House of Skulls with Marc Fennell

by Marc Fennell

This series contains discussion of human remains. Listener discretion is advised.

In the basement of one of the world's most prestigious universities, there was a classroom lined with a collection of human skulls from around the globe. Join award-winning journalist Marc Fennell (It Burns, Nut Jobs, Stuff the British Stole) as he takes you on a captivating global journey through the mysterious Morton Cranial Collection. You will encounter an Australian cannibal, explore the depths of ancient Egyptian looted tombs, and piece together the story behind one of America's most tragic acts of police violence. This is the story of racism in America and the world told as you’ve never heard it before. And it’s all waiting right inside the House of Skulls.

Hosted And Co-Produced by Marc Fennell

Produced by Sony Music Entertainment

House of Skulls is an Audible Original

Genres: Audiobook, Nonfiction, History

Audible Audio

Published May 2, 2024

Reviews

[Su · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating and heartbreaking. The stories of the Move activists is unbelievable.

[Tonya Vondersaar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marc Fennel talks about how human bones have been utilized in racist ways through the years in order to research bones for science. These bodies had been obtained from burial grounds and kept for years at the Penn Museum (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology). Back in the day, Samuel George Morton was studying cranial capacities, and he started taking bodies in order to push a white supremacist goal. These bodies were taken from Egyptian tombs, Indian burial grounds, caves, dug up from cemeteries, and taken from crime scenes. He wanted to prove that white people were the ideal person and that everyone else was lesser. He held hundreds of Native American and South Asian human skulls. Many groups have worked to get these bodies back to their ancestors. Once it was learned that skulls could not indicate a person's intelligence, this became very controversial. Marc follows the story from beginning to end, showing the full spectrum of what happened. The Penn Museum also was caught in a scandal as they kept some of the victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing. This was when police brutality led to the murder of 11 people as they continually flooded the location, shot at the location, and even dropped a bomb, causing a fire. MOVE was a black liberation group, and the police didn't like this. I thought this was very well done, and I feel like he made the whole situation understandable.

[Mia Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting topic. Really well researched as Marc’s work always feels. Slightly repetitive at times.
There were a few points the audio book referenced visuals? I can’t see those obviously which was a shame.

[Mahayana Dugast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbingly fascinating, and reminds me (once again) that we, the human race, still have a lot of decency and respect to learn. And making amends...

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history a lot of which I didn't know. Although a bit repetitive I did enjoy the conclusion that remembrance is a "radical act" ....

[gee ☽ (IG: momoxshi) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting story that starts from what is seemingly a simple (not really) collection of skulls that branches out into stories from history and systemic issues of the modern world.