The Sawbones Book

The Horrifying, Hilarious Road to Modern Medicine

By: Justin McElroy, Dr. Sydnee McElroy

Narrated by: Justin McElroy, Dr. Sydnee McElroy

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A compelling, often hilarious, and occasionally horrifying exploration of how modern medicine came to be!

Wondering whether eating powdered mummies might be just the thing to cure your ills? Tempted by those vintage ads suggesting you wear radioactive underpants for virility? Ever considered drilling a hole in your head to deal with those pesky headaches? Probably not. But for thousands of years, people have done things like this - and things that make radioactive underpants seem downright sensible! In their hit podcast, Sawbones, Sydnee and Justin McElroy breakdown the weird and wonderful way we got to modern healthcare. And some of the terrifying detours along the way.

Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider applying boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life (we’re looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if this is a miracle cure (it’s not) or a scam.

©2018 Weldon Owen Inc. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Very enjoyable listened to it in one day!

Loved listening to this. I spent all my time while working listening to these two awesome people talk about medical history.

Awesome!

I loved it! Justin and Sydnee's first book is amazing. I love all the fun and not so fun facts!

If you like "Get Well Soon" you will like this!

I've been looking for another comical history based book like "Get well soon" for awhile and this hit the spot!

Absolutely Delightful!

Absolutely delightful! Making the gruesome history of medical practice - I will not call it care - into an interesting and often comical story has made absorbing the frightening details of the past into an interesting and frequently entertaining experience.

10/5

I would give this book ten stars if I could but Audible won't let me!

Shallow

Interesting tidbits, but little sustinence.

An endurance to finish.

Could be condenced to 1/2 hour with same result.

It is a bit like a long podcast, but that’s great!

I enjoyed it 😁. Very podcast-y, but I love podcasts, so that works. Give it a shot!

The good, the bad, and the ugly

This book is based on a weekly podcast dealing with some of the crazy and strange things that have been done in the history of medical care. The authors are a husband and wife team and have compiled some of their best stories and put them into this book. Dr. Sydnee McElroy provides most of the content while Justin, an actor and former video game journalist, adds comedic repartee. 

After an introduction, the book is divided into 4 chapters: The Unnerving, The Gross, The Weird, and The Awesome, and you can imagine some of the content from the titles. Within each of these chapters are also a section called “The Doctor Is In” in which she answers some of the questions that were sent in by listeners. 

And yes you will read of some things you already know such as the suggestion that George Washington’s death was possibly hastened by the extreme amount of blood (around 40% of his total blood) that was drained as a “cure” for a throat infection. You will also read of a lot more that you didn’t know and much that you wish you didn’t. But, you will be entertained, you will better appreciate the development of medical knowledge, and you will be much more thankful for those who gave their hearts and sometimes their lives to learn more about what causes disease and what preserves health. 

While the topic is serious and important, this book is not. It won’t be a textbook in any medical school, at least as far as I could imagine. It will be a fun way to enjoy a few hours.

Very entertaining!

Lots of good information, lots of great history of medicine, and lots of laughs. Thanks!

Wonderfully entertaining & informative!

This is one book for which the authors’ narration is a plus! They are extremely talented and expressive and easy to understand. As a former medical researcher, I found the information eye-opening and presented in a memorable and amusing way. I feel like the authors were in the room with me and have become my friends. I would think this book would be of interest to anyone who is human...meaning, everyone! A great gift audiobook, in my opinion!