Special Episode: Deborah Blum & The Poison Squad

Special Episode: Deborah Blum & The Poison Squad

Oh, to taste the food of the past. Strawberry jam made from farm-fresh strawberries. Milk straight from the cow. Cookies baked with freshly churned butter and brown sugar. Because that’s how it was, right? Everything used to be fresher, more pure, unadulterated by preservatives or additives, right? Our latest TPWKY book club pick shows us just how wrong that notion is. Science journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Deborah Blum joins us this week to chat about her book, The Poison Squad, which tells the story of the fight for food safety regulation in the United States at the turn of the 20th century. In our conversation, Blum rips off those rose-tinted nostalgia glasses and reveals that strawberry jam rarely contained strawberries, milk could include a mix of formaldehyde and pond water, butter had borax, and brown sugar was mostly ground up insects. Until one man, chemist Harvey Wiley, stepped up and spearheaded the campaign for food safety legislation, all of these horrific practices of food adulteration were entirely legal. Tune in to learn what Wiley was up against and some of the tactics used in his struggle, including the wild story of the experiment that gave this book its title.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Ep 9 Tuberculosis: A Slow Burn

Ep 9 Tuberculosis: A Slow Burn

Today, we’re taking a page straight out of Dickens and talking about tuberculosis- a disease as rich in history as it is in bloody sputum. We'll travel the path of an individual Mycobacterium tubercul...

2 Tammi 201859min

Ep 8 ABRACADABRA - Go Away Malaria!

Ep 8 ABRACADABRA - Go Away Malaria!

It's both a disease of dinosaurs and a plague of people. A gin and tonic might make you forget how much those bites itch, but it won't protect you much from this mosquito-borne monster. That's right p...

19 Joulu 201759min

Ep 7 Hit Me With Your Best (Polio) Shot

Ep 7 Hit Me With Your Best (Polio) Shot

A scientific rivalry for the ages, a president with a closely kept secret, and a summertime with no pool time. What do all these things have in common? Well step right up and take a listen- today we'r...

12 Joulu 20171h 1min

Ep 6 Plague Part 2: TGFA

Ep 6 Plague Part 2: TGFA

We're back with another episode all about plague-TGFA: Thank Goodness For Antibiotics! Today we'll focus on the status of plague in the modern world: where it is, where it isn't, and what we can do ab...

5 Joulu 201740min

Ep 5 Plague Part 1: The GMOAT

Ep 5 Plague Part 1: The GMOAT

That's right y'all... Today we're talking the GMOAT: The GREATEST MORTALITY OF ALL TIME: BLACK DEATH. This episode we'll cover the biology and history of one of the most epic diseases of all time- Yer...

28 Marras 201759min

Ep 4 The Poop Show

Ep 4 The Poop Show

That's right.. this is the poop show! Today we talk cholera- the bacterial disease that makes you liquid-poop your pants (and then some). Travel back in time with us to when London was a sewage-filled...

21 Marras 201749min

Ep 3 Gnarlypox

Ep 3 Gnarlypox

This week we pay tribute to one of the gnarliest diseases of all time, and the only human disease that's ever been eradicated (thus far). That's right, people- we're talking smallpox! It's gonna get g...

14 Marras 201757min

Ep 2 Skin in the Game, Horse in the Race

Ep 2 Skin in the Game, Horse in the Race

This week we tackle leprosy. That biblical (or is it?) infection that, believe it or not, is still with us today. Leprosy has an ancient history that exemplifies some of the worst of human behavior, a...

7 Marras 201754min

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