Episode 12: Bloodsucking Rocks

2020-07-17

SUBJECTIVE In this episode, we talk about the vampire's curse, vampire epidemics, and... rocks? Does the vampire legend have its roots in real life disease? Probably not, but we'll tell you about some interesting ones anyway! Ultimately, this ep came to be because we want to talk about a very specific scene in Twilight, but figured it would be good to provide some folkloric context first. Little did we know, all of the vampire research we did has little to nothing to do with the Cullens — oh w...

SUBJECTIVE

In this episode, we talk about the vampire's curse, vampire epidemics, and... rocks? Does the vampire legend have its roots in real life disease? Probably not, but we'll tell you about some interesting ones anyway! Ultimately, this ep came to be because we want to talk about a very specific scene in Twilight, but figured it would be good to provide some folkloric context first. Little did we know, all of the vampire research we did has little to nothing to do with the Cullens — oh well!

OBJECTIVE

Resources, Citations, and Mentions:

Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber, Yale University Press, April 2010
Vampires: Fact, Fiction and Folklore, by Benjamin Radford, Live Science, October 2014
The Great New England Vampire Panic, by Abigail Tucker, Smithsonian Magazine, October 2012
A Natural History of Vampires, by Eric Michael Johnson, The Primate Diaries, Scientific American, October 2011
“Chapter 3: A Virus with Teeth?” from Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus, by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy, Penguin Books, 2013, pp. 65–89.
CDC - Rabies, last reviewed September 2019
Maranda EL, Heifetz R, Estes WA, Cortizo J, Shareef S, Jimenez JJ. Porphyria and Vampirism—A Myth, Sensationalized. JAMA Dermatol. 2016;152(9):975.
The real-life diseases that spread the vampire myth by Stephen Dowling, BBC Future, October 2016
Twilight Lexicon, Imogen
The Twilight Saga Wiki - Vampire
Genetics Home Reference - Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva
Wikipedia - Harry Raymond Eastlack, accessed June 2020
Medical Mystery: Only One Person Has Survive Rabies without Vaccine—But How?, by Jordan Lite, Scientific American, October 2008