Mary Roach: preference

Transcript context

…Following up on the natural disaster — that’s an idea that you could end up pursuing. Do you have a folder of like, “Oh, man, I really want to write about that someday, but not yet.” Do you have a folder of things and what are some of those things that you may want to write about? I would kill to have that folder. [laughter] I would kill to have that folder, especially right now. I’m trying things on and rejecting them. They’re not quite working because most of science doesn’t work for me. Most of science now is protein receptors and genomes and it’s gone very, very tiny and invisible. I’m a bodies-on-the-slab kind of gal, and that’s an anachronism. There’s not a lot of science that has people doing things that you can describe and talk to them about as it’s happening, which is what I like to do. Especially as it relates to the human body. I’ve done all the bodily fluids. [laughs] And there are certain parts of the body that belong to other people — the brain . . . Oliver Sacks, David Eagleman, the people who are well educated in these parts of the body, and they have patients and cases. These are the people that should write those books, not me. I’m the rectum gal. So yeah, I’d love to have that folder, I really would. Online question: “Why are bodily functions so stigmatized, like flatulence, when everyone does them?” This question they were afraid to ask in person. [laughter]…

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