The Mobile Museum of Mary Roach

Mary Roach brings her odd little traveling collection to Local Economy in Oakland

Oakland gets a very Mary Roach kind of evening on Saturday, September 12, when the beloved science writer stops by Local Economy from 5:00 to 6:30 pm.

If you know her books, you already know the mood. Roach has a gift for following the weird thread until it turns into something smart, funny, and oddly human. Stiff, Bonk, and Replaceable You all come from that same curious place, where bodies, science, and strange facts end up feeling more personal than expected.

This time, she is bringing objects she has picked up while reporting over the years. Think of it as a small table full of mysteries, back stories, and the kind of things most people would walk past without knowing they had a whole tale attached.

Local Economy feels like the right room for this. It is a close Oakland setting, better suited to listening, laughing, and leaning in than sitting far away from a stage. For a writer like Roach, that matters. Her work is all about the details, and this sounds like the kind of night where the details are the whole point.

People who love science, books, strange collections, or smart conversation will probably find plenty to enjoy here. And if you have ever wondered what ends up in a writer’s bag after years of chasing unusual stories, this is your chance to see the evidence in person.

Come for the odd objects. Stay for the stories behind them.

Mary Roach is one of the most beloved science writers in the world. She’s a genius at finding the tantalizingly weird odds and ends of our world. Maybe you’ve read Stiff, about the afterlives of human cadavers, or Bonk, the one about the laboratory practice of sex research or her most recent, Replaceable You, on human body parts that can be swapped out.
They’re all delightful and informative and hilariously specific. And, she tells us, “I have ten or so odd (and probably mysterious to others) items I’ve collected on reporting trips over the years.” It amounts to, perhaps, a little museum of Mary Roach. And she is going to bring these items to Local Economy for a show-and-tell session. It’s gonna be so good.