S1E9 - "Cannibalism" with the author Bill Schutt

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Welcome to the Morbidly Curious Book Club’s Podcast! In this episode, we are discussing our September 2024 book pick, “CANNIBALISM: A Perfectly Natural History” by Bill Schutt.

For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact.

In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism’s role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti).

Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother’s skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own.

Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us...

Bill Schutt is an Emeritus Professor of Biology at LIU Post and a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History. His newest non-fiction book, Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans will be published on August 13, 2024. Bite has already garnered a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

Pump: A Natural History of the Heart was published in September 2021 and is currently available everywhere books are sold. Pump received great reviews from Publisher’s Weekly (starred review), Kirkus Reviews, The Wall Street Journal, Cool Green Science, and elsewhere. Schutt’s Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, garnered widespread raves from The New York Times (Editor’s Choice) The Boston Globe and a long list of reviewers. Schutt’s first popular science book, Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures, was selected as a Best Book of 2008 by Library Journal and Amazon, and was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program.

Schutt’s first novel, Hell’s Gate, was published in 2016. The Himalayan Codex  (R.J. MacCready novel #2) followed in June 2017 and The Darwin Strain (R.J. MacCready novel #3) made its debut in August 2019.

Born in New York City and raised on Long Island by parents who encouraged his love for turning over stones and peering under logs, Schutt quickly grew a passion for the natural world, with its enormous wonders and its increasing vulnerability.

Schutt received his Ph.D. in