Breasts Unbound
Latest Episodes
Ep 8.: The Future of Breasts
Even though we still live in a big-boob bubble, more women are voluntarily reducing their breast size. Others are happily deciding to “go flat” after cancer. Trans women are learning how to lactate - are men next? Are we entering a post-boob...
Ep. 7: The New Normal Puberty
Retailers are now selling bras with princess characters on them. Girls are reaching puberty earlier than ever before. In this episode, we talk to some families and experts at the center of the quest to understand how modern life is changing breasts...
Ep. 6: What’s in Chelsea Handler’s Boobs?
In this episode, we talk to Chelsea Handler about her relationship with her large and well-publicized rack, and then find out what chemicals she has coursing through her bloodstream that might endanger her (and everyone’s) prized organs.
Ep 5: Bugs and Breastmilk
It can save babies’ lives and supply rarified fatty acids, antibodies and proteins. But breast milk also contains tons of mysterious sugars not digestible by babies. So, who are they for? And what can the answer teach us about the future of health...
Ep. 4: What Men Can Teach Us About Breast Cancer
Mike Partain was born on a storied marine base in North Carolina. Thirty-nine years later, he was diagnosed with rare male breast cancer. Then he started finding old neighbors who were diagnosed, too. Thanks to these male outliers, scientists are...
Ep. 3: Busting the Bust Myth
In modern-day America, we’re constantly bombarded with images of perfectly round, big, pneumatic knockers. Where did this ideal come from, and is it really everyone’s favorite boob type? Florence Williams administers the “Swami test” to find...
Ep. 2: Knocking on Evolution’s Door
Every mammal has mammary glands, but only humans have permanent, rounded, full-on breasts. Why? What are breasts really for, anyway? The answers matter, because they influence how we see each other and see ourselves. Florence Williams walks up the...
Ep. 1: 55 Years of Plastic Implants
Florence Williams explores the history of a medical device that changed silhouettes around the world, and she finds the oldest living pair of silicone implants - in 84-year-old Texan Timmie Jean Lindsey, who has to decide whether or not to remove them...
Coming Soon
Breasts have been bared, flaunted, measured, inflated, suckled, pierced, tassled -- and in every way fetishized by our society. Host and science journalist Florence Williams (prize-winning author ofB