Down the Gullet: A Guided Tour of Your Guts
28:17 minutes
In Gulp. Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, science writer Mary Roach takes a journey through the gut, exploring the secret healing powers of saliva to the taxonomy of poop. Along the trip, she serves up odd medical anecdotes, such as the story of William Beaumont, an eccentric surgeon who once ate chicken from another man’s stomach.
Mary Roach is the author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, and many other books. Her writing has appeared in Outside, Wired, National Geographic, and The New York Times Magazine, among others.
Read an excerpt from Gulp.
Christopher Intagliata was Science Friday’s senior producer. He once served as a prop in an optical illusion and speaks passable Ira Flatowese.