Episode 12: Bloodsucking Rocks

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

ASSESSMENT

• Deepa: 1 out of 5 non-blinking eyes
• Jen: 0 out of 5 diamond teeth

PLAN

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Theme Music and SFX: Kevin MacLeod (CC BY) - RetroFuture Clean, Danse Macabre-Big Hit 2