# April 8, 2026 — Interview: Susan Wise Bauer Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast-7410053/april-8-2026-interview-susan-wise-bauer Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast-7410053/april-8-2026-interview-susan-wise-bauer.md Podcast: [The DISRUPTED SCIENCE Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast-7410053) Published: 2026-04-08T18:01:30+00:00 Episode link: https://disruptedscience.podbean.com/e/april-8-2026-%e2%80%94-interview-susan-wise-bauer/ Audio file: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/8gy2cy3uje35pptz/disrupted_0408268di4l.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disrupted-science-podcast-7410053/episodes/april-8-2026-interview-susan-wise-bauer Duration seconds: 3186 ## Resource Susan Wise Bauer is a historian and author of The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy. I reviewed her book a few weeks ago, and Joy attended a talk she gave William & Mary. Her engaging book seems to come from an era when the history of science existed outside of politics, restoring a calm sense of historical perspective much needed in these troubled times. In addition teaching for 18 years at William and Mary and writing books, Bauer is a farmer and a publisher. We discuss a grab-bag of topics, including: Kleenex How physicians evolved out of acolytes at temples The English sweat The library book panic Copernicus and corpses We also share our “Discoveries of the Week:” Susan’s: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/?lens=little-brown Kent’s: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242976013-how-the-internet-disrupted-science Joy’s: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=slow+vacuuming Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on Amazon Music/Audible Subscribe on YouTube Music provided by Provoke the Truth — https://provokethetruth.net/ ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disrupted-science-podcast-7410053/episodes/april-8-2026-interview-susan-wise-bauer/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disrupted-science-podcast-7410053/april-8-2026-interview-susan-wise-bauer.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.