Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine

By Justin McElroy, Dr. Sydnee McElroy

Comedy History Medicine

What's Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine about?

Join Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy for a tour of all the dumb, bad, gross, weird and wrong ways we've tried to fix people.

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Sawbones: King Tutankhamun

05.23.2023

Live from Columbus, Ohio, home of the first Wendy's, and also COSI, the Center of Science and Industry! Justin and Dr. Sydnee bring forward one of the world's oldest medical mysteries: what happened to King Tut? Music: "Medicines" by The ...

Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine episodes:

05.23.2023 Sawbones: King Tutankhamun Live from Columbus, Ohio, home of the first Wendy's, and also COSI, the Center of Science and Industry! Justin and Dr. Sydnee bring forward one of the world's oldest medical mysteries: what happened to King Tut? Music: "Medicines" by The ...
05.16.2023 Sawbones: Hepatitis C The third Hepatitis to be discovered, appropriately named Hepatitis C, is an infection that primarily affects the liver, but often has non-specific symptoms. Dr. Sydnee and Justin trace the strange history of this virus, how it spreads, and why testing ...
05.09.2023 Sawbones: Marvel Anatomy: Infinity War Justin takes the wheel as he once again brings out the official Marvel Anatomy book to discuss the science of comic book superpowers. He and Dr. Sydnee discuss the feasibility of abilities in characters like Daredevil, The Invisible Woman, Captain ...
05.02.2023 Sawbones: Gender-Affirming Care for Minors Recently a number of states have passed restrictions for gender-affirming care for those under 18, but shouldn't it be medical professionals, not states, whose expertise should be considered? Dr. Sydnee goes through what this medical treatment really is and the ...
04.25.2023 Sawbones: Going Grey Why do people start losing the pigment in their hair as they grow older? Well, it might be one of those things that we don't entirely understand, though there are some new studies that offer some ideas. But that didn't ...
04.18.2023 Sawbones: The Abortion Pill Mifepristone, known colloquially as the abortion pill, has recently been in the news as its future availability in the United States comes into question. Dr. Sydnee and Justin go through the history of the medicine, from how it was discovered ...
04.04.2023 Sawbones: Nose Blowing Blowing your nose is maybe the only small glint of satisfaction had while having a cold or sinus infection. But is blowing your nose actually good, or even safe? Dr. Sydnee and Justin look through the history of handkerchiefs and ...
03.28.2023 Sawbones: The Great Stink of 1858 The Great Stink of 1858 has highlights from some of the Sawbones Greatest Hits: the controversy of hand washing, the miasma theory of disease. and cholera. Which is all to say: it took humanity a long time to figure out ...
03.24.2023 2023 BoCo Teaser - Sawbones: Medical Questions for Kids We wanted to share a little teaser of our MaxFunDrive Bonus Content, so here's a short clip of Dr. Sydnee and Charlie addressing kid medical questions. If you want to hear the whole thing, head over to maximumfun.org/join to get ...
03.21.2023 Sawbones: Marvel Anatomy Dr. Sydnee and Justin go through the marvelous Marvel Anatomy book, which explains how many comic book heroes' superpowers work. Where does the Hulk's strength come from? How does Spider-Man climb walls? How does Captain Marvel shoot energy out of ...
03.07.2023 Sawbones: Head Lice Lice aren’t just a longtime annoyance of school aged kids, they’ve actually been around longer than people. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about the history of trying to get rid of these creatures as well as some common misconceptions. Be ...
02.28.2023 Sawbones: Is Leg-Length Discrepancy Genetic? It's another Sawbones: Medical Questions, and we're gonna go full Galaxy Brain on these listener-submitted queries. What is methalated B-12? Can my appendix grow back and give me appendicitis ad infinitum? Does sugar help tongue burns or is it just ...
02.14.2023 Sawbones: Appendicitis People have been dying of the inflammation of the appendix long before anyone even knew what this little finger-like organ was good for. Dr. Sydnee goes through the history of the first accidental appendix removal, to the long journey to ...
02.07.2023 Sawbones: Ketchup There are lots of things that aren’t medicine. Taxes. Pound cake. One thing that is definitely not a medicine but at a time was thought as one? Ketchup! Dr. Sydnee goes through ketchup’s journey from a fermented non-tomato condiment to ...
01.31.2023 Sawbones: Grapefruits Dr. Sydnee and Justin don't actually like grapefruits, so it's irrelevant to them, but grapefruit juice is known to interact poorly with many medications. Given the wide variety of fruits and their juices, it seems strange this is such an ...
01.24.2023 Sawbones: Mononucleosis Have you ever been interrupted on a college campus by someone asking about your latest incident of intimate kissing? That's because they were trying to track the spread of a common infection called mononucleosis, or mono. Dr. Sydnee goes over ...
01.17.2023 Sawbones: Asafoetida If you're like Dr. Sydnee and your TikTok algorithm keeps advertising medical substances at you, perhaps you've heard of asafoetida. It's a pungent resin derived from a plant, and has culinary appeal as well as reportedly some medical benefits. But ...
01.10.2023 Sawbones: Anthrax In 2001, the United States was under a biological attack from strange spores in mailed envelopes. This is a lot of people's first introduction to anthrax, a bacteria often associated with both domestic and wild animals. But what is anthrax, ...
01.03.2023 Sawbones: Super Sawbones Quiz of 2022 The Sawbones Medical Quiz is back and better than ever, with questions about this past year's episodes! What have you learned about bad fast food, Senate contenders, pirate medicine, and owls? Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
12.20.2022 Sawbones: Can I Become the Alpha Period-Haver? It's the last episode of the year, so Dr. Sydnee and Justin set out to answer your important medical questions! How do oral probiotics prevent a yeast infection (or do they)? What's that medicine and Sprite combo you drink before ...
12.13.2022 Sawbones: RSV Parts of the US are currently in the midst of a triple-demic, a very scary phrase, so Dr. Sydnee is here to break down the third illness: Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV. It’s a virus that’s common among everyone, but ...
12.06.2022 Sawbones: Farts This week, Justin takes the wheel and finally gets to talk about farts, only tangentially in a medical way. Get ready for some fart etymology, some notable farts in medieval history, fun fart facts, and a little bit about preventing ...
11.29.2022 Sawbones: Pirate Medicine Chapter Three In the third and final chapter of the pirate medicine series, Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about the dreaded Flux. What is the Flux? Well, it involves something coming out of your body in excess . . . and it's ...
11.22.2022 Sawbones: Pirate Medicine Chapter Two In the second entry in the pirate medicine series, Dr. Sydnee talks about the practice of treating burns aboard a ship. It seems like burns on a ship would not be a problem, but ships are made of wood, and ...
11.16.2022 Sawbones: Pirate Medicine Chapter One To celebrate the first new live Sawbones shows since 2020, we're launching a three-part series exploring the vast array that pirates—in an extremely resource and knowledge-limited setting—tried to keep one another alive through the years. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers ...
11.08.2022 Sawbones: Does Shrimp Make My Husband Drunk? Have you ever wanted to ask a real doctor questions that aren’t really advice? Dr. Sydnee answers listener questions about infecting yourself with a virus, refusing opioids, and difficult veins. And don’t worry - there are some poop questions as ...
10.25.2022 Sawbones: Anthroposophy Why not just connect the spiritual and scientific world? That's basically what anthroposophy asks, teaching a philosophical approach to medicine. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about the history of this movement and also try to explain what exactly it is. ...
10.18.2022 Sawbones: Iridology The eyes are the windows to the soul, but could they also be the windows to all the body's ailments? Dr. Sydnee and Justin discuss iridology, the idea that changes in the eye color could possibly indicate different diseases and ...
10.11.2022 Sawbones: Dr. Oz There are many people who have been recurring characters on Sawbones. Pliny the Elder. Charlie. But few so notorious as Dr. Mehmet Oz, now running for the U.S. Senate. This isn’t a commentary on his political fitness; just an examination ...
10.04.2022 Sawbones: Schizophrenia Is schizophrenia the same as having a dissociative identity? Or anti-social disorder? Or being a murderer? No. No. All of these are wrong. Dr. Sydnee breaks down one of the most misunderstood and maligned mental illnesses and how our understanding ...
09.27.2022 Sawbones: How Justin McElroy Became a Trusted Source for COVID News in Canada Podcast history is being made here: There are TWO Justin McElroys in this week's episode. We are joined by Justin McElroy, CBC reporter of municipal affairs in Vancouver and British Columbia, as he discusses his role reporting COVID data over ...
09.20.2022 Sawbones: E. coli From our earliest days of life E. coli is among us and within us, living in harmony with the rest of our colonic flora. But this week we're here to discuss the multi-dimensional E. coli's ability to really mess all ...
09.13.2022 Sawbones News: Vaccine Updates Extra, extra! It’s the first edition of the Sawbones Medical News, updates on what’s going on in the world of medicine. We’ve got the newest reports on Monkey Pox vaccines and the hot new COVID-19 booster. Plus, an analysis of ...
08.30.2022 The Sleeping Sickness Starting In 1915, cases of something known as encephalitis lethargica started popping up around the globe. Symptoms were varied, but included some sort of lethargy or tiredness, with some more extreme manifestations. But exactly how many people were infected and ...
08.23.2022 Rufus Weaver and Harriet Cole In the 1880s, anatomist Rufus Weaver worked meticulously to extract and mount the human nervous system for study. The nervous system came from a woman named Harriet Cole; but how was it actually obtained? Dr. Sydnee dissects this medical mystery, ...
08.16.2022 Band-Aids In this episode of Justin McElroy’s Medical Brand Hall of Fame, Justin and Dr. Sydnee are stuck on Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages. Justin goes through the decades of campaigns and jingles, the evolution of bandage technology, and Dr. Dan the ...
08.09.2022 Metamucil Hank Green in 2018 joked that everyone should take Metamucil, the fiber-rich powder that is supposed to help with your BMs. But is he right? Well . . . “should” is a strong word. Dr. Sydnee goes through the history ...
07.26.2022 The Brompton Cocktail In the late 1800s, Dr. Herbert Snow observed cancer patients and considered that a mix of different medications might do the trick for slowing down its progress. The Brompton Cocktail, as it was called, was mostly cocaine and morphine. Though ...
07.19.2022 Hand Sanitizer Around the early 1900s, it was discovered that a high percent of ethanol was useful for killing germs, and worked great if there was no available soap and water. Dr. Sydnee and Justin go through viral internet stories and odd ...
07.05.2022 Answering Your Questions About the Roe Verdict The overturning of Roe has created an astounding number of questions and problems, and the fact is that we don’t know for sure how the landscape will change in the next few years or even months. This week, Dr. Sydnee ...
06.28.2022 Radium Girls Back in 1917 radium was all the rage. The fact that it glowed made people believe it was healthy and important, so they included it in things like toothpaste, cosmetics, even water. The Radium Girls, factory workers who used radium-laced ...
06.22.2022 Vomiting What’s the deal with vomiting? Justin and Dr. Sydnee meditate on the various ways we get nauseated, from smelling something gross to getting hit in a sensitive spot, and what we’ve done over the years to help alleviate it. Although ...
06.07.2022 Is it Safe to Eat This Plutonium? We’re back with Sawbones Medical Questions! Justin acts as stand-in for the listeners while Dr. Sydnee answers questions about tall people getting COVID, eye goop, nose goop, labor organizing in the medical field, and corn in poop. This one’s for ...
05.31.2022 Monkeypox You may be worried we’re headed into another global health crisis in the form of Monkeypox. But it’s not new, and we already know quite a bit about it. Dr. Sydnee explains what it is, how to treat it, and ...
05.24.2022 History of Abortion With the recent news about Roe v. Wade, it’s important to talk about the history of abortion in the United States. The right to autonomy over one’s own body in regard to medical care is one of the basic tenets ...
05.17.2022 Infant Formula The United States is currently in a dire formula shortage, and people are taking to the internet to propose some less than ideal solutions. Dr. Sydnee talks about the origins of how formula came about, how the shortage came about, ...
05.03.2022 Harry Beno: The Poison King Harry Beno (not BEAN-o) one day walked into a barn hungry for biscuits and emerged the poison king. Believing himself immune to strychnine, Beno took to eating poison for an audience. From there his act escalated to the next logical ...
04.26.2022 Testicle Tanning Some people believe that men in the world are getting softer and masculinity is under attack. But not to worry, there’s a solution: tanning your . . . nethers. Although the idea of exposing your soft bits to the sun ...
04.19.2022 Cereal Remember when the Cheerios box said it would lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease? Well, it doesn’t say that anymore because cereal isn’t medicine. But this is just one example in a long history of breakfast cereals claiming to be ...
04.12.2022 The World of Warcraft Plague and COVID A very long time ago, in 2019, we talked about the Corrupted Blood plague, a pandemic within the World of Warcraft. How it affected the digital world was used as a model for how people might behave during an actual ...

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