#7 When People Become Disposable.
From THRIVING IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE by Michael C. Patterson
March 13, 2026 · 14 min · Season 7 · Episode 7
About this episode
This episode explores the moral implications of viewing human beings as disposable through the lens of historical distinctions in the perception of bodies.
Comments? Send me a text message. How do human beings come to accept dead children as collateral damage? How does an insurance company deny medical care to a sick child without moral crisis? In this episode, Michael C. Patterson draws on historian Timothy Snyder's powerful distinction between two German words for body: Leib and Körper. Leib is the living, breathing, irreplaceable human being. Körper is that same person reduced to an object, a statistic, a cost, a corpse. This episode explores...
People in this episode
Host: Michael C. Patterson
Topics covered
- human value
- moral crisis
- healthcare ethics
- societal acceptance
- historical perspective
Keywords
- disposable people
- moral crisis
- healthcare denial
- Leib
- Körper
- Timothy Snyder
- collateral damage
- society
- ethics
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