The Book Review Podcast

Episode: Mary Roach Loves Writing About Weird Science
Host: Gilbert Cruz (NYT Book Review Editor)
Guest: Mary Roach (author of Stiff, Spook, Bonk, Gulp, and the new book Replaceable: Adventures in Human Anatomy)
Release Date: September 19, 2025

Episode Overview

This lively episode features Mary Roach, renowned science journalist, discussing her signature approach to “weird science” writing and her new book, Replaceable: Adventures in Human Anatomy. Host Gilbert Cruz leads Roach through discussions of her research process, chapter selection, the role of humor in science writing, and stories from the strange frontiers of human anatomy and medical history. Roach’s curiosity, wit, and perspective on taboo science topics shine, offering insight into how she crafts her unique, reader-friendly explorations of the human body.

Main Topics and Discussion Points

Why Return to the Human Body?

[01:29]–[02:18]

• Roach’s last book focused on animal-human boundary issues (“When Nature Breaks the Law”), but Replaceable signals a return to the endlessly fascinating subject of the human body.
  • “It’s this weird foreign planet and I didn’t study it in high school or college. … I seem to just be drawn to the human body and all its miraculousness and weirdness.” — Mary Roach [01:52]

Origins of Replaceable: Serendipitous Inspiration

[02:18]–[05:28]

• Roach often starts books with a few “nuggets”—odd morsels of information that lodge in her mind.
• The seed for Replaceable was planted by a reader email about elective amputation.
  • The reader was an amputee who sought amputation for a nonfunctioning but “healthy” limb. Surgeons were resistant, revealing a “bias for wholeness.”
  • “She would see people with prosthetic limbs who were hiking and running around and doing things that she couldn’t do. But it was very hard for her to find a surgeon willing to cut off her limb. … We have a bias for wholeness.” — Mary Roach [04:24]

Roach’s Research Process: “Flailing Around”

[05:35]–[09:22]

• She describes the interim between books as a period of “flailing around.” She cold-calls researchers, sorts through failed ideas, and maintains folders of “stuff” for potential use.
  • “It’s maddening because it’s not a formula… it’s just serendipity. And all you can do is leave yourself open as much as you can.” — Mary Roach [07:32]
  • Despite claims of lacking job skills, Roach is driven by addiction to the discovery process and storytelling.

Early Body Replacement: Noses, Plastic Surgery, and Groucho Marx

[09:22]–[11:40]

• Roach dives into early examples of body part replacement, tracing the dawn of plastic surgery to ancient nasal reconstruction.
  • Mutilation of the nose was historically used as punishment; reconstructive techniques date to 1500 BCE.
  • “My favorite being a guy named Frank Tedemor in 1896… the nose was attached to the glasses… a mustache to cover the edge… It was essentially a medical Groucho Marx glasses.” — Mary Roach [11:11]

Memory Struggles as a Science Writer

[11:40]–[12:50]

• Roach admits to using flashcards before interviews, as her memory does not retain book facts easily between projects.
  • “I’m constantly in fear that I’m going to blurt something out that’s correct in the book, but I couldn’t remember it…” — Mary Roach [12:24]

The Necessity of Fieldwork and Real-World Reporting

[12:51]–[14:04]

• Roach thrives on in-person research; being present is “essential” to her writing style.
  • “It’s only good if I went there and I spent time and I inflicted myself on somebody for at least an afternoon and preferably two days…” — Mary Roach [13:13]
• Notes that modern science is sometimes hard to visualize (less “bodies on slabs, more protein receptors”) but insists on finding scenes with people and physical presence.

Making Science Fun: Characters, Chapters, and Humor

[14:04]–[15:54]

• Each chapter is crafted around characters, scenes, and quirky stories, a structure Roach uses to keep herself (and readers) entertained.
  • Recalls a memorable misunderstanding at a “dildo research department” (actually a factory) while writing Bonk.
  • “These lovely young Latina women… I’m like, what do you tell your parents? And she goes, I work in plastics.” — Mary Roach [15:19]

Fieldwork Gone Awry: Traveling for the Story

[16:29]–[18:47]

• Details travel for Replaceable, including a fruitless but memorable journey to Tbilisi, Georgia to investigate a bizarre case of a surgeon using a finger to reconstruct a penis.
  • “I sent emails in Georgian, in Russian, and in English. No reply, no reply. No one would call me back. … We just showed up like idiots. He’s on vacation. … [The office manager said] you’re a couple of idiots…” — Mary Roach [17:24]

Modulating Humor: Editors Step In

[20:46]–[22:49]

• Roach admits that she’s not always the best judge of when humor goes too far; credits her editor.
  • “I get it back, and there’s a diagonal line through the whole passage, and it just says, no, no, bad girl. No. So that came out.” — Mary Roach [22:29]

Passionate, Niche Scientists: The Joy of Discovery

[23:00]–[24:52]

• Roach revels in meeting scientists who specialize in tiny niches—chewing, saliva production, etc.
  • “He was so excited about this reflex and chewing. And I live for people like that.” — Mary Roach [24:03]

On Curiosity and Becoming a Science Writer

[24:52]–[27:44]

• Roach describes herself as not particularly curious or socially engaged as a teenager or college student.
• Her path to science journalism came by accident, via writing for San Francisco newspapers, then the magazine Hippocrates, and later Discover.

Embracing the Gross-out: Taboo, Humor, and Internet Fame

[27:44]–[31:32]

• Roach’s first major hit, Stiff, grew from odd online columns for Salon.com about cadavers. She realized that “taboo or gross” stories received the most attention.
  • “These cadaver ones seem to be popular. So these things that are taboo or gross, there is a kind of built in curiosity, I think…” — Mary Roach [29:54]
• She senses her readers share her taste for the offbeat: “When I picture my readers, I just picture a room full of Mary Roach… like the scene in Being John Malkovich…” [31:04]

On Being “Icked Out”

[31:39]–[32:49]

• Though Roach claims she’s rarely disgusted by her own research, she describes a time in a medical examiner’s office that overwhelmed even her tolerance for gore: “I gagged…and walked quickly out of the room and I couldn’t go back.” — Mary Roach [32:37]

Impact on Spiritual and Physical Perspective

[32:49]–[34:43]

• Encountering death in her research has made Roach view the body as a “hull”—physical presence being separate from personhood—though she's not spiritual herself.
  • “It is so much a hull. You have this sense of something is checked out, something was there and it is gone. … The follow up thought is, where did it go?” — Mary Roach [33:17]

Embodiment and Awareness: The Gulp Effect

[34:43]–[35:28]

• Writing Gulp briefly made her hyperaware of digestion; she’d watch diners chewing, thinking it looked “disgusting.” She notes that writing each book temporarily causes a similar focus.

What Makes a Mary Roach Book?

[35:28]–[36:56]

• Key ingredients:
  • Travel to surprising locations
  • Real people doing unusual things
  • Bits of history (“a couple historical chapters”)
  • Humor, usually at her own expense
  • Scenes that are “sometimes surreal”

The Chapter That Got Away: Uterus Transplants

[36:56]–[38:46]

• Roach wanted to include a chapter on temporary uterus transplants, but couldn't get access. She notes increased privacy restrictions make these stories harder to report.

Memorable Quotes

• “I think we have a bias for wholeness.” — Mary Roach [04:24]
• “If it’s not interesting and fun for me, it’s probably not going to be interesting or fun for the reader.” — Mary Roach [14:38]
• On meeting scientists with intense focus: “That is what I live for. The person who’s not only has devoted their whole life to it, but is so interested in it.” — Mary Roach [23:28]
• “I don’t have any job skills, Gilbert. I don’t know.” — Mary Roach [09:16]
• On her ideal reader: “When I picture my readers, I just picture a room full of Mary Roach… like the scene in Being John Malkovich.” — Mary Roach [31:04]
• “If I’m gonna make fun of anyone, it’s me. I’m the clueless, bumbling outsider.” — Mary Roach [36:23]
• On research challenges: “It’s gotten a little harder to be Mary Roach.” — Mary Roach [38:42]

Notable Segments (with Timestamps)

• [01:52] — Why Roach always comes back to the human body
• [04:02] — The bias for “wholeness” in medicine, and why some patients seek elective amputation
• [07:32] — The chaos and happenstance of Roach’s idea-hunting process
• [09:43] — Ancient nose jobs: Early plastic surgery and prosthetic innovation
• [13:10] — Why firsthand fieldwork is central to her approach
• [15:19] — Inside the “dildo research department” (and how humor arises from scenes)
• [17:24] — Travelling to Georgia for the “penile finger transplant” chase
• [22:29] — The role of editors in managing joke boundaries
• [24:03] — The quirks of scientists and the joy of niche expertise
• [29:54] — Why gross or taboo subjects attract readers (and how Stiff was born)
• [31:04] — What Roach imagines her fans are like (“Being John Malkovich”)
• [33:17] — How seeing dead bodies influences her spiritual thinking
• [38:42] — The new difficulties for immersive science journalism

Tone and Style

The conversation is approachable, irreverent, and laced with Roach’s dry humor and playfulness. Both host and guest share a fascination with oddities of the scientific world, and Roach is candid about her insecurities, research tactics, and the sheer unpredictability of writing each new book. For listeners, the episode demystifies how great—and slightly wacky—science writing is made, making it a must for fans of science, storytelling, and the just-plain-strange.

For further insight:
Read Replaceable: Adventures in Human Anatomy or explore more of Roach’s accessible, comic-inflected science writing.