A topsy-turvy science-y history podcast by Sam Kean. I examine overlooked stories from our past: the dental superiority of hunter-gatherers, the crooked Nazis who saved thousands of American lives, the American immigrants who developed the most successful cancer screening tool in history, the sex lives of dinosaurs, and much, much more. These are charming little tales that never made the history books, but these small moments can be surprisingly powerful. These are the cases where history gets inverted, where the footnote becomes the real story.

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/11/6/1/291e0415-9b06-492b-93bf-f951b9d82235_hongerwinter.mp3

It’s 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:

The Winter when People Ate Tulips

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/10/21/13/662923df-876a-48f3-b209-2c675846533b_snakebite_diary.mp3

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 danger—right up to the edge of death...

Why Keep a Diary of a Toxic Snakebite?

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/10/24/15/0cc7be5c-dcd9-4c4d-81b3-57eef8bd512e_machiavellian_microbes.mp3

Parasites can force animals to do nefarious things by manipulating their minds—including, uncomfortably, the minds of human beings.

Machiavellian Microbes

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/10/14/13/46cb3777-7e53-482b-b1dd-44e272bc7861_thalidomide.mp3

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?

The Woman Who “Turned Back a Plague of Old Testament Proportions”

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/10/12/17/747c6c5f-3cbe-4977-89e3-92c4b34df8d2_space_weather.mp3

Japanese physicist Fusa Miyake has sparked a revolution in archaeology by studying radioactive tree rings—work that also terrifies astronomers, who fear it foretells doom for our civilization.

The Doom Lurking inside Trees

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/10/12/16/1fc8b972-ac21-477f-9839-63312eb839d2_mona_lisa_cpr.mp3

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 Jackson—all while remaining completely unknown.

The Mona Lisa of the Seine

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/9/7/18/79981cd6-6604-4fe4-be9e-d4313ef7a85a_savant_idiots.mp3

In the early 1800s, the first Egyptian mummies in Europe served as a crucial test for evolution—a test that, according to people then, evolution flunked.

Savant Idiots

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/9/7/18/048f917a-8f8d-45dd-8ab8-5dbb0b83587c_mummymania.mp3

In the 1800s, mummies found their way into everything from fertilizer to food, and were especially prized as medicine. Mummymania was a strange time...

When Mummymania Swept the World

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/9/7/18/afdd5534-9d9b-4aba-9d45-b617b61d9773_nobel_van_driver.mp3

How did a man who developed a Nobel Prize–worthy idea (green-fluorescing protein, GFP) end up driving a shuttle van for a living, and missing the Prize completely? Therein lies a sad story...

The Sadder Side of the Nobel Prizes

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/9/7/18/fb27dc85-1ec8-4765-967b-a0d4a2fbfa46_nazi_nobels.mp3

Physicist Gyorgy Hevesy had a talent for tricks and stunts—including one that prevented Nazi stormtroopers from stealing a gold Nobel Prize.

The Scientific Way to Fool a Nazi

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/6/26/19/543d7476-5de7-45e3-9a5f-f7a5ae45ecbe_mysterious_mote.mp3

A summer bonus episode: Russ Schnell&#39;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...

The Mysterious Mote

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/5/8/17/bdcd5422-0b86-4500-8a56-b994167b9e2b_science_of_d-day.mp3

Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, a look at the surprisingly important role science played in shaping—and remaking—an invasion that could have easily been a disaster...

The Science of D-Day

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/5/2/13/04f1b9d6-fc99-470d-a8e3-5bb98c4b28cc_prison_plastic_surgery.mp3

One doctor’s controversial crusade to keep men and women out of prison through nose jobs, eye lifts, and other plastic surgery.

Can Plastic Surgery Keep You out of Prison?

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/4/25/18/346ea6de-4403-4c47-b62f-eaea33a59fcb_dyatlov_pass.mp3

In 1959, nine Russian hikers mysteriously died on a trek through the snowy wilderness—fueling a half-century of hysterical conspiracies. Has science finally cracked the case?

The Russian Roswell

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/4/17/14/feb3f8bc-e7de-4f8c-86f3-78a14198b3e8_fabrikant.mp3

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?

When Tenure Means Life and Death

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/4/11/21/6ab3b106-b309-4428-870e-1e3fbc77b100_deadly_soup_for_babies.mp3

Chemist Justus von Liebig was perhaps the most famous scientist in the world in the mid-1800s—but quickly became infamous for his role in the killing of four starving infants.

A Deadly Soup for Babies

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/4/3/13/e1558746-5e4b-40d7-bae7-948c9114334b_nurse_serial_killer.mp3

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?

How the “Worst Serial Killer in Holland’s History” Went Free

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/3/29/14/9586245d-50fb-42b2-b231-1c71cb34680d_rama_eclipse.mp3

Rama IV of Siam (from the “King and I” musical) used an eclipse to save his kingdom from greedy colonial powers. But it cost him his own life in the end.

The Eclipse that Killed a King

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/3/8/19/1aa2aa6e-809c-4a79-b958-dcf03ac149a1_pathologicalgenerosity.mp3

One Brazilian man’s brain damage transformed him into a selfless giver. So why did he infuriate so many people—and what does his case say about the biological roots of generosity?

When Generosity Turns Pathological

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/pod-public-media-files/2024/3/8/19/2c2b132d-b17e-4f65-b4ed-ef8a498a6e48_parsons2.mp3

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)

The Sex-Cult “Antichrist” Who Rocketed Us to Space (part 2)

Science raconteur Sam Kean writes and hosts the Disappearing Spoon - a topsy-turvy science-y history podcast. Funny, spooky, poignant, and just bizarre tales about science, history, and the rest of the universe.

A topsy-turvy science-y history podcast, brought to you by the Science History Institute.