Microbiologist Jenna Capyk joins Joe, Toren, and Kevin to talk about Hansen’s disease, also known as leprosy. What the heck is it? Does it cause your body parts to fall off? Are there any other animals that can get leprosy? What have we done in the past to keep lepers separate from society? All these questions and more are answered in this episode of Caustic Soda!
News update: Since recording a study strongly suggests that leprosy can transfer from armadillos to humans.
“Our research provides clear DNA evidence that the unique strain found in armadillos is the same as the one in certain humans,” said Stewart Cole, of the Global Health Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Music: “Gimme Some Skin” The Andrews Sisters
Movies:
Ben Hur
Kevin: 10/10
Princess Mononoke
Toren: 8/10
Joe: 8/10
The Fog (John Carpenter)
Toren: 5/10
Kingdom of Heaven
Toren: 4/10
Joe: 4/10
Kevin: 5/10
Braveheart
Joe: 9/10
Kevin: 9/10
I would also suggest watching “The Motorcycle Diaries”. It’s a bio pic on Che Guevara’s early life. He goes and works in a leper colony for a good part of the film.
There was a recent episode on House, where the chick-patient has “pretty leprosy”:
http://www.politedissent.com/archives/2077
Is that actually a real form of leprosy?
I’ve seen both versions of the Fog.
The original The Fog is a great B-movie ghost story. I love it and own it on DVD. I’d give it 7/10.
The remake was TERRIBLE. So terrible that when I knew it was going to be terrible, it was still terrible. It’s terrible for a terrible movie. Terrible squared even. I’d give it 0/10.
Haven’t listened yet, but let me just say, armadillo is quite tasty.
That pic of the “face nodules” is really disturbing. It might take a few days to get over that one.
Also, I shouldn’t really comment before I listen but if it wasn’t mentioned, Papillion has a wild leprosy scene.
I’m not at all a fan of most fantasy writing, but the Thomas Covenant books are seriously good stuff when you’re in the mood for some high-school melodrama… plus, judging from the episode, they do a pretty solid job of describing leprosy (even by today’s standards) and how it was treated in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
Another fun fact: the first semi-modern mental hospitals in Japan were repurposed leprosariums (“leprosaria”?), partly because of the pathetic state of the Japanese economy after WW2, but also because of a general disregard for the safety of mental patients.
I enjoyed the episode, but you guys missed the opportunity to talk about the the Leprosy Mission Canada and their great gift catalogue: http://www.leprosy.ca/Page.aspx?pid=348
Because nothing says “I love you” like a terracotta garlic pot, handcrafted by a leper.
*Squeeeeeeeee* a female of great knowledge on the show. This makes me extremely happy. Great episode!
The only bit of this one that made me squeamish was the talk of drying out and scratched up eyeballs.
[...] We’ve added another free ringtone to the Downloads page — from last week’s Leprosy episode it’s our reaction to hearing about rats eating a leper’s fingers. [...]
[...] is no stranger to podcasts having appeared on the very funny Caustic Soda show discussing leprosy. Jenna is a biochemist at the University of British Columbia with an [...]
I really enjoyed this podcast and look forward to hearing about tuberculosis!!