Why do we “straighten” the human body? And who decides what “normal” should be?

Hosted by Brendan James Clark and Svet Mangarakov.

A medical history and anatomy podcast exploring the human body, its politics, philosophy, and role in society.

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In this episode of Fascists and Fasciae: Dissecting Medical History, we explore the origins of orthopaedics and the idea of the “normal” body. From ancient prosthetics and early fracture treatment to Hippocrates and the work of Nicolas Andry, we trace how “deformity” came to be understood and corrected.

Yet orthopaedics is not just technical; it is philosophical. With Marcus Aurelius and Michel Foucault, we ask whether “deformity” is something inherent or something defined. That question takes on a darker weight in the twentieth century, where ideas of bodily normalcy became entangled with ideology in Nazi Germany.

Fascists and Fasciae explores the strange and fascinating history of the human body, where anatomy, medicine, philosophy, religion, politics, and culture intersect. In future episodes, we will dive into topics such as Galenic anatomy and why it dominated medicine for centuries, the spectacle of anatomy theatres, the darkest chapters of medical science, and the curious ways medicine has intersected with art, religion, and politics throughout history.

What begins as an attempt to correct the body inherently becomes an attempt to define it.

Hopefully this episode tickled your brain.

- Brendan and Svet

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

04:50 Ancient Egypt

15:10 Defining orthopaedics

21:07 Hippocrates

23:25 Defining the 'normal' body

35:48 Wrapping up