These days you can’t turn on the TV in America without seeing one of America’ three medical musketeers – our frontline physicians and public health experts – Surgeon General Jerome Adams, Anthony Fauci (director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) and Sanjay Gupta (chief medical correspondent for CNN) – spreading the gospel of good science-based information on public health, hygiene, social distancing.
If the near 24-7 onslaught of health-related news has you amped for even more true and practical medical news served with generous heapings of historical context, practical advice and good natured humor – then have we got the podcast for you – “Sawbones.”
The Dynamic Duo Behind ‘Sawbones’
Birthed in June 2013, “Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine,” is the fact-filled and fun medical science and history podcast from a dynamic duo of Huntington residents and Marshall University graduates. Dr. Sydnee McElroy is a family doctor and assistant professor at the Marshall University School of Medicine and also star of the “Still Buffering” podcast with her sisters. Her husband is Justin McElroy, host of the world renowned podcasts, “My Brother, My Brother and Me,” “The Adventure Zone,” the YouTube series Monster Factory, and a voice actor appearing as Tumbleweed in “Trolls World Tour,” which premieres Friday, April 10. Together, they create “Sawbones” which is released most Fridays on the Maximum Fun Network. “Sawbones” averages more than 400,000 listeners per episode.
The History of Handwashing And More ’Viral’ Shows
Though taking a break from their busy tour schedule, the couple – in addition to baking copious amounts of bread during the Quarantine – have been churning out a series of fresh and relevant podcasts that not only address public health concerns (such as handwashing) but also lay out the pertinent historical context as well. In the case of handwashing, how pioneering doctors such as Hungarian physician and scientist Ignaz Semmelweis tried (unsuccessfully) to introduce that now obvious practice into medical facilites in the 1840s.
That strange but true story is addressed in episode 318 on the Maximum Fun Network of Podcasts https://maximumfun.org/episodes/sawbones/sawbones-ignaz-semmelweis/
Addressing the current dark shadow over all of us, the McElroys have also used “Sawbones” to address the historical context and use of “Masks,” in addition to recent episodes on “Quarantine,” “Coronavirus Part 1 (which came out Feb. 2) and Part 2,” as well as diving back into the impact of historical outbreaks including “How Yellow Fever (Nearly) Destroyed Philadelphia.” The next Episode #319 will explore the red-hot topic of Hydroxychloroquine and the most recent studies trying to determine whether or not it’s an effective Covid-19 treatment.
Let’s Get Weird!
If you geek out on medical facts but just want a complete respite from the Coronavirus info overload, check out some pure medical oddities in the March 13 episode “Revenge of the Weird Medical Questions” Sawbones: Revenge of the Weird Medical Questions – The McElroy Family during which Justin gets yucked out by listeners’ bizarre questions like: Should your pee smell so good? Why is your earwax that color? Why did your mom choose the name Fred for that blood-filled lump on her leg?
Explore More In ‘The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine’
If you’re looking for a great gift for someone in the fam who geeks out over science and medical facts, be sure and grab the 2019 New York Times best-seller, “The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine” a funny and educational book that boils up some of the best of the five years of their hit podcast complete with illustrations by Sydnee’s sister, Teylor Smirl, a graduate of New York’s School of the Visual Arts.
The “Sawbones” podcast is released on Friday’s on Maximum Fun Network. Go online at http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/sawbones to access “Sawbones,” which celebrates its seventh anniversary in June 2020. Keep up with all the McElroy Family podcasts, tours, merch and creations at https://www.themcelroy.family
