This week on the 5AM StoryTalk Podcast, I'm joined by Dr. Surekha Davies, historian of science, historical monster consultant, and author of the brilliant new book Humans: A Monstrous History — which explores how we’ve defined human beings in relation to everything from the animal kingdom and foreigners to zombies and cyborgs, and how our relationship to monsters has invented race, gender, and nations along the way.
Surekha’s book is both an entertaining read and incredibly insightful as cultures around the world continue to react to different races and ethnic groups, foreign neighbors, immigrants and refugees, LGBTQIA+ people, and even women through the stripping of rights, mass incarceration, war, and genocide. We’ll be talking about it, the monstrification taking place today and in storytelling past and present, and much more.
You can learn more about Humans: A Monstrous History, or buy your own copy, here.
A bonus episode with Surekha is also available, so be sure to listen to that, too. In it, she and I discuss a seminal piece of art from her life — the iconic “Star Trek: The Next Generation” episodes, “The Best of Both Worlds” Parts 1 and 2, which involve one of her favorite fictional monsters…the Borg.
