Atomic Tattoos
99% Invisible16 Tammi 2019

Atomic Tattoos

In the early 1950s, teenage students in Lake County, Indiana, got up from their desks, marched down the halls and lined up at stations. There, fingers were pricked, blood was tested and the teenagers were sent on to the library, where they waited to get a specialized tattoo. Each one was in the same place on the torso, just under the left arm, and spelled out the blood type of the student.

This experimental program was called Operation Tat-Type. It was administered by the county and the idea was simple: to make it easier to transfuse blood after an atomic bomb. At the age of 16, producer Liza Yeager's grandmother, who went to school in Lake County, was permanently marked in anticipation of a nuclear catastrophe.

Atomic Tattoos

Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early.

Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jaksot(777)

Backfired: The Vaping Wars

Backfired: The Vaping Wars

When two Stanford graduate students set out to create a new kind of cigarette that wouldn’t kill them, they didn’t foresee all the obstacles that lay ahead—or the powerful forces their invention would...

25 Kesä 202452min

The Power Broker #6: Mike Schur

The Power Broker #6: Mike Schur

This is the sixth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with Mike Schur, who ...

21 Kesä 20242h 58min

Category 6

Category 6

After Hurricane Camille caused widespread death and destruction along the US Gulf Coast in 1969, two scientists created the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale as a way to quickly warn the public when...

18 Kesä 202439min

The Los Angeles Leaf Blower Wars

The Los Angeles Leaf Blower Wars

The leaf blower is one of the most hated objects in the modern world. They’re loud, they pollute, and… how important is a leafless lawn anyway? In a lot of towns and cities, the gas-powered leaf blowe...

11 Kesä 202435min

Fact Checking the Supreme Court

Fact Checking the Supreme Court

For a long time, the Court operated under what was called Legal Formalism. Legal formalism said that the job of any judge or justice was incredibly narrow. It was to basically look at the question of ...

4 Kesä 202444min

Uptown Squirrel [update]

Uptown Squirrel [update]

In late 2018, two hundred people gathered at The Explorer’s Club in New York City. The building was once a clubhouse for famed naturalists and explorers. Now it’s an archive of ephemera and rarities f...

28 Touko 202430min

The Lost Subways of North America

The Lost Subways of North America

Los Angeles actually used to have a massive electric railway system in the early 1900s, called the Red Car. Jake Berman, the author of The Lost Subways of North America, tells us about how, time after...

22 Touko 202426min

The Power Broker #5: Brandy Zadrozny

The Power Broker #5: Brandy Zadrozny

This is the fifth official episode, breaking down the 1974 Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Power Broker by our hero Robert Caro. This week, Roman Mars and Elliott Kalan sit down with Brandy Zadrozny,...

18 Touko 20242h 11min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahapodi
rss-rahamania
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
juristipodi
pomojen-suusta
rss-seuraava-potilas
rss-lahtijat
rss-myyntikoulu
rss-draivi
taloudellinen-mielenrauha
leadcast
rahapuhetta
asuntoasiaa-paivakirjat
rss-startup-ministerio
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
oppimisen-psykologia
lakicast