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A portrait of William Shakespeare.

Disgust is a basic human emotion — and a powerful one, at that.

Bradley Irish says the bard himself used disgust as a powerful storytelling tool.

Irish is an English professor at Arizona State University and his forthcoming book, "Shakespeare and Disgust: The History and Science of Early Modern Revulsion," argues that Shakespeare was visionary in his use of disgust using it in his work centuries before science proved its power. 

The Show talked with Irish about how he became interested in a topic so, well, disgusting.

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