teach us about living.
Sam Ashworth’s novel The Death and Life of August Sweeny is available now.
This episode was produced by Cameron Drews.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Did you know that in the 1950s, about half of people who died in hospitals received an autopsy? |
| 0:08.0 | Did you know that today that percentage is in the single digits? |
| 0:13.0 | Autopsies are one of those things that we've all seen on TV. |
| 0:17.0 | We think we know what they're for and when they happen. |
| 0:20.0 | But the reality is way more intriguing and complicated. |
| 0:23.6 | I want to start with the obvious. We all know about the flashy reasons to do an autopsy on someone who's just died, to solve a crime, to shed light on a mysterious, strange, or gruesome death. |
| 0:36.6 | And then there is the everyday hospital-based |
| 0:40.1 | work of autopsies to help families and physicians understand disease, the effects of aging, |
| 0:47.2 | and not just the cause of death, but the condition of the body at the end of its life. Those kinds of autopsies have been in decline for |
| 0:56.3 | decades. And that's a big loss, according to two people that I talked to on this week's |
| 1:02.4 | episode. They are two of autopsies' biggest fans, a pathologist who spent his career doing |
| 1:09.6 | autopsies, and a novelist who set out to do some research for his book |
| 1:14.7 | and quickly became obsessed. |
| 1:17.7 | This is the one thing I am really evangelical about. |
| 1:21.1 | I really have come to care deeply about this |
| 1:26.4 | to the point where people are sometimes like, |
| 1:28.3 | please stop talking. |
| 1:33.7 | This is death, sex, and money. |
| 1:38.3 | The show from Slate about the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more. I'm in a sale. |
| 1:51.8 | Final autopsy report. |
| 2:03.9 | Patient August Robert Sweeney. |
| 2:09.6 | This is from the audiobook of the novel The Death and Life of August Sweeney. |
... |
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