RADIO & podcasts
BBC RADIO 3: FREE THINKING
Originally broadcast on March 27th, 2024.
Viking burials, preserving archaeology in Uganda, the morgues of Paris and New York and the medieval attitude to dying are our topics as Chris Harding hears about new research from archaeologists Marianne Hem Eriksen and Pauline Harding, and historians Cat Byers and Harriet Soper.
Listen to Free Thinking: Approaches to Death here.
HISTORY HIT: AFTER DARK PODCAST
Released on February 28th, 2024.
Citizens of Paris in the 19th century could stroll down to the Morgue to try to identify the unknown dead or to gawp at celebrity murder victims. Though its most famous resident of all was perhaps not dead at all...Our guest today is the marvellous Cat Byers, who is a writer, photographer and historian based in Paris. She’s currently finishing a PhD on the nineteenth-century morgues of Paris and New York. Get ready for a story full of poignant humour, Donald Trump, and party hats.
Listen to Episode 45: The Paris Morgue's Dark Story here.
Criminal podcast
Released on June 16th, 2023.
When a toymaker and a doctor teamed up to make the world’s first CPR doll, they decided to make the doll’s face look like one specific woman – a woman who they thought had drowned. People call her l’Inconnue de la Seine, or the Unknown Woman of the Seine.
Listen to Episode 223: The Unknown Woman here.
haunted history chronicles
Released on November 18th, 2022.
Joining me today is historian Catriona Byers who specialises in urban death, policing, medicine and photography from the nineteenth-century to the present day. She’s currently working on a PhD at King’s College London, focusing on the morgues of Paris and New York from 1864-1914. We were able to chat about the history of the morgue and some of the tragic stories of people who passed through there. We also examine how it was more than just a popular attraction as we examine the role it played in modern policing and forensics and more...
Listen to Episode: The Haunting History of The Paris Morgue here.