#307 - Heather Radke on BUTTS: A BACKSTORY

Heather Radke, a writer and contributing editor/reporter at Radiolab, chats with Trey Elling about BUTTS: A BACKSTORY. Topics include: Heather's goal with Butts (0:00) The gluteal cleft (2:13) Why humans evolved to have butts (3:31) How the butt is a Swiss Army Knife (5:26) Male peacocks and the female human butt (7:07) The modern objectification of the female butt beginning with Sarah Baartman 200+ years ago (10:56) Scientists' creating racial hierarchy with butts (and more) in the 1800s (14:44) The bustle in the late 1800s (17:16) The flapper of the 1920s (20:20) Josephine Baker's butt nearly ending European civilization (23:50) Attempting to define "normal" in the mid-1900s (26:08) The model responsible for how many clothing companies determine the fit for women's pants (29:23) Buns of Steel (32:29) The start of 'fat fitness' in the 1980s (35:53) Sir Mix-A-Lot and Baby Got Back (38:13) Why women's butts have been more openly discussed since around 2000 (42:59) Beyonce and "Bootylicious" (46:30) 2014 as the 'Year of the Butt' (49:20) The next big thing in butts (51:22)