On today’s show, guest host Jessa Nicholson Goetz sat down with Professor Aisha Beliso-De Jesús to discuss her new book “Excited Delirium: Race, Police Violence, and the Invention of a Disease.” Their conversation explores the history of “excited delirium syndrome” and its roots in religious bigotry, racist policing, and bad science. They talk about the way medical examiners put the onus of violence on the victims of police brutality, how our society racializes drug use, and the long history of fear toward Black and Brown bodies.

Aisha Beliso-De Jesús is a cultural and social anthropologist at Princeton University. Her work examines practitioners of the Santería religion, police officers, and police violence. “Excited Delirium” is available through Duke University Press.

Image courtesy of Duke University Press.

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