When Charles Dickens published Bleak House in 1852, he included a scene where one character spontaneously combusts. 🔥 🔥 🔥 Readers loved it, but one of Dickens’s good friends—a former scientist—blasted Dickens for his scientific ignorance. It ignited one of the strangest controversies in literary history. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Charles Dickens published Bleak House in 1852, he included a scene where one character spontaneously combusts. 🔥 🔥 🔥 Readers loved it, but one of Dickens’s good friends—a former scientist—blasted Dickens for his scientific ignorance. It ignited one of the strangest controversies in literary history. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Charles Dickens published Bleak House in 1852, he included a scene where one character spontaneously combusts. 🔥 🔥 🔥 Readers loved it, but one of Dickens’s good friends—a former scientist—blasted Dickens for his scientific ignorance. It ignited one of the strangest controversies in literary history. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hotter than the Dickens

A topsy-turvy science-y history podcast by Sam Kean. I examine overlooked stories from our past: the dental superiority of hunter-gatherers, the crooked Nazis who saved thousands of American lives, the American immigrants who developed the most successful cancer screening tool in history, the sex lives of dinosaurs, and much, much more. These are charming little tales that never made the history books, but these small moments can be surprisingly powerful. These are the cases where history gets inverted, where the footnote becomes the real story.

Share Hotter than the Dickens

Sign up to save your podcasts

Hotter than the Dickens

Hotter than the Dickens

More shows like The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

Science Friday

Big Picture Science

Radiolab

Stuff You Missed in History Class

the memory palace

Stuff To Blow Your Mind

99% Invisible

Gastropod

Science Vs

Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders

Sidedoor

Ridiculous History

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

The Last Archive

The Atlas Obscura Podcast