Discussion on Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Join us for a discussion on Mary Roach's book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.

From Goodreads: "For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They’ve tested France’s first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?"

Chapters in the book include: A Head Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Practicing surgery on the dead, Dead Man Driving: Human crash test dummies and the ghastly, necessary science of impact tolerance, How to Know if You're Dead: Beating-heart cadavers, live burial, and the scientific search for the soul, and Out of the Fire, into the Compost Bin: And other new ways to end up.

Reading is welcomed, but not required! Bring yourself and your perspectives. We won't come up with all of the answers- or maybe any at all- but we will be giving ourselves a space to talk about things we may not have the space to discuss otherwise.

This book is available for free on Hoopla through the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library as both an eBook and an audiobook. If you are in a different city, it may still be available on Hoopla.