The 13th Step - Introducing: What Remains from Outside/In

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

Introducing “What Remains,” a special series from NHPR’s Outside/In. A classroom display of human skulls sparks a reckoning at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. A movement grows to “abolish the collection.” The Penn Museum relents to pressure. But there are more skeletons in the closet. To hear all three parts, including the prologue, subscribe to Outside/In.

Hey, it's Lauren Choolgen, and I'm here to introduce you to a new series called What Remains. It comes from my colleagues at Outside In, another great narrative podcast from NHPR, about the places where curiosity and the natural world collide. For months, reporter Felix Poon has been digging into how museums, universities, and other big institutions are rethinking what to do with their collections of human remains. Felix takes us to the Penn Museum in Philadelphia. And to say this topic is controversial would be a huge understatement. We're dropping the trailer right here so you can check it out.

About 10 years ago, Lara Montero was walking through the prestigious Penn Museum in Philadelphia. And when I was there, I entirely by accident found myself in the middle of an exhibit of skulls from Morton's collection. Five yellowed human skulls collected by 19th century white supremacist Dr. Samuel George Morton. I was shocked that it was on display. And then even worse, the display itself was structured to teach people what Morton thought. These five skulls, they were just a fraction of the approximately 1,300 human skulls held by the Penn Museum.

And even though they're no longer on display, the question remains, why are they still there at all? We're talking about a problem that's created by white supremacy, by colonialism over centuries and generations. And for people who are alive now, who've made their career and made a living out of the exploitation of other people's ancestors, to even think that they get to have a say in what happens? To me that's really fucked up. I'm Felix Poon and for the past several months I've been reporting on the tens of thousands of human remains

that are held in museums and institutions across the country. When I first got interested in the subject, I thought it was just a grotesque story about philosophy, science, and ethics. But the more I talked to people, the more they told me that I could not understand this in the abstract, and that the place I should really be focusing on is Philadelphia, where one institution's attempt to reckon with their past has been met with anger and distrust. I think we're all looking at Penn Museum and just hoping to not end up in a situation like that.

Burying people to eliminate discussion about what should happen with them is not a good answer. I'm absolutely confident we did the right thing. Again know, again, these are the agendas of a very small group of individuals. This is not the work that the museum has a right to do. The sentence get to decide. From the Outside In podcast comes What Remains, a new mini-series about death, dignity, and the Morton cranial collection in Philadelphia. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.