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Dirt After Dark: Sexually Transmitted Infections

Turn down the lights, pour a glass of wine, put on some music, and join Anna and Amber as we... learn about some grotesque and terrifying consequences of unprotected sex as we discuss the diagnosis and treatment of STIs throughout history. On this, our inaugural Dirt After Dark, we take a look at the ravages of STIs on society, medicine, and the human skeleton. 

[Caveat auditor: This track contains explicit content, both of the sweary and medical varieties, and some of the material we discuss may be upsetting for some listeners. Specifically, there is reference to sexual assault and medical abuse, but neither of those topics are mined for comedy. --anz]

That said, there is so much to know about this topic that we didn't even begin to cover! To learn even more, check out these sources: 

Bizarre STD Treatments From History (Bustle)

Egypt, wall carving showing a circumcision scene, Sakkara (Wellcome Collection)

Bullshit Alert: Gonorrhea and the Clap: The Slap Down Treatment (PLOS Blogs)

The Casualties of Women's War on Body Hair (The Atlantic) 

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal (Biopolitics) by Rebecca M. Herzig

History of the Medical Treatment of Gonorrhea (Antimicrobe) 

History of Different Therapeutics of Venereal Disease Before the Discovery of Penicillin (in Satomi Sato, ed, Syphilis - Recognition, Description and Diagnosis)

The Tuskegee Timeline (CDC)

U.S. apologizes for newly revealed syphilis experiments done in Guatemala (Washington Post)

Worse Than Tuskegee (Slate) [This one is contains photos of victims as well as description of medical abuse --anz]

Judge allows $1 billion 'Guatemala Experiment' suit against Hopkins and others to move forward (Baltimore Sun)

Origins of Syphilis (Archaeology)

Rothschild, Bruce M. "History of syphilis." Clinical Infectious Diseases 40.10 (2005): 1454-1463.

Skull of Alaskan Inuit, effects of syphilis, 1910 (Wellcome Collection)

Blackbeard's Booty: Pirate Ship Yields Medical Supplies (Live Science)

Secrets of a Brothel Privy (Sapiens)

Why the Heck Do So Many Koalas Have Chlamydia? (Live Science)

One Direction in chlamydia scare after handling koalas Down Under (MetroUK)

How Often Do Animals Get STDs? (Discover)

We'll see you next month, for another Dirt After Dark! In the meantime, enjoy this weekend's edition of Old News, and then a new episode of Deep Cuts in two weeks. 

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The Dirt Podcast
Archaeology, Anthropology, and our shared human past.

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The Dirt Podcast

As science communicators in anthropology and archaeology, we hosts of The Dirt acknowledge that we hold a position of considerable privilege and opportunity, and commit ourselves to continuous learning, unlearning and reflection. We recognize that our disciplines, as well as our own lives, are rooted in and propped up by settler colonialism, white supremacy, and dispossession.

We now reside on the stolen ancestral territory of the Shawnee and Haudenosaunee and on the lands of the Muscogee and Cherokee Nations, but over its lifetime, The Dirt has also been produced on the unceded traditional territory of the Piscataway Conoy and Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians, as well as that of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, Patwin and Miwok peoples and all those dispossessed by Cession 296. We offer our show as a platform for Indigenous scholarship, history, and cultural expression, through citation and conversation, and we welcome the opportunity to host and compensate Indigenous scholars of archaeology and anthropology as interview guests.

Likewise, we encourage all listeners who reside in settler-colonial states to learn about on whose land they reside, their place in the ongoing process of colonization, and how to contribute materially to reparations and Indigenous sovereignty.