Distillations | Science History Institute

Distillations | Science History Institute episodes:

• 10.24.2023

  Exploring 'Health Equity Tourism'

  In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a new public interest in health inequities research. With this new focus, there also has come new funding with many researchers and institutions clamoring...

  
• 04.18.2023

  The Mothers of Gynecology

  Of all wealthy countries, the United States is the most dangerous place to have a baby. Our maternal mortality rate is abysmal, and over the past five years it’s only gotten worse. And there are huge racial disparities: Black women...

  
• 04.11.2023

  Correcting Race

  Certain medical instruments have built-in methods of correcting for race. They’re based on the premise that Black bodies are inherently different from White bodies. The tool that measures kidney function, for example, underestimates how severe some Black patients’ kidney disease...

  
• 04.04.2023

  "That Rotten Spot"

  When the plague broke out in San Francisco in 1900 the public health department poured all of their energy into stopping its spread in Chinatown, as if Chinatown were the problem. This episode reveals why they did it, what it...

  
• 03.28.2023

  Black Pills

  In 2005 the FDA approved a pill to treat high blood preassure only in African Americans. This so-called miracle drug was named BiDil, and it became the first race-specific drug in the United States. It might sound like a good...

  
• 03.21.2023

  Bad Blood, Bad Science

  The word “Tuskegee” has come to symbolize the Black community’s mistrust of the medical establishment. It has become American lore. However, most people don’t know what actually happened in Macon County, Alabama, from 1932 to 1972. This episode unravels the myths of the U.S. Public...

  
• 03.14.2023

  The African Burial Ground

  In 1991, as crews broke ground on a new federal office building in lower Manhattan, they discovered human skeletons. It soon became clear that it was the oldest and largest African cemetery in the country. The federal government was ready...

  
• 03.07.2023

  Return, Rebury, Repatriate

  In 2019, Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a community organizer and journalist, learned that the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology had a collection of skulls that belonged to enslaved people. As Muhammad demanded that the university return these skulls, they discovered that...

  
• 02.28.2023

  The Vampire Project

  In the 1990s a liberal population geneticist launched the Human Genome Diversity Project. The goal was to sequence the genomes of “isolated” and “disappearing” indigenous groups throughout the world. The project did not go as planned—indigenous groups protested it, and...

  
• 02.21.2023

  Keepers of the Flame

  In the 1970s Barry Mehler started tracking race scientists and he noticed something funny: they all had the same funding source. One wealthy man was using his incredible resources to prop up any scientist he could find who would validate...

  
• 02.14.2023

  Calamity in Philadelphia

  In 1793 a yellow fever epidemic almost destroyed Philadelphia. The young city was saved by two Black preachers, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, who organized the free Black community in providing essential services and nursing the sick and dying. Allen and...

  
• 02.10.2023

  BONUS EPISODE: Cheddar Man

  In 2018 ancient DNA researchers revealed their analysis of a 10,000 year old skeleton called Cheddar Man. He was the oldest complete skeleton ever discovered in England, and the revelation that he had dark skin challenged assumptions many people had...

  
• 02.07.2023

  Origin Stories

  It might seem as though the way we think about race now is how we’ve always thought about it—but it isn’t. Race was born out of the Enlightenment in Europe, along with the invention of modern western science. And it was...

  
• 01.20.2023

  New Season Trailer! Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race

  Our new season, Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race, drops on February 7th.

  
• 07.13.2022

  Mechanochemistry

  What comes to mind when you think of a chemistry lab? Maybe it’s smoke billowing out of glassware, or colorful test tubes, or vats of toxic substances. Chemistry and hazardous solvents just seem to go hand in hand. But chemists like...

  
• 07.06.2022

  Mechanochemistry

  "I thought they were married to the molecules, little did I know they were actually married to the flask."  Host: Elisabeth Berry Drago Reporter, Producer, and Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Associate Producer: Padmini Raghunath

  
• 03.01.2022

  Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code

  The Disappearing Spoon, a podcast collaboration between the Science History Institute and New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean, returns for its third season on March 8, 2022. To celebrate, our producer, Padmini Parthasarathy, sat down with Kean to talk...

  
• 12.07.2021

  The Sinister Angel Singers of Rome

  In this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean talks about Alessandro Moreschi, the so-called Angel of Rome. His voice earned him fame and money. So what's the secret behind the voice? What was his trick? It turns out that...

  
• 11.30.2021

  Disappearing Spoon: The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association

  In this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean talks about the strange origin story of the American Medical Association. The creation of this powerful medical society can be traced back to a duel between two doctors at Transylvania University...

  
• 11.23.2021

  The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer

  In this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean talks about Hermann Muller, a geneticist who in the 1920s discovered that radiation causes genetic mutations. This discovery happened around the same time that other geneticists were starting to link cancer...

  
• 11.16.2021

  Disappearing Spoon: The Harvard Medical School Janitor Who Solved a Murder

  On this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean talks about a murder mystery that rocked Boston in 1849. Harvard University alum and physician George Parkman had gone missing. The last place he was seen alive was at the Harvard medical building,...

  
• 11.09.2021

  Disappearing Spoon: Burn After Watching

  In this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean breaks down the history of nitrocellulose. This thick, transparent liquid was the world’s first plastic and could be shaped into anything, including billiard balls and photography film. With nitrocellulose film, you...

  
• 11.02.2021

  History’s First Car Crash Victim

  In this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean talks about Mary Ward, a budding naturalist and astronomer from Ireland. She spent a lot of time observing plants and animals through a microscope and published a book of detailed sketches...

  
• 10.26.2021

  Real Life Zombies

  In this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean talks about memory fugues, a psychological disorder that wipes out biographical information from people’s brains. It is estimated that roughly 1 in 100,000 people seeking help for mental disorders have them....

  
• 10.19.2021

  How Climate Change Will Remake the Human Body

  On this episode of The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean delves deep into the science behind the evolution of animal and human bodies. Like animals, human bodies have also evolved to adhere to the demands of ever-changing climates. This raises a...

  
• 10.12.2021

  The ‘Mary Poppins’ Cancer

  In this episode of Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean discusses the horrors of a particular genetic disease that was, literally, sweeping through London in the 1700s. In 1666, the Great Fire of London consumed about 13,000 homes and caused the modern...

  
• 10.05.2021

  Disappearing Spoon: Kangaroo (and Pig and Monkey and Dog and Donkey) Courts

  Animal trials have always been part of society, but we are not talking about the ones with lab mice. In medieval times dozens of animals were tried in human courts for committing human crimes. It sounds silly, but the practice...

  
• 09.28.2021

  Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

  The Disappearing Spoon, a podcast collaboration between the Science History Institute and New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean, returns for its second season on October 5, 2021. To celebrate, our producer, Rigoberto Hernandez, sat down with Kean to talk about his...

  
• 09.21.2021

  What Causes Alzheimer's?

  The human brain is mysterious and complicated. So much so, one might be tempted to argue that it only makes sense that we still don’t have a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, despite decades of research. But this isn’t the whole...

  
• 08.24.2021

  What the All Souls Trilogy Teaches Us about Alchemy, Family, and Knowledge Hierarchy

  Ever since the book A Discovery of Witches debuted in 2011, the All Souls franchise has taken on a life of its own with devoted fans all over the world. The TV show and annual All Souls Con—which the...

  
• 08.17.2021

  Chasing Immortality

  Since humans have been living we’ve also been dying—best case scenario: after eight or nine decades and plenty of good times. But we’re not wholly content with that. Never have been, probably never will be. In fact, working on how...

  
• 08.10.2021

  Interview with Jeremiah McCall

  Jeremiah McCall is a history teacher at Cincinnati Country Day School and the author of Gaming the Past: Using Video Games to Teach Secondary School. He talked to Distillations about what it's like to use video games in his history...

  
• 08.03.2021

  Learning History with Video Games

  The pandemic made gamers out of many Americans, including our producer, Rigoberto Hernandez. He played a lot of historical video games and it got him thinking: can you learn history from video games even though they are obviously fiction? Throughout...

  
• 07.27.2021

  Ladies Talking to Ladies about Ladies (in Science)

  Anna Reeser is a historian of technology and Laila McNeil is a historian of science. Together they co-founded and are editors-in-chief of Lady Science, an independent magazine about women, gender, history, and popular culture of science. Now the duo has...

  
• 07.20.2021

  Paradise Is Burning

  For decades, the official fire policy of the Forest Service was to put out all fires as soon as they appeared. That might seem logical, but there is such a thing as a good fire, the kind that helps stabilize...

  
• 07.13.2021

  Interview with Colin Dickey

  Ghost hunters on television all seem to have a common goal: to prove that ghosts are real using sophisticated, yet inexact technology. Colin Dickey, the author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places, says this is not an accident. The...

  
• 07.06.2021

  Ghost Hunting in the 19th Century

  The 19th century was a time of rapid technological leaps: the telegraph, the steam boat, the radio were invented during this century. But this era was also the peak of spiritualism: the belief that ghosts and spirits were real and...

  
• 06.29.2021

  Vampire Panic

  In the 19th century a mysterious illness afflicted rural New England. Often called the Great White Plague for how pale it made its victims, it was also called “consumption” because of the way it literally consumed people from the inside...

  
• 06.15.2021

  We're Back! Distillations Summer Season Preview

  This summer leave reality behind and join Distillations for an entire season about fantasy! We're talking vampires! Ghosts! Witches! And we promise, it all has to do with the history of science. Season launches on June 29.

  
• 06.07.2021

  Interview with Stéphane Bancel

  Last year Distillations talked to people who have special insight into the coronavirus crisis—biomedical researchers, physicians, public health experts, and historians. In this episode we talk to Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, a biotech company that developed one of the three...

  
• 06.01.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: The Anatomy Riots

  In the 1700s human dissection was a big taboo—people feared that it would leave their bodies mangled on Judgment Day, when God would raise the dead. As a result, government officials banned most dissections. This led to some unintended consequences, most...

  
• 05.25.2021

  When a Hole in the Head is a Good Thing

  Credits Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Music: "Trois Gnossiennes 3," "Stately Shadows," "Darklit Carpet," "Vernouillet," and "Tossed" by Blue Dot Sessions. "Conjunto Sol del Peru," by Pockra (Vol. 2: Musica de...

  
• 05.18.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: When Mosquitoes Cured Insanity

  How an early 20th century doctor pitted one scourge (malaria) against another (syphilis). Credits Host: Sam Kean Senior Producer: Mariel Carr Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer Music: “Delamine” by Blue Dot Sessions. ​​​​​​​All other music composed by Jonathan Pfeffer.

  
• 05.11.2021

  The Death of the Lord God Bird

  The ivory-billed woodpecker is sometimes called the Lord God bird, a nickname it earned because that’s what people cried out the first time they ever saw one: “Lord God, what a bird.” Even though the last confirmed sighting was in the 1930s, birders...

  
• 05.04.2021

  Disappearing spoon: Chewing it Over—and Over and Over and Over

  If Ted Talks were around in the early 1990s, Horace Fletcher would have given his fair share of them. Fletcher was a health reformer who thought people didn’t chew their food nearly enough. He believed that most swallowed food way...

  
• 04.27.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: What's the Longest Word in the English Language?

  Shakespeare had a go at at the longest word in the English language with “honorific-abilitude-in-i-tat-i-bus.” If you play the game of stacking suffixes and prefixes together, you can get “antidisestablishmentarianism,” one letter longer for a total of 28 letters. But...

  
• 04.20.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: Why Don’t We Have a Male Birth Control Pill Yet?

  The debut of the female birth control pill in 1960 was revolutionary. The combination of progesterone and estrogen allowed women to control their reproductive lives much more easily and effectively. But the pill had many unpleasant and even dangerous side effects. In...

  
• 04.13.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: Crowdfunding Radium

  From the Disappearing Spoon, our new podcast! Radium was once the trendiest element in the world. It glowed alluringly in the dark and was hailed it as a medical panacea. It was also the basis of Marie Curie’s research—for which...

  
• 04.06.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: Parking lot or Peking lot?

  From our new podcast, the Disappearing Spoon: The so-called “Peking Man” fossils are some of the first ancient human remains discovered in mainland Asia. So when they disappeared during World War II, it was called one of the worst disasters...

  
• 03.30.2021

  The Disappearing Spoon: Orphan Vaccines

  The Science History Institute has launched a second podcast! We've teamed up with New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean to bring you even more stories from our scientific past. Don’t worry, Distillations podcast isn’t going anywhere; we’re still producing the in-depth...