© 2024 New Hampshire Public Radio

Persons with disabilities who need assistance accessing NHPR's FCC public files, please contact us at publicfile@nhpr.org.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Win a $15k travel voucher OR $10k in cash in NHPR's 1st Holiday Raffle!

What Remains: No Justice, No Peace

Sara Plourde
/
NHPR

Across the country, the remains of tens of thousands of human beings are held by museums and institutions. Scientists say they’ve helped lay the foundations of forensic science and unlocked the secrets of humanity’s shared past.

But these bones were also collected before informed consent was the gold standard for ethical study. Nineteenth and 20th-century physicians and anthropologists took unclaimed bodies from poorhouses and hospitals, robbed graves, and looted Indigenous bones from sacred sites.

Now, under pressure from activists and an evolving scientific community, these institutions are rethinking what to do with their unethically collected human remains.

Outside/In producer Felix Poon has informally gained a reputation as the podcast’s “death beat” correspondent. He’s visited a human decomposition facility (aka, “body farm”), reported on the growing trend of “green burial,” and explored the use of psychedelic mushrooms to help terminal cancer patients confront death.

In this three-episode series from Outside/In, Felix takes us to Philadelphia, where the prestigious Penn Museum has promised to “respectfully repatriate” hundreds of skulls collected by 19th century physician Samuel George Morton, who used them to pursue pseudo-scientific theories of white supremacy. Those efforts have been met with support by some, and anger and distrust by others.

Along the way, Felix explores the long legacy of scientific racism, lingering questions over the 1985 MOVE bombing, and evolving ethics in the field of biological anthropology.

Can the institutions that have long benefited from these remains be trusted to give them up? And if so, who decides what happens next?

Part 1: What's Past is Prologue

A classroom display of human skulls sparks a reckoning at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia.

Featuring Paul Wolff Mitchell, Christopher Woods, Lyra Monteiro, aAliy Muhammad.

Read a full transcript here.


ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

The Morton Cranial Collection

The MOVE bombing and MOVE remains controversy

The entrance to the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.
ChrisInPhilly
/
The entrance to the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology.

CREDITS

Outside/ In Host: Nate Hegyi

Reported and produced by Felix Poon with help from Taylor Quimby. Mixed by Felix Poon and Taylor Quimby.

Editing by Taylor Quimby, with help from Nate Hegyi, Rebecca Lavoie, Katie Colaneri, Jason Moon, Daniela Allee, Justine Paradis, Marina Henke, and Kate Dario.

Executive producer: Taylor Quimby

Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio

Special thanks to Buffy Gorilla.

Music in this episode is from Lennon Hutton, and Blue Dot Sessions. The theme music for the What Remains mini-series is by Lennon Hutton.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio

Submit a question to the “Outside/Inbox.” We answer queries about the natural world, climate change, sustainability, and human evolution. You can send a voice memo to outsidein@nhpr.org or leave a message on our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837).

Felix Poon first came to NHPR in 2020 as an intern, producing episodes for Outside/In, Civics 101, and The Second Greatest Show on Earth. He went to work for Gimlet Media’s How to Save a Planet before returning in 2021 as a producer for Outside/In. Felix’s Outside/In episode Ginkgo Love was featured on Spotify's Best Podcasts of 2020.
Outside/In is a show where curiosity and the natural world collide. Click here for podcast episodes and more.
Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.