My lingering state of feeling perpetually sleep deprived made me take particular notice of a recent Columbia University Press “Off the Page” podcast episode in which Quinn Eastman discussed his new book “The Woman Who Couldn’t Wake Up; Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness” with Melek Firat Altay.
Any discussion of eugenics today – or for that matter even mentioning the word “eugenics” without spitting on the floor and cursing afterword to make one’s revulsion to it clear – is fraught with peril indeed. Should such a discussion be attempted, one of two phrases, and perhaps even both, are likely to be mentioned almost right from the start: national socialism and Buck v. Bell.