The Human Subject Podcast
Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern-day medicine to its often brutal origins.
Humanity's journey to understanding the body has been a gory one; littered with unethical experiments, unintended consequences and unimaginable endurance. It's the story of catastrophic failures, at great human cost - but also successes which made history and saved countless lives.
In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins. With every episode they explore some of that dark history and ask - is our present day knowledge worth the suffering it took to get us here?
Episodes to download
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The Trauma Victims and their Blood
Sun 15 Sep 2024
Martha Milete’s life changes one night in 2006 when two masked men break into her house.
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The Gay Man and the Pleasure Shocks
Sun 8 Sep 2024
Patient B-19 signs up to a treatment plan, hoping it will change his desire for men.
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The Man with an Artificial Windpipe
Sun 1 Sep 2024
It’s 2011 and Andemariam Beyene is out of options. One surgeon seems to provides hope.
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The Boy with an Ice Pick in his Brain
Sun 25 Aug 2024
The story of a young boy's encounter with a Dr known as The Travelling Lobotomist
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The Mothers of Gynaecology
Sun 18 Aug 2024
Seventeen-year-old Anarcha has just had a baby, but there’s a problem.
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The Farmers and The Goat Testicle Transplants
Sun 11 Aug 2024
A farmer visits the town doctor and asks for a goat testicle transplant.
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The Woman Who Resisted Mind Control
Sun 4 Aug 2024
At only 16 years old, Lana Ponting is court ordered to the infamous Allen Institute.
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The Children Whose Teeth Were Destroyed
Sun 28 Jul 2024
Patients at a mental institution in Sweden are given excessive amounts of toffee.
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The Prisoners Used for Their Skin
Sun 21 Jul 2024
A young man unwittingly agrees to medical experimentation in a Philadelphia prison.
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The Man with a Hole in His Stomach
Sun 14 Jul 2024
A teenager is accidentally shot in the stomach. A doctor finds an opportunity.
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Introducing The Human Subject
Fri 5 Jul 2024
The Human Subject uncovers stories connecting modern day medicine to brutal origins.
The Human Subjects Who Participated in History’s Darkest Medical Experiments
Dr Julia Shaw investigates some profoundly unethical experiments.
