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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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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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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Chloe
- 2019-06-07
Good but not quite as good as podcast
I liked it a lot, don’t get me wrong!! I just found that it wasn’t quite as enjoyable as the podcast, and I think that’s because in the podcast they have a much less scripted back-and-forth banter that seems a lot more natural. Listening to the book, it felt a bit stiff and forced and like they were reading every joke off a page. But overall I still would recommend!
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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
- Deanna
- 2022-12-12
Great storytelling
If you like their podcast, you will like this book. A great highlight of medical history in a very accessible format.
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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
- Adam Posner
- 2020-07-07
it was good
It was good but compared to the podcast its definitely worse. my main complaint was that it seemed like justin and sydnee were recording there parts separately which ruins the charming organic back and forth that makes the podcast so wonderfull.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Azamon Customer
- 2021-04-25
Okay, it's like buzzfeed articles for audio
The topics were sort of interesting. But the tiny little segments screamed ADHD. Very little in terms of physiological background or explanations beyond "eww, that sounds gross" and "definitely, don't do that", so if you were expecting anything like context or theories or background from a doctor (which one of the authors is), sorry, out of luck.
The delivery has all the subtelty and nuance of morning show radio. Slapstick, obvious, fart jokes,
I guess if you're in the right frame of mind it's an entertaining book, you can consume it a little bit at a time, kind of like those Reader's Digest magazines in the bathroom at your grandmother's house.
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