Podcasts · Behavioral Scientist Reads

Episode 3: ‘Seeing Is Knowing’

13 Aug 2026 · 1 h 32 min · S1 E3

In Flights, we encounter human anatomy in a number of ways—body parts in jars, wax figures, and the search for a secret preservation formula. Why did this kind of bodily preservation begin? How did it transform medical science and our understanding of where we come from? And what are the ways we can accurately understand and interpret this work from our modern vantage point?

• 00:00: Introduction to the episode • 12:01: Interview with Sara Ray, the senior director of interpretation and engagement at the Mütter Museum, begins • 12:01–54:51: The history of anatomical preservation • 54:51–1:22:34: The past and present of the Mütter Museum • 1:22:34 –1:26:48: Sara Ray answers the three traveler’s questions

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Episode 3 features historian Sara Ray, the senior director of interpretation and engagement at the Mütter Museum. The episode was produced and edited by Evan Nesterak, and it was mixed by Stephanie Tam. Our theme music was composed by Nina Humphreys. Thank you to the Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science & Public Policy at Princeton University for sponsoring Behavioral Scientist Reads and helping to make the podcast possible. Find out more at bookclub.behavioralscientist.org and behavioralscientist.org. Published by Behavioral Scientist magazine.

Links in the notes 1

• https://muttermuseum.org/