Episode · The Book Review · 2025-09-19
Mary Roach on The Book Review: books mentioned
Mary Roach Loves Writing About Weird Science
Gilbert Cruz discussed Fuzz by Mary Roach. Mary Roach discussed Bonk by Mary Roach, Gulp by Mary Roach, and Stiff by Mary Roach and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Fuzz
Mary Roach's Fuzz investigates how the natural world intersects with human law through wild animal behavior and wildlife crime.
Discussed“So, your last book was Fuzz. When nature breaks the law, it was about animals.”
Where to get it
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Bonk
Mary Roach's popular science book Bonk takes a fascinating and humorous look into the scientific study of human sexual physiology and the historical attempts to understand it.
Discussed“The closest I got, I think, was with Bonk, which is a book about the study of sexual physiology. Not gender, not behavior, but how do these bits and pieces work?”
Where to get it
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Gulp
Gulp by Mary Roach is a work of popular science that humorously and thoroughly investigates the biology, mechanics, and cultural history of the human digestive tract.
Discussed“I don't think it has ever happened that I've thought maybe gulp, like the elementary canal. I had a sense that that tube between the nose and the ass was it's like there's different rules in there and it's a very weird space.”
Where to get it
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Stiff
Stiff by Mary Roach is a popular science nonfiction book exploring the strange, fascinating, and historically significant uses of human cadavers in medical research and scientific progress.
Discussed“Stiff happened. The cadaavver element of it just happened because I was wandering through the basement of the UCSF medical school library.”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (7) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“Joining me is the author of Stiff. She's the author of Spook.”
“Joining me is the author of Stiff. She's the author of Spook. She's the author of Bonk.”
“She's the author of Spook. She's the author of Bonk. And she is the author of Gulp.”
“She's the author of Bonk. And she is the author of Gulp. She is Mary Roach, the science journalist behind eight popular science books...”
“She is Mary Roach, the science journalist behind eight popular science books, including her latest Replaceable You, Adventures in Human Anatomy.”
“Welcome back. This is the book review podcast. I'm Gilbert Cruz and I'm here with Mary Roach, author of Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy.”
“That was my conversation with Mary Roach about her new science book, Replaceable You. I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times Book Review...”