Dead Bodies Everywhere: Jonathan Davis of Korn and Mary Roach on Funerary Science

Dead Bodies Everywhere: Postmortem Biology and Funerary Science
WARNING: This episode contains content related to mortuary science that some listeners may find disturbing.
Korn frontman Jonathan Davis delves into his past as a mortician with popular science bestselling author, Mary Roach. Mary wrote thehit book “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” and the two have no shortage of gory details to discuss. We talk about the biology of human corpse decomposition and preservation, embalming techniques (including but not limited to anal suturing), Elvis’s autopsy and more!

[@PotawatomiThunderNew]

3:06 Jonathan mentions the song Pretty being another song that came out of his experience working in a morgue. I’m not sure what the audience of this video is, but assuming there may be others who aren’t like die hard Korn fans who know all this info about them, for any people who don’t know already, this is a quote from Jonathan about what the song Pretty is about: “It’s a story about this little girl that came into the coroner’s office when I was working there and she was f-ked by her dad. She was an 11 month old little baby girl. Her legs were broken back behind her and he just f-ked her like a toy doll and chucked her in the bathroom. It was the most heinous thing I’ve ever seen in my life and I still have nightmares about it.”

[@aces553]

Yep.

[@jlockwood65]

​@@aces553absolutley heartbreaking. How does anyone commit such heinous acts. Wow.

[@walter.mairena]

This interview was so interesting, I'm a Korn fan and knew Jon is really into these dark subjects and his work at the morgue but I didn't know he was so knowledgeable on all what he talked about in this podcast. Thanks for sharing.

[@kryptektales6938]

John is why i am currently alive. No ive never been able to actually talk with him and i never will. But i want him to know that i thank him for my being alive. He hel;ped me deal with shit that i thought only happened to me

[@jlockwood65]

Glad you made it through the fire. Remember to follow your bliss. We all have our magic. Tell me what you see on your best day ever... dream it into reality.

[@mushyfrogg3544]

i’ve wanted to do medical examination as a career for years but i’ve heard a lot of people getting ptsd from it and that kinda scares me

[@mushyfrogg3544]

also huge fan of jonathan and hearing his experience doing mortuary is very interesting

[@13_13k]

I cane across this audio/video as a random suggestion from KZbin , I'm sure because I warch Korn videos, but I had no idea what this was going to be about at all. Completely in the dark coming into this, I almost skipped it but thought I would check it out and see what it was. I'm so glad I did. I knew that Jonathan worked at a mortuary or at a morgue from interviews he had done back in the day. Growing up in Los Angeles, one of my best friends since about 6th grade, his mother was a nurse and his father was the 2nd head LA County Coroner and it always intrigued me but I never asked to get a tour of the morgue. I'm sure his dad would have shown me around but I thought it might be inappropriate to even ask. But, this interview was very interesting and done so casually, it was great. Thank you for uploading it for people to experience some of the stories and information given.

[@brockstar3650]

I loved every moment of this interview.

[@jlockwood65]

Really loved this episode. Perfect interview pair. Would love a part 2!

[@Elenuay]

This was so interesting. Thank you for bringing these two together for this, I loved the insight they brought.

[@sofiamoreno1020]

He's just amazing and strong.

[@ALICE-hx8ek]

Loved this! I have been wanting to hear Jonathan talk about his mortuary science days since I was a kid. Just awesome.❤

[@Tablefoxglue]

Thank you I look forward to reading this book

[@vera_n500]

That is the most interesting content from JD i've heard, great podcast

[@witatter1]

A great episode and interview! I have read almost all of Mary Roach’s books and i like metal music.

[@danaranda1315]

I've always found interesting this topic, but not in a morbid way, so many people adress It like that, but I respect a lot what you did with this and with such amazing guests. As a contribution cause I think Mary dismissed It, the budhist monks deliver the bodies to vulters so they eat the flesh, it's kind of poetic and the funeral i like the most, greetings from Mexico.

[@anonymousandcool]

I made Sociology of Death and Dying part of my double major in college. Totally different from the hands-on science of death though. My rotations in hospice and caregiving jobs in home hospice made me realize that might not be right for me. But I'm always curious about the aspects of death. I'm an organ donor and have in my advance directive that I'm fine with having my whole body donated to science..... now I can't get out of my head that in a future use of my body, I will be a slumping crash test cadaver haha.

[@christinemclaughlin5406]

Love this!!

[@JJSkywalker2407]

Jonathan is a cool guy i wanted to do what he did was mortuary science or become a medical examiner or an investigator

[@michellealbers6732]

Is Jonathan a Christian?

[@spoonclank7931]

nope

[@PotawatomiThunderNew]

No, he’s not. That’s not to say he’s an atheist or anything like that though. He has said before that he does believe and God and even prays sometimes. It’s just that he’s not religious and doesn’t follow the Bible and stuff like that. I guess the easiest way to put it is he believes in God, but his belief in God isn’t a religious thing, but more of a personal thing.

[@113KILL5]

Just found your channel, thank god. Thank you for this, you have no idea.