Mary Roach on Disgust, Death, and Danger (Live at Mason)

Legal writing was never Mary Roach’s thing. She describes that short-lived stint as an inscrutable “bringing forth of multisyllabic words.” Instead, she’s forged a career by letting curiosity lead the way. The result has been a series of successful books — Grunt, Gulp, Spook, Stiff, and Bonk among them— that all reveal a specific sense of nonsensibility (and love for monosyllabic titles).

She joins Tyler Cowen for a conversation covering the full range of her curiosity, including fear, acclimating to grossness, chatting with the dead, freezing one’s head, why bedpans can kill you, sex robots, Freud, thinking like an astronaut, the proper way to eat a fry, and why there’s a Medicare reimbursement code for maggots.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded September 27th, 2017

Other ways to connect

• Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
• Follow Tyler on Twitter
• Follow Mary on Twitter
• Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
• Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.