Just a few weeks after we released the What Remains series, news broke that the Penn Museum discovered additional remains of 1985 MOVE bombing victims in the museum.
How did this happen? And what's next for the thousands of other human remains still in their possession?
Producer Felix Poon knew just the person to talk to for answers.
Featuring Rachel Watkins.
This episode is an update to a special series from Outside/In. We recommend starting with the prologue and Part I. The full episode transcript is available here.
MORE ABOUT “WHAT REMAINS”
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. 19th 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.
In this series from Outside/In, producer Felix Poon 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?
LINKS
Read the Penn Museum’s statement about the latest discovery of additional MOVE remains at the museum.
Listen to WHYY’s news report, Penn Museum discovers another set of human remains from the MOVE bombing.
CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Felix Poon
Edited by Taylor Quimby.
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio.
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).
