In 1910, a terrifying disease erupted inside Rhode Island’s state asylum — patients wasting away with dementia, skin lesions, and panic no one could explain. Experts blamed everything from contaminated maize to exotic germs, but the real cause was hiding in plain sight.

This episode uncovers how pellagra spread behind locked doors, why officials tried to bury the evidence, and how one physician’s shocking self-experiments finally exposed the truth.

Based on original archival research from the Ladd School Historical Society and Archives.
Music: “Endless Nightmare” by Oliver Garcia, licensed via Motion Array.