Much has been made of the proposed human head transplant: Is the doctor serious? Is it all an extremely weird marketing stunt for Metal Gear Solid V? Is it actually going to happen?
Behind all the headlines, however, are two people who very much believe that a human head can be severed and put onto a donor body in order to cure disease. We haven't heard too much from those people, at least not in their own words. For this week's podcast, I called up Valery Spiridonov, the patient, and Sergio Canavero, the surgeon. I also spoke with Arthur Caplan, a world-renown bioethicist at New York University's med school, to talk to him about why no one is taking this seriously.The episode is primarily three lightly edited interviews, followed by something a little less serious. Some of us at Motherboard have a new online obsession: Cookie Clicker. We end the episode with a discussion about what makes "idle gaming" so appealing. As always, shoot me an email (jason.koebler@vice.com) if you have any feedback, and please think about subscribing to us on iTunes. And thanks to our sponsor, Casper Mattresses, which allows us to take a bit more time with this thing every week. Check them out and use code VICE, for $50 off any order.