Death, the afterlife, and now sex -- Mary Roach tackles the most pondered and least understood conundrums that have baffled humans for centuries. (She's funny, too.)
Why you should listen
Freelance writer and humorist turned accidental science journalist Mary Roach likes to ask the questions we all wonder about but are usually too polite to mention. What happens after we die, anyway? How fast do cadavers rot? Can a corpse have an orgasm?
Writing the Health & Body column for Salon.com quickened her interest in the dead -- that, and looking at the hit count for her columns on cadavers. Her books Stiff and Spook sprung out of research done for a proposed Salon column called the Dead Beat (sadly, it was killed). Her most recent book, Bonk, is a romp through the current landscape of gynecology, sex research and the adult novelty industry.
In addition to her dry (and sometimes silly) wit, Roach has a penchant for funny voices, faking her way through interviews with expert scientists, and wheedling her way into strange locales, among them a dildo factory and under the business end of an ultrasound wand during coitus.
What others say
... she takes an entertaining topic and showcases its creepier side. And then she makes the creepy funny.
Mary Roach’s TED Talk
More news and ideas from Mary Roach
Science
5 (more) facts about orgasm
November 14, 2014
What science knows -- and doesn't -- about orgasm.
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Broccoli takes a magical journey in the trailer for Mary Roach’s new book
May 15, 2013
Mary Roach is the kind of journalist who gets excited about the details of embalming, court cases involving ghosts and the mechanics of how exactly one uses the bathroom in space. So we are excitedly awaiting the release of her new book, Gulp, in which she explores the eccentricities of the digestive system. We have […]
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TEDWeekends takes a look at the orgasm
February 16, 2013
Journalist Mary Roach has investigated the nitty gritty of space travel, cadaver research and the afterlife. But at TED2009, she shared some of her most fascinating research yet … into the orgasm. In her talk “10 things you didn’t know about orgasm,” Roach digs deep into scientific research in sexuality — much of it recent, […]
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