The Breakfast Club - IDKMYDE: J Marion Sims

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

J. Marion Sims, once hailed as the “father of modern gynecology,” built his legacy on exploiting enslaved Black women without anesthesia, turning medical progress into a horrifying practice. His statue in Central Park may have come down, but the lessons about injustice and racism in medicine are still standing strong. Learn more in today’s episode of IDKMYDE!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. What if you ask two different people the same set of questions?

Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, and now, Minnie Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Listen to Mini Questions on the iHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers. Y'all, what up? It's your girl Jess Hilarious, and I think it's time to acknowledge your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers. Come to me, your best friend acting shady. Come to me, thought you was the father, but you're not. Come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you. Listen to Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers, and so many other fascinating people,

like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone, you know, you do three hours in the morning, you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school, and write at night, and after nine hours, you come out with seven pages, and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, and right at night and after nine hours you come out with seven pages and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your

podcasts. On today's episode of I Didn't Know, maybe you didn't either, I want to introduce to you Jay Marion Sims. They call him the father of modern gynecology. That man was just Satan in scrubs. J. Marion Sims. He developed life-saving medical techniques back in the 1800s, but the way he did it, wild. He experimented on enslaved black women without anesthesia.

Like, hey, I'm about to cut you open, all right? But don't worry, you'll be fine, because you blacks don't feel pain quite like I do. That's literally what he believed. And people let him get away with it. Three women have been documented. Anarka, Lucy, and Betsy. And these three women went through hell.

Anarka alone had over 30 surgeries. 30 with no anesthesia. And Sims called it science. And you know what he got for it? A statue in Central Park. Like imagine going for a jog and seeing a dude being honored for torturing black women. That was a reality before 2018 because in 2018 activists showed up in bloody hospital gowns so that you could visualize these atrocities and pretty

much said nah this statue's got to go and guess what they won. The statue got moved to a cemetery. And quite honestly, that's where it belongs. Right beside J. Marion Sims' dead ethics. Now here's where it gets real. You'd think this was just some old school nonsense, right? Nah, those same racist ideas are still here. Lurking in hospitals like bad wifi.

Studies show doctors today still think black women feel less pain. That's why black women are three times more likely to die from childbirth complications. Three times. Meanwhile, Karen over there getting extra Tylenol for a paper cut. Make it make sense. So what do we do? First, stop giving shady people statues. But more importantly, we gotta listen. When people say they're in pain or need help, we need to believe them. Cause if Anarka, Lucy, and Betsy could survive all that, the least we can do is make sure that nobody else has to. And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.

Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy.

What if you asked two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast. And now, Minnie Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Listen to Minnie Questions on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.

Yo, what up? It's your girl Jess Hilarious, and I think it's time to acknowledge that I'm not just a comedian. It's time to add uncertified therapists to my credentials because each and every Wednesday, I'm fixing your mess on carefully reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network.

Got problems in your relationship? Come to me. Your best friend acting shady? Come to me. Your best friend acting shady? Come to me. Thought you was the father but you not? Come to me. I can't promise I won't judge you, but I can guarantee that I will help you.

Listen to Carefully Reckless on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. You are cordially invited to the hottest party in professional sports. I'm Tisha Allen, former golf professional and the host of Welcome to the Party, your newest obsession about the wonderful world that is women's golf, featuring interviews with top players on tour, tips to help improve your swing and the craziest stories to come out of your friendly neighborhood country club.

Welcome to the Party with Tisha Allen is an iHeart Woman's Sports Production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. Listen to Welcome to the Party. That's P-A-R-T-E-E on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.