RADIO & podcasts
BBC RADIO 3: FREE THINKING
Originally broadcast on March 27th, 2024.
Listen to Free Thinking: Approaches to Death here.
Viking burials, preserving archaeology in Uganda, the morgues of Paris and New York and the medieval attitude to dying are our topics as Chris Harding hears about new research from archaeologists Marianne Hem Eriksen and Pauline Harding, and historians Cat Byers and Harriet Soper.
HISTORY HIT: AFTER DARK PODCAST
Listen to the New York Morgue's Terrible Secrets here
The unclaimed dead of New York City's streets and rivers were once brought to the notorious New York Morgue. It's a history that has never been studied before, full of dark stories and buried secrets.
Listen to The Paris Morgue's Dark Story here.
Citizens of Paris in the 19th century could stroll down to the Morgue to try to identify the unknown dead or to gawp at celebrity murder victims. Though its most famous resident of all was perhaps not dead at all...Get ready for a story full of poignant humour, Donald Trump, and party hats.
Listen to Cannibalism in Scotland: Legend of Sawney Bean here
According to legend, Sawney Bean and Agnes "Black" Douglas raised a clan of cannibals in a remote Scottish cave. They killed and ate unlucky travellers on lonely roads. This went on for decades with more than a thousand perishing. Who invented this gruesome story? Why? And why has Sawney Bean become a kind of cult hero in Scotland itself?
Criminal podcast
Listen to Episode 223: The Unknown Woman here.
When a toymaker and a doctor teamed up to make the world’s first CPR doll, they decided to make the doll’s face look like one specific woman – a woman who they thought had drowned. People call her l’Inconnue de la Seine, or the Unknown Woman of the Seine.
haunted history chronicles
Listen to The Haunting History of The Paris Morgue here.
Joining me today is historian Catriona Byers who specialises in urban death, policing, medicine and photography from the nineteenth-century to the present day. She’s currently working on a PhD at King’s College London, focusing on the morgues of Paris and New York from 1864-1914. We were able to chat about the history of the morgue and some of the tragic stories of people who passed through there. We also examine how it was more than just a popular attraction as we examine the role it played in modern policing and forensics and more...