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The Sawbones Book  By  cover art

The Sawbones Book

By: Justin McElroy, Dr. Sydnee McElroy
Narrated by: Justin McElroy, Dr. Sydnee McElroy
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Publisher's summary

A compelling, often hilarious, and occasionally horrifying exploration of how modern medicine came to be!

Wondering whether eating powdered mummies might be just the thing to cure your ills? Tempted by those vintage ads suggesting you wear radioactive underpants for virility? Ever considered drilling a hole in your head to deal with those pesky headaches? Probably not. But for thousands of years, people have done things like this - and things that make radioactive underpants seem downright sensible! In their hit podcast, Sawbones, Sydnee and Justin McElroy breakdown the weird and wonderful way we got to modern healthcare. And some of the terrifying detours along the way.

Every week, Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin amaze, amuse, and gross out (depending on the week) hundreds of thousands of avid listeners to their podcast, Sawbones. Consistently rated a top podcast on iTunes, with over 15 million total downloads, this rollicking journey through thousands of years of medical mishaps and miracles is not only hilarious but downright educational. While you may never even consider applying boiled weasel to your forehead (once the height of sophistication when it came to headache cures), you will almost certainly face some questionable medical advice in your everyday life (we’re looking at you, raw water!) and be better able to figure out if this is a miracle cure (it’s not) or a scam.

©2018 Weldon Owen Inc. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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What listeners say about The Sawbones Book

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully entertaining & informative!

This is one book for which the authors’ narration is a plus! They are extremely talented and expressive and easy to understand. As a former medical researcher, I found the information eye-opening and presented in a memorable and amusing way. I feel like the authors were in the room with me and have become my friends. I would think this book would be of interest to anyone who is human...meaning, everyone! A great gift audiobook, in my opinion!

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A delight for this fan of the podcast

This audiobook has the same charm, humor, and passion that I've come to know and love from the McElroy family. If you haven't already, I whole-heartedly recommend you download an episode or two of Sawbones.
You may be wondering, what makes the audiobook any different? The first thing I would point to is the organization. The topics are sorted into cohesive categories. This allowed me to skip the bits I knew would make me most queasy. Also, I really appreciate that each story has a similar structure.
I don't know what this says about me, but I liked that Justin and Sydnee didn't have to leave in the middle of a chapter to go to the Billing Department (ad break).

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

The sawbones book

That was great!! the stupidity that humans can do to each other in the name of medicine is truly scary...funny in a horrible kind of way

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

If you like this listen to the podcast

Book was great. Justin and Sydney did a great read of their great book. If you also liked it check out their podcast

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The slapstick could be removed

This would be an hour shorter if it wasn’t for all the jokes which are unnecessary. I enjoyed the factual part but really cringed everytime a joke was told.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Love the podcast, love the book

Both informative and entertaining. Sydnee and Justin are just plain fun to listen to. The relationship banter will keep you smiling, as you take a tour through medical history.; from the weird to the disgusting, and don't forget the just plain wrong! My only complaint is that the book is too short. I hope they write another.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

OKAY

this is a collection of blogs, sometimes interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes not - someone should have edited it some more - just saying.....

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book... but...

I came into this book uninitiated from the saw bones podcast, so i found the reading unnerving. perhaps the podcast would have gotten me used to the banter between the authors, but as it was, i found it wanting. the content however was informative if not a little too dumbed down. that said I would have given this book 5 stars if not for the unorthodox delivery.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Some interesting information

The overall story was interesting and informative. The back and forth between narrators wasn't enjoyable mainly because Justin McElroy's attempts of humor... Would have rated much better with out his nonsense and more by just Sydnee McElroy!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable listened to it in one day!

Loved listening to this. I spent all my time while working listening to these two awesome people talk about medical history.

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10 people found this helpful