HeyJaredThe Anatomists
I write about medical history, with a focus on the people who make that history: their lives, their choices, and their impact.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 10
- Latest publication
- Sep 28, 2026
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- Jul 7, 2026
Latest issues
Episode 4 - The Anatomist Who Invented Geology: The Story of Nicolaus Steno (opens the original)
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This is the story of Nicolaus Steno, a 17th century anatomist who cut up a giant shark, founded a new science, then retired to become a bishop and wound up beatified in the 1980s. It's a story about the culture of science in the 17th century, the origins of geology, and the interrelatedness of different disciplines.
The anatomist who invented geology (opens the original)
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The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder described in his 1st century encyclopedia the strange “tongue stones” that were found on mountain tops and in fields. These hard, triangular stones—sometimes found on their own, at other times buried in rock—did not grow in the earth as other stones, but fell from the sky during an eclipse or when the moon was waning. Or so the Roman folklore went. The stones resembled a human or serpent tongue, giving them the Latin name glossopetrae, “tongue stones.” The Bi
I made a podcast! (opens the original)
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I started this Substack without a clear goal in mind. I was in a transition point in my career, thinking about things I love and things I want to do, and how to optimize—in the next thing—for more of that. The best I could offer as an explanation in the first few posts was a love of stories. I read A Little Princess as a child, and I remember laboriously copying Burnett’s description of Sara as a story teller into my notebook:“Any one who has been at school with a teller of stories knows what th
Episode 3 - Right for the Wrong Reasons: The Sad Story of Ignaz Semmelweis, Savior of Mothers (opens the original)
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19th century maternity wards were haunted by the specter of childbed fever: otherwise known as the "doctor's plague," since it seemed to follow physicians from bed to bed. This is the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, whose discovery saved lives but whose inability to communicate it prevented wider acceptance.
Episode 2 - Ignore your boss, tie up a nurse, win a Nobel Prize: The Story of Werner Forssmann (opens the original)
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Werner Forssmann was a cardiac surgery pioneer who has the claim to fame of being the first to perform a cardiac catheterization on a human being. He is also famous for being the first to have a cardiac catheterization performed on him, because he experimented on himself.A physician, a researcher, a Nobel prize winner, a member of the Nazi party, and to some extent a blindly apolitical and even amoral observer of World War II Germany from within, Forssmann’s story is worth knowing for its role i
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