Itâs the 80th anniversary of the Dutch Hongerwinter during World War II, which led to widespread starvation, and an inadvertent breakthrough in treating deadly celiac disease. Podcast season finale below: Our Sponsors: * Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/SPOON Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 10 December 2024
After 40 years of studying snakes, Karl Schmidt finally suffered his first bite. And when he did, he kept a gruesome diary to document the suffering and dangerâright up to the edge of death... Our Sponsors: * Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/SPOON Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 3 December 2024
Parasites can force animals to do nefarious things by manipulating their mindsâincluding, uncomfortably, the minds of human beings. Our Sponsors: * Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/SPOON Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 19 November 2024
In refusing to approve the drug thalidomide, FDA scientist Frances Oldham Kelsey spared thousands of babies from deadly birth defects and revolutionized drug research. But was her legacy all good? Our Sponsors: * Check out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/SPOON Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 12 November 2024
Japanese physicist Fusa Miyake has sparked a revolution in archaeology by studying radioactive tree ringsâwork that also terrifies astronomers, who fear it foretells doom for our civilization. Our Sponsors: * Use offer code SPOON at uncommongoods.com for 15% off! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 4 November 2024
A woman who drowned in Paris became one of the most famous faces in the world as the model for CPR dummies, saving millions of lives and inspiring artists from Pablo Picasso to Michael Jacksonâall while remaining completely unknown. Our Sponsors: * Use offer code SPOON at uncommongoods.com for 15% off! Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 29 October 2024
In the early 1800s, the first Egyptian mummies in Europe served as a crucial test for evolutionâa test that, according to people then, evolution flunked. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 22 October 2024
In the 1800s, mummies found their way into everything from fertilizer to food, and were especially prized as medicine. Mummymania was a strange time... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 15 October 2024
How did a man who developed a Nobel Prizeâworthy idea (green-fluorescing protein, GFP) end up driving a shuttle van for a living, and missing the Prize completely? Therein lies a sad story... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 8 October 2024
Physicist Gyorgy Hevesy had a talent for tricks and stuntsâincluding one that prevented Nazi stormtroopers from stealing a gold Nobel Prize. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 30 September 2024
A summer bonus episode: Russ Schnell's professors mocked him for believing that plants somehow caused hailstorms. He not only proved them wrong, but uncovered profound connections between life, earth, and the air above... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 26 June 2024
Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, a look at the surprisingly important role science played in shapingâand remakingâan invasion that could have easily been a disaster... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2024
One doctorâs controversial crusade to keep men and women out of prison through nose jobs, eye lifts, and other plastic surgery. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2024
In 1959, nine Russian hikers mysteriously died on a trek through the snowy wildernessâfueling a half-century of hysterical conspiracies. Has science finally cracked the case? Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2024
After a tenure dispute, mechanical engineer Valery Fabrikant murdered four colleagues in cold blood at his university in Montreal. So why is he still allowed to publish scientific papers? Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2024
Chemist Justus von Liebig was perhaps the most famous scientist in the world in the mid-1800sâbut quickly became infamous for his role in the killing of four starving infants. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2024
Patient after patient died under the care of a single nurse in Holland. So why did so many statisticians think Lucia de Berk was innocent? Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2024
Rama IV of Siam (from the âKing and Iâ musical) used an eclipse to save his kingdom from greedy colonial powers. But it cost him his own life in the end. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2024
One Brazilian manâs brain damage transformed him into a selfless giver. So why did he infuriate so many peopleâand what does his case say about the biological roots of generosity? Our Sponsors: * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 26 March 2024
Jack Parsons was a devil-worshipping FBI rat who led a sex cult and was bosom buddies with L. Ron Hubbard. He was also one of the most important rocket scientists in history. (Episode 2 of 2) Our Sponsors: * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 19 March 2024
Jack Parsons was a devil-worshiping FBI rat who led a sex cult and was bosom buddies with L. Ron Hubbard. He was also one of the most important rocket scientists in history. (Episode 1 of 2) Our Sponsors: * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 12 March 2024
Who put the cheese in your stuffed-crust pizza? Or cows on a Caribbean island? And when more than half the world's population can't actually digest milk, is it really essential for a healthy diet? On a trip through time and tasteâto dairy-obsessed Bulgaria, colonial Trinidad and Tobago and the âGot Milk?â eraâwe explore humanity's millennia-long relationship with milk. Listen to Don't Drink the Milk wherever you get your podcasts! https://pod.link/1704462801 Also on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpBAZYDqAE8nzvIRx2dApgkDi3zkSe3GS Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 16 January 2024
In 1878, two Paris dandies murdered an old womanâand blamed Charles Darwin for their crime. But the wild scandal that followed only solidified Darwin as the greatest scientist of his age... Our Sponsors: * Check out Drizly: https://drizly.com * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 14 November 2023
Americans happily ate monosodium glutamate for decades. Then one (possibly fake) letter sparked mass hysteria over âChinese Restaurant Syndromeâ, and the bogus MSG scare was born... Our Sponsors: * Check out Drizly: https://drizly.com * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 7 November 2023
Scientists have confirmed five basic human tastesâsweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami. But is that all? Debate now rages about adding a sixth or seventh or even eighth(!) to the Big Five... Our Sponsors: * Check out Drizly: https://drizly.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 31 October 2023
James Mellaart discovered one of the most important archaeological sites ever, ĂatalhöyĂŒk in Turkey. But his lust for treasureâand a penchant for fraudâled him to throw it all away... Our Sponsors: * Check out Drizly: https://drizly.com * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 24 October 2023
He helped launch the British Empire and spawned a public-health epidemic that killed hundreds of millions of people. Blame him for the lost colony of Roanoke, too. Thomas Harriot has a lot to answer for... Our Sponsors: * Check out Drizly: https://drizly.com * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 17 October 2023
She helped discover arguably the most important drug in history. And she got zero credit. They called her Moldy Maryâbut she turned that insult into triumph... Our Sponsors: * Check out Drizly: https://drizly.com * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 10 October 2023
As recent submersible tragedies reveal, itâs harder to reach extreme ocean depths than the Moon. Meet the people who got there firstâand barely lived to tell to the tale... Our Sponsors: * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com/ Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 3 October 2023
You wouldnât think a lanky, awkward balloon geek would inspire Hollywood. But the death-defying Auguste Piccard was a worthy namesake for Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek fame... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 26 September 2023
Albert Einsteinâs relativity was just another theory at first, speculative and unprovenâuntil Arthur Eddington and a special eclipse. Meet the weirdo scientist who made Einstein into *Einstein*... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 20 September 2023
It was the most powerful emotional moment of Albert Einsteinâs lifeâthe instant he knew he was a genius. But in confirming his theory of relativity, it also opened him up to attacks, sometimes rather vicious, from around the world... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 12 September 2023
Despite what youâve heard, neuroscienceâs most famous patient did not turn into a lying, drunken psychopath. Heâs actually an amazing example of resiliency and overcoming trauma... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 11 July 2023
Is it serious historical work? Respectable gossip? Blatantly prying into peopleâs lives? Retro-diagnosing historical celebrities like Darwin and Lincoln and Hitler and Poe is all of the above and more... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 27 June 2023
During the Nazi invasion of Russia during World War II, nine Soviet scientists starved to death surrounded by millions of delicious fruits, seeds, and nuts. Were they mad? No. They wanted to save humankind from doomsday... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 20 June 2023
William Halford thought he had a surefire vaccine to stop herpes. And he wasnât going to let anythingâlaws, ethics, his patientsâ well-beingâstop him from saving the world... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 13 June 2023
Paul Stoutenburgh knew more atomic secrets than anyone on Earth. So was that why he killed himself? And if not, why was the government (seemingly) so uninterested in getting to the bottom of his death? Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 6 June 2023
Can you really collapse and wake up speaking a totally new language? Not quite. But âforeign accent syndromeâ is a real, frighteningâand bizarreâneurological disorder... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 30 May 2023
What a bizarre site in Africaâa 1.7-billion-year-old, completely natural nuclear reactorâsays about the future of energy production on planet Earth... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 23 May 2023
Genetic genealogy can catch brutal killers. It can also unmask affairs, secret adoptions, and other dark secrets. As well as expose youâyes, youâto the unholy alliance of Big Tech and shady police work... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 16 May 2023
He coulda would shoulda been the next Einstein. Instead, Robert Oppenheimer fritted away his talents on trendy science and political gamesmanshipâand it burned him deep in his soul... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2023
Leonardo da Vinci was brilliant, groundbreakingâand especially with regard to his scienceâwildly overrated. All because he lacked one all-important quality: sitzfleisch... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 2 May 2023
An update on the spring season of Disappearing Spoon (early episodes for Patreon subscribers!), plus a trailer for the new "Innate" series from the great people behind the Science History Institute's "Distillations podcast" Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 6 February 2023
The âmouse utopiaâ experiment showed just how quickly animal heaven can turn into animal hellâand revealed how eager human beings are to interpret science through the lens of extremist politics... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 29 November 2022
Polar explorer Douglas Mawson made several mistakes on his harrowing journey across Antarctica. But the biggest blunder involved eating animal livers oversaturated with vitamin A, a sure death sentence... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 22 November 2022
Automobiles kill several million animals every single day. Scientists are still coming to grips with the carnage... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 15 November 2022
Thomas Schall was first blind member of Congress. There, he envisioned a better, smarter, more efficient worldâbrought about by his radical new calendar. Too bad the rest of us couldnât see the future as clearly as he did... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 8 November 2022
The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in Korea is a place of guns and heartache and angerâand also one of the most thriving natural wildlife habitats on Earth... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 1 November 2022
Naked mole-rats are medical marvelsâimpervious to cancer and immune to old age. Too bad theyâre also vicious murderers... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 25 October 2022
The Johnny Appleseed of Disney fame was complete bunk. He brought not wholesome apples to people, but liquorâand lots of it, all thanks to the bizarre biology of this misunderstood fruit... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Transcribed - Published: 18 October 2022
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