Is That a Foot?

Death in the Afternoon

Caitlin Doughty

Education, Society & Culture

5 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2018

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Generally speaking, we like our limbs in context. “The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone’s connected to the leg bone.” But what about when we encounter limbs that aren’t connected to anybody? Just out there, free and unattached? This week we talk about rogue and extra limbs that have been found by the sea, in the smoker, and in the grave as we answer the question: is that a…foot?

Transcript

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0:23.0	I'm going to Everyone take a deep breath in and then a deep breath out.
0:27.0	This is a seaside meditation.
0:32.0	Who among us doesn't love a day at the beach, the fresh, salty sea air, the crash of the waves, and the water
0:39.8	lapping at your toes. another deep breath in and deep breath out.
0:50.0	Waiting a little deeper into the cool refreshing water.
0:55.3	You feel smooth rocks, slippery seaweed,
0:59.9	and oh, that's a surprise, a small fish rushing past your legs.
1:07.0	Wait, that's, that's not a fish.
1:12.0	Did someone lose a shoe?
1:15.0	Oh God, that's a human foot.
1:17.0	That is a human foot. Welcome to Death in the afternoon, a podcast about all things mortal from the Order of the Good Death.
1:35.8	I'm Caitlin, a mortician and educator, and as always I'm joined by my fellow researchers and writers Louise Hung and Sarah Chavez.
1:44.4	Today's episode, is that a foot? Louise was very excited, a little too excited, honestly, to base an episode around the rogue
2:01.2	feet that keep washing up in the Pacific Northwest.
2:04.4	I feel no need to apologize for this.
2:07.2	I heard that this had been happening, but I didn't know much about it.
2:11.0	Is the story just that there were disembodied feet washing ashore?
2:16.7	Correction there are disembodied feet washing ashore in British Columbia.
2:21.2	So they're still coming. Oh yeah.
2:23.0	Just this past May, the 14th foot showed up on the shores of Garibola Island near Vancouver.
2:30.4	That's the 14th foot to show up in either British Columbia or Washington State in 10 years.
2:36.0	That's like a really high foot to year ratio.
	...

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