The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

How a steam-powered automobile in 1869 snuffed out the life of the brilliant female naturalist and astronomer Mary Ward... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: ht...

What a bizarre psychological disorder can teach us about memory, human nature, and our sense of who we are Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle....

Scientists know how other animals’ bodies will change in warmer climates, but how will human beings respond? Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircl...

The life of chimneysweeps was nasty, poor, brutish, filthy dirty, and usually short, thanks to a rare cancer of the genitals... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Ou...

The long, wacky, and surprisingly thought-provoking history of trying animals in human courts... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privac...

The prologue and introduction to the book The Icepick Surgeon. Written by Sam Kean, read by Ben Sullivan. Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.c...

How early anatomists provoked some of the strangest riots in history, over stolen corpses (plus, bonus preview of my new book, The Icepick Surgeon!) Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/br...

How a rogue archaeologist in Peru—and a stolen skull—provided the first real evidence that ancient people practiced neurosurgery... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Op...

How one doctor in the early 1900s risked the lives of patients by pitting one ancient scourge (malaria) against another (syphilis)—and won a Nobel Prize in the process... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: ht...

How greed, and a group of Nazi prisoners, killed off one of the most iconic birds in American history, the ivory-billed woodpecker... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy &...

How a weird “scientific” diet fad conquered America in the early 1900s—and easily could have lost World War One for the Allies... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-...

How the unique properties of carbon produced a 1,185-letter word... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

How a bottle of prison hooch doomed the most promising candidate in history for a male birth-control pill, and why scientists still can't make one today... https://www.patreon.com/disappearingspoon Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenread...

A two-fer: (1) A bonus interview with me about the orphan vaccine episode, from a great WNYC podcast called Science Diction. (2) A short episode of Science Diction on Edward Jenner and the very first vaccines. Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://el...

How the women of America, exactly 100 years ago, scrimped and saved and sacrificed to secure a vital gram of radium for their scientific hero, Marie Curie... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcirc...

How the legendary Peking Man fossils from China disappeared in the 1940s, and why archaeologists think that maybe—just maybe—they now know where to find them... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redc...

How did they spread vaccines around the world in the early 1800s? By injecting orphans and forcing them onto a ship... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https:...

Why otherwise sane and rational doctors love experimenting on themselves—up to and including self-surgery... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircl...

When a crank scientist needed to get the attention of Einstein and others for his crazy physics theory, there was only one sure way he knew to get publicity: murder... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https...

How the brilliant geek Nikola Tesla grew obsessed with an outlandish “death ray,” and the ray’s surprising connection to Donald Trump Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy &...

How one heroic doctor, and his revolting experiments, singlehandedly ended the deadliest dietary epidemic disease in American history... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy...

How the Central Intelligence Agency’s recklessly outrageous Operation Midnight Climax revealed some surprising psychological insights into sex, drugs, and human nature... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Advertising Inquiries: ht...

How two Russian scientists defied death and imprisonment to run a top-secret genetics experiment, and what it revealed about how dogs, babies, and stuffed animals manipulate our minds...   Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io Adverti...

An Oliver-Sacks-like tale of a man with brain damage who can’t read numbers—even though he can still read words just fine! His amazing case could also shed light on the mysteries of human consciousness... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenr...

How did the nonstick frying pan in your kitchen make the first atomic bomb possible? A story about the innocent-seeming Teflon for this week’s 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs... Our Sponsors: * Check out BetterHelp and use my code betterhelp.com for a great deal: https://www.betterhelp.com * Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://eleven...