139 - Alice Dreger: Unusual Bodies

Two for Tea Podcast

Podcast Notes: Alice Dreger General: The Index Case by Molly Macallen, the first novel in the Maddy Shanks series. Published on Lulu. Visit Alice’s website: https://alicedreger.com/ Follow: Follow Alice on Twitter https://twitter.com/AliceDreger?s=20&t=CDzQ-0LkFfFGhqph0trBOQ Articles and books: Alice’s non-fiction books: https://alicedreger.com/books/ Alice’s writing https://alicedreger.com/writing/ References: Visiting Your Leg Alice’s essay on the politics of anatomy. One of Us Alice’s book on anatomy and political and social identity. Dr Oz can't afford me Alice’s essay on exploitation by the entertainment industry. Lavish Dwarf Entertainment Alice’s essay on the entertainment agency. The New England Journal of Medicine. Altered Carbon the novel by Richard Morgan. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Alice's paper on the J Michael Bailey controversy. Alice and Colin Wright take part in a discussion about biological sex. Alice in Genderland by Richard Novic. Iona's essay on age gaps and relationships. Timestamps: 00.00 Opening and introductions. 4.17 Why a pseudonym for novel writing? 7.56 The themes of the book. 9.17 Alice reads the blurb from the novel. 11.26 Iona reads an excerpt from the novel. 16.46 Alice discusses how she and her protagonist’s areas of study echo each other; the politics of anatomy, how the body interacts with the world, the history of science and of medicine. How science has dealt with “interesting” bodies over the course of modern history. 21.57 How power works in relationships between doctors and people with “interesting” bodies. Alice discusses how her non-fiction book One of Us addresses this, with reference to Eng and Chang Bunker, the original “Siamese twins”. 26.58 Alice talks about the historical and contemporary exhibition of bodies; how some individuals are exhibited and exploited and how some with “unusual” bodies make money from their own bodies. 30.13 Iona reads more. Alice discusses the shift of science away from storytelling to depersonalised, anonymised specimens. 35.09 The New England Journal of Medicine as an outlier to this phenomenon. 36.55 Iona refers to Altered Carbon, the novel, and the ethical and philosophical questions about what it means to be a person and about bodily intergration. 40.00 Iona and Alice talk about eugenics, disabilities and autism research and about anatomy and identity and what personhood is. How identity has changed over time away from the body and towards external signifiers. How this is explored in the novel. 43.16 Who has the right to use dead bodies? How the government may control bodies, eg: dying people isolated during the covid pandemic. 47.00 How the order of the books in the series came about. The Difficult Subject, book two, will be coming out soon. Themes around sexuality. 48.35 Alice’s enjoyment of fiction writing vs. enjoyment of non-fiction writing. 51.13 Michael Bailey and his writing on autogynephilia and transgender identities. Do we have an innate sense of gender? Alice’s recent debate with Colin Wright. How The Difficult Subject relates to these themes. 58.41 The unethical relationship in the novel. How power works in this relationship. Sex scenes and sexuality in the novels. 1.01.45 The abusive relationship in the series and Alice’s own experience. Controversy around the framing of trauma. 1.08.45 More on the development of the series. The Worst Thing will be book three. Reception of the first novel. 1.15.00 Why self-publish? Published via Lulu. 1.19.55 Summing up and outro.