UPDATE: Famous Tumors

Radiolab

• Episode: UPDATE: Famous Tumors
• Website: Radiolab
• Feed URL: http://feeds.wnyc.org/radiolab
• Duration: 00:06:00
• Published: 2013-10-23 00:32

When we first released Famous Tumors, Rebecca Skloot's book about the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks (and her famous cells) had just hit the shelves. Since then, some interesting things have happened to both Henrietta's cells and her family. So, 4 years later, we have a newly updated show!

This hour, we poke and prod at the good, bad, and ugly sides of tumors -- from the growth that killed Ulysses S. Grant, to mushy lumps leaping from the faces of infected Tasmanian Devils, to a mass that awakened a new (though pretty strange) kind of euphoria for one man. Plus, the updated story of one woman's medically miraculous cancer cells, and how they changed modern science and, eventually, her family's understanding of itself.

Read more:

Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks