Sip and Saga Society

Lil Sips: Medical History

Episode Notes

It is FINALLY time for the release of our full Medical History Lil Sips. 

We announce our book club book of the month: The Icepick Surgeon by Sam Kean. Everyone brings something special to drink with Karina sipping on a Four Loko (0/10), Randi had a Red, White, and Blue Smirnoff (a classic), and Greg delivers on the theme with his Patient Zero Barrel Aged Sour by Martin House Brewing Company. The trio discuss crickets, mummies, and the history of smallpox vaccinations.  Karina surprises even herself with the history of medical cadavers and clarifies the definition between body snatching and grave robbing. Randi brings it out of the box by connecting demon possession to modern clinical trials.

Video Episodes out on YOUTUBE now!

Sources:

Greg (History of Smallpox Vaccinations):

• Paul Kelton, Cherokee Medicine, Colonial Germs: An Indigenous Nation’s Fight Against Smallpox, 1518-1824 (2015)
• Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (1972)
• Andrew Wehrman, The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution (2026)

Karina(Body Snatching/Medical Corpse):

• Stiff by Mary Roach

Randi (Demonic Possesion):

• https://catholiceducation.org/en/culture/demonic-possession-involves-body-not-soul.html
• https://www.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/pn.42.6.0012a
• https://thebaffler.com/salvos/territorial-spirits-laycock
• file:///Users/randinees/Downloads/blaythe,+WINTER+37-4+2023+JSE+GASCON+GALLEY+V3+FINAL+GALLEY.pdf
• https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2819054/