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The Sawbones Book
- The Horrifying, Hilarious Road to Modern Medicine
- Narrated by: Justin McElroy, Dr. Sydnee McElroy
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
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The Sawbones Book
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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.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 818
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Computer-generated Narrator. Dated Humour.
- By Nemo on 12-28-18
By: Lydia Kang, and others
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The Butchering Art
- Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
- By: Lindsey Fitzharris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,354
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,017
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,009
In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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Dr. Mutter's Marvels
- A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine
- By: Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz
- Narrated by: Erik Singer
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 873
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 781
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 774
Imagine undergoing an operation without anesthesia performed by a surgeon who refuses to sterilize his tools - or even wash his hands. This was the world of medicine when Thomas Dent Mütter began his trailblazing career as a plastic surgeon in Philadelphia during the middle of the 19th century. Although he died at just 48, Mütter was an audacious medical innovator who pioneered the use of ether as anesthesia, the sterilization of surgical tools, and a compassion-based vision for helping the severely deformed, which clashed spectacularly with the sentiments of his time.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Morbidly wonderful
- By serine on 04-08-16
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The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth
- And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Morris
- Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 624
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 540
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 537
A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the 19th century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Boring Toilet Humor
- By Nemo on 01-30-20
By: Thomas Morris
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Gory Details
- By: Erika Engelhaupt
- Narrated by: Mari Weiss
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 366
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 321
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
Filled to the brim with far-out facts, this wickedly informative narrative from the author of National Geographic's popular Gory Details blog takes us on a fascinating journey through an astonishing new reality. Blending humor and journalism in the tradition of Mary Roach, acclaimed science reporter Erika Engelhaupt investigates the gross, strange, and morbid absurdities of our bodies and our universe.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Feels like old school Discovery channel
- By Anonymous User on 02-15-23
By: Erika Engelhaupt
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Written in Bone
- Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind
- By: Sue Black
- Narrated by: Sue Black
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story5 out of 5 stars 131
In her memoir All That Remains, internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist Dame Sue Black recounted her life lived eye to eye with the Grim Reaper. During the course of it, she offered a primer on the basics of identifying human remains, plenty of insights into the fascinating processes of death, and a sober, compassionate understanding of its inescapable presence in our existence. Now in this book, Black builds on that memoir, taking us on a guided tour of the human skeleton and explaining how each person's life history is revealed in their bones.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A very human story by a very believable human
- By Gary on 09-21-21
By: Sue Black
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The Violinist's Thumb
- And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,079
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 918
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 922
From New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean come more incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA. There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK's bronze skin (it wasn't a tan) to Einstein's genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans bred thousands of years more recently than any of us would feel comfortable thinking.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I Need the Gene for Audiobook Selection
- By Pamela Harvey on 07-30-12
By: Sam Kean
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Spook
- Science Tackles the Afterlife
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Bernadette Quigley
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 1,371
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 1,112
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,109
In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Read this book, but don't listen to it!
- By Christine on 11-21-09
By: Mary Roach
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Bonk
- The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,089
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2,258
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,260
The study of sexual physiology has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred Kinsey's attic.
Mary Roach, "The funniest science writer in the country", devoted the past two years to stepping behind those doors. In Bonk, Roach shows us how and why sexual arousal and orgasm can be so hard to achieve and what science is doing to slowly make the bedroom a more satisfying place.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely Wonderful!
- By Gurmukh on 07-05-08
By: Mary Roach
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Everybody Has a Podcast (Except You)
- By: Justin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Griffin McElroy
- Narrated by: Griffin McElroy, Travis McElroy, Justin McElroy, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 352
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 297
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Story5 out of 5 stars 295
From the number-one New York Times best-selling McElroy Brothers, creators of the hit podcasts My Brother, My Brother and Me and The Adventure Zone, comes a helpful and hilarious how-to podcast guide covering everything you need to know to make, produce, edit, and promote a podcast...and get rich* doing it! (*Results not guaranteed.)
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3 out of 5 stars
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its fine, but full of vagueness
- By Joshua Fisher on 02-09-21
By: Justin McElroy, and others
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Get Well Soon
- History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
- By: Jennifer Wright
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,740
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,032
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,999
In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn't stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon 34 more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-19th-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome - a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Didn't know syphilis could be so fascinating.
- By Kindle Customer on 02-09-17
By: Jennifer Wright
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Grunt
- The Curious Science of Humans at War
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Abby Elvidge
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,299
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2,066
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,062
Grunt tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries - panic, exhaustion, heat, noise - and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I Usually Love Mary Roach, But--
- By Gillian on 12-07-16
By: Mary Roach
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Fuzz
- When Nature Breaks the Law
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Mary Roach
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,464
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,234
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,225
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The footnotes
- By Alex on 09-24-21
By: Mary Roach
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Ten Drugs
- How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Angelo Di Loreto
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,878
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,221
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,203
Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Engrossing to physicians & lay persons alike
- By C. White on 03-08-19
By: Thomas Hager
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The Icepick Surgeon
- Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Ben Sullivan
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,103
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 937
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 934
Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process.
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4 out of 5 stars
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FANTASTIC! & What’s up with all these naysayers (negative reviewers)?!
- By Zophie Leslea on 08-19-21
By: Sam Kean
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Clockwork Boys
- Clocktaur War, Book 1
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 763
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 635
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 632
A paladin, an assassin, a forger, and a scholar ride out of town. It's not the start of a joke, but rather an espionage mission with deadly serious stakes. T. Kingfisher's new novel begins the tale of a murderous band of criminals (and a scholar), thrown together in an attempt to unravel the secret of the Clockwork Boys, mechanical soldiers from a neighboring kingdom that promise ruin to the Dowager's city.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyable, entertaining adventure
- By Elisabeth Carey on 08-06-19
By: T. Kingfisher
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Women in White Coats
- How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine
- By: Olivia Campbell
- Narrated by: Jean Ann Douglass
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 157
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 156
In the early 1900s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness—a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society. Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Lizzie Garret Anderson and Sophie Jex-Blake fought for a woman's place in the male-dominated medical field.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Three courageous women you’ll be cheering on.
- By Maggie on 03-19-21
By: Olivia Campbell
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,043
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,776
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,785
Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Book, Great Narration, But...
- By Henny Button on 09-18-10
By: Sam Kean
What listeners say about The Sawbones Book
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- AnekahLuna
- 01-29-20
Love Justin and Sydney
Even as a listener to nearly every episode of the podcast, I loved this book! Great listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- R. MCRACKAN
- 04-04-19
A strong 4.5
When I got this as a 'daily deal' I'd never heard, nor even heard of, their podcast. Their humor, personalities, delivery, and stories sometimes didn't land with me. For the overwhelming majority though, these stories were disarmingly engaging. It was a fun, entertaining, and educational quick listen with bite-sized chapters.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dr. Joe de Beauchamp
- 04-11-19
sawbones
Very informative book and funny twists of medical quackery ... you'll learn much on this 15 million listening people to this podcast.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kristina Reuter
- 06-18-19
history
I love this book!!!! There is so many fun yet serious things to learn about it makes me want to learn more about medical history.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mimi Jenkins
- 05-03-19
Great addition to the podcast
I LOVE the podcast and this book is just like the podcast. If you are not a fan/listener of the podcast, some of the interactions may seem odd to you. Do yourself a favor and go listen to the podcast and get the book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Lari E.
- 04-09-19
a good book
the McElroy's are are a lot of fun and they did a good job on this book.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- JunieJ
- 04-20-19
Not Hilarious
There is a lot to like here, but the problem is that there is much to dislike as well. This is really a list of horrible ailments and awful historical attempts to cure them. None of the topics are discussed in detail-- in the blink of an eye one "section" is over and they're on to the next one. The female voice is more appealing than the guy, who gets nerdier and more annoying as it goes along. Some of the asides are pretty funny, I guess, but there is nothing amusing about these maladies, the suffering they caused and the failed treatments.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Randy
- 11-29-18
So good!
Please purchase the physical book as it is gorgeous! And go binge the podcast if you don't already listen! if you enjoyed this book even a little, you will LOVE the Sawbones podcast! Seriously, why are you still reading this?! Go listen now!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hannah Sayre
- 12-03-18
Fantastic whether you’re a fan of the podcast or not
I’m a fairly regular listener of the podcast and wondered whether there would be much overlap, but I came away learning just a ton of new stuff!Listening to Justin & Sydnee was a pleasure, and I’d recommend their book for anyone whether you listen to the podcast or not. Both are hilariously entertaining, and you’ll actually learn some stuff! Would gift to anyone even remotely interested in weird medical and scientific history
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Adam
- 09-14-21
Love Sawbones, Poorly Performed
I am a huge fan of Sawbones and love all McElroy products... But this is just hard to listen to. The jokes are all read in an unnatural flat tone, I'm sure it's hard to read jokes and make it sound natural... but if you're a fan I would strongly strongly recommend reading the paper version of this book. I cannot stress enough that this book is full of interesting content, but I think the performance makes it difficult to engage with.
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