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American Innovations

Cryonics | Immortality On Ice | 1

American Innovations

Wondery

Steven Johnson, History, Kids & Family, Education For Kids, Science

4.64.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Not everyone chooses burial or cremation after death.  Some believe in cryonics, freezing their bodies in the hopes of being reanimated sometime in the future.  Bob Nelson, a TV repairman with no scientific background, made history when he froze the first human being.  But as Nelson would discover, freezing someone is easy; keeping them frozen is a lot harder.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, prime members, you can listen to American innovations, add free on Amazon music, download

0:06.0

the app today.

0:17.2

Los Angeles, California, 1967.

0:21.0

Thirty-year-old Bob Nelson stands inside a phone booth, nervously running a hand through

0:26.2

his thinning hair.

0:28.0

Nelson has a problem, and when he does, his first call is usually to the most trustworthy

0:33.3

person he knows.

0:34.9

His pot-smoking, hippie friend, and sometimes secretary, Sandra Stanley.

0:39.7

Hello.

0:40.7

Hey, it's me.

0:41.9

I need a favor.

0:43.6

I know I've asked you to store some pretty weird things at your home in the past couple

0:47.8

of years, but this one's going to be the weirdest.

0:51.8

Sandra groans before Nelson can get his next words out.

0:55.3

He already knows the nature of his request.

1:00.6

I've been a real fix here, and it's just temporary.

1:03.6

Can I count on you?

1:05.1

Fine, but I want to raise.

1:07.2

We'll talk.

1:08.2

Bob!

1:09.2

With a help of an assistant, Nelson loads an enormous wooden container into the back of

1:13.6

his Ford Ranchero pickup truck and secures it with heavy rope.

...

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