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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

The Retrievals

It sounds like medieval torture. A woman is strapped into stirrups, exposed entirely to a room full of strangers, while a large needle penetrates and stabs repeatedly at an internal organ, all while she is conscious and completely unanesthetized. This is the experience of as many as 200 patients at the Yale Fertility Clinic, women who selected the blue-chip establishment to perform their I.V.F. treatments, only to experience excruciating pain during the procedure. Turns out the fentanyl had been replaced with saline. A new podcast from Serial Productions and The New York Times, hosted by Susan Burton, asks the obvious questions: Why were countless complaints of pain ignored for so long? And why the switch in the first place? —Paulina Prosnitz

Photo courtesy of Susan Barton