''Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine'' is a weekly,

comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

medical

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

hosted by Dr.

Sydnee McElroy Sydnee McElroy ( ) is an American family medicine physician, assistant professor in family medicine at the Marshall University School of Medicine, and podcast host of ''Sawbones'' and ''Still Buffering''. She is married to writer and podcaster, J ...

and her husband, podcaster

Justin McElroy Justin Tyler McElroy ( , born November 8, 1980) is an American podcaster, comedian, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts (such as ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'', ''The Adventure Zone'', and ''Sawbones'') and ...

. The show is distributed online by

Maximum Fun Maximum Fun is an independent podcast and radio show production organization founded and run by Jesse Thorn. The organization originated with Thorn's college radio show ''The Sound of Young America'' which continued in an adapted format and with ...

. In each episode, Sydnee discusses an element of historical medical practice, while Justin provides a comedic foil. The show normally focuses on antiquated medical practices that are unusual to modern listeners, but occasionally covers rare and unusual disorders and occurrences.

History

Background and formation

Sydnee and Justin McElroy had previously worked together on a short podcast series entitled ''Losing the Sheen'', focused on watching ''

Two and a Half Men ''Two and a Half Men'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS for twelve seasons from September 22, 2003, to February 19, 2015. Originally starring Charlie Sheen in the lead role alongside Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones, the ...

''. The show only lasted nine episodes before the two became tired of it, instead starting a medical podcast based on Sydnee's expertise. While developing the idea for the show, the McElroys decided that it would be irresponsible for them to give medical advice to listeners, even with Sydnee's background. They opted instead to focus on the historical aspects, which had been an interest of Sydnee's. Like other shows by the family, such as ''

My Brother, My Brother and Me ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'' (often abbreviated as ''MBMBaM'', pronounced ) is a weekly comedy advice podcast distributed by the Maximum Fun network and hosted by brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy. Regular episodes of the podc ...

'', ''Sawbones'' is distributed via the

network. ''Sawbones'' has aired over 400 episodes with content on "medical history to uncover all the odd, weird, wrong, dumb and just gross ways we've tried to fix people over the years."

''Sawbones'' Live

''Sawbones'' has on occasion been performed live, such as the November 2, 2017, performance at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in

Huntington, WV Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Cabell County, and the largest city in the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as the Tri-State Area. A ...

Live performances

* Episode 44: "Warts". New York City, People's Improv Theater. May 27, 2014. * Episode 54: "Spontaneous Combustion". August 26, 2014. * Episode 69: "Appalachian Folk Medicine". December 23, 2014. * Episode 102: "Birds". Seattle, WA. September 2, 2015. * Episode 103: "Cats".

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, British Columbia. September 10, 2015. * Episode 117: "Christmas is Trying to Kill You". Huntington, WV Candlenights 2015. December 23, 2015. * Episode 140: "Pliny the Elder". New York City,

PlayStation Theater Palladium Times Square (formerly PlayStation Theater, Best Buy Theater and Nokia Theatre Times Square) is an indoor live events venue in New York City, located in One Astor Plaza, at the corner of Broadway and 44th Street. It was designed by archi ...

. June 8, 2016. * Episode 146: "Tea". Boston, MA Wilbur Theater. July 21, 2016. * Episode 167: "Santa is Sick". Live from Candlenights 2016. December 24, 2016. * ''Sawbones'' live, 2017 Marshall University 30th Anniversary Yeager Society Symposium. November 2, 2017. * Episode 177. "Norovirus". March 16, 2017. * Episode 187. "The Clap". Austin, TX. May 25, 2017. * Episode 195. "The Mütter Museum". Philadelphia, PA. July 19, 2017. * Episode 212: "Coffee". Live in Seattle, WA. December 15, 2017. * Episode 229: "Hepatitis A". Live at the Columbus Podcast Festival. May 18, 2018. * Episode 257: "A Sawbones Special Presentation: A Medicine Called Christmas". Live from Candlenights 2018. December 24, 2018 * Episode 270: "Pinworms". Live on the Joco Cruise 2019. April 7, 2019. * Episode 283: "The Chattanooga Medicine Company". July 19, 2019. * Episode 289: "Hydrotherapy". Atlanta, GA. September 8, 2019.

''The Horrifying, Hilarious Road To Modern Medicine''

In June 2018, a book adaptation of the podcast was announced, under the title ''The Sawbones Book: The Horrifying, Hilarious Road To Modern Medicine''. Published by

Weldon Owen Bonnier AB (), also the Bonnier Group, is a privately held Swedish media group of 175 companies operating in 15 countries. It is controlled by the Bonnier family. Background The company was founded in 1804 by Gerhard Bonnier in Copenhagen, Denma ...

, the book became available in October 2018. The book showed up in the top 10

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or rush ...

bestsellers for the week ending April 5, 2019. The book was illustrated by Sydnee's sibling, Teylor Smirl.

References

External links

Official website

Sawbones
on the official McElroy family website {{McElroy family Audio podcasts Comedy and humor podcasts Science podcasts 2013 podcast debuts Maximum Fun Physicians from West Virginia History podcasts Podcasts adapted for other media Health and wellness podcasts