“Gene” says it started because he wanted to be a veterinarian. So he took a job as a research associate at a vivarium that studied cancer drugs. He was often alone in the lab at night with hundreds or thousands of research animals around him. The monkeys were his favorite, especially the rhesus macaques. He loved to give them treats, play movies and Celine Dion for them. And sometimes he’d lean up against the cages to let his monkey friends groom him. He knew the work would be hard, but he believed his was justified because the primate research helped people in the long run.
In his two years at the lab, Gene radiated a lot of monkeys. He and his colleagues studied the deteriorating effects of radiation and the side effects of experimental cancer drugs seeking FDA approval. Once a monkey became too sick and lethargic, it was Gene’s job to euthanize them. He would hold them as they died and tell them he was sorry.
After one study with a particularly high radiation doses, Gene found himself alone again in a lab late at night, euthanizing more monkeys and thinking to himself, “Those were my friends... Those were my fucking friends.” These words became the screamed lyrics to the unfinished, unpublished song that Gene performs in this episode.
Gene left the job shortly after writing the song, but he still works in medical research. He no longer performs euthanizations.
Producer: Bethany Denton
Editor: Jeff Emtman
Music: The Black Spotand “Gene”
HBM068: The Wake Up Stick
HBM067: Dispatches From PestWorld 2016
HBM066: What Jacob Heard
HBM065: We Pay Them In Meat
HBM064: A Shrinking Shadow
HBM063: The Art of the Scam, by Malibu Ron
HBM062: The Near Death of Sir Deja Doog
HBM061: The Natural State of Hitchhiking
HBM060: The Predators of McNeil Island
Your Last Memory Of Being Free
HBM059: When Cthulhu Calls
HBM058: Kelly Is Cold
HBM057: Impostor in a Pink Pinstripe Suit
HBM056: It Works Better in Movies
HBM055: Ghost Tape Number Ten
HBM054: Flaming Sword of Truth
HBM053: Eleven Trips to Dreamworld
HBM052: Call 601-2-SATAN-2
HBM051: Sister Bethany, Proxy for the Dead
HBM050: The Scientist is not the Angel of Death
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Left, Right & Center
Bookworm
Design and Architecture
All the Presidents’ Lawyers
Nocturne