The Deadly Dose

Do you know what's in the water you're drinking? The ocean you just swam in and perhaps took an accidental big gulp of water from? The lake that your dog just drank out of? Most people don't, so that's why environmental toxicologist and PhD candidate, Allie Folcik, is going to give us the filtered tea! This was one of our favorite episodes to record, you don't want to miss it, poison pals!

In this episode:

• Check out Allie's highly successful science & fashion blog called The Pretty PhD: https://prettyphdblog.com/

• Follow her on Instagram @theprettyphd and on TikTok with the same handle!

• Troubled Water (2012 Documentary) - YouTube

• The Bobby Bones Show

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Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: The extremely old lead pipes that are the majority of the US’s water pipes (via Materials Science)

• Image 2: The water in Flint Michigan vs typically treated water (via Blackbottom Archives)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You guys definitely didn't ask for it, but we're thrusting it upon you anyways...

In honor of Father's Day, we thought what better way to celebrate than to have Harini's dad, Papa B, on the pod! We're keeping it short and sweet, but chock full of deadly poison per usual. The category is: Bongkrekic Acid...

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Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: Bongkrekic acid is often found in fermented noodles (via Poison Control)

• Image 2: Bongkrekic acid is also found in tempeh (via Nature’s Poison)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Megan talks about the death of five-year-old Garnett Spears whose mother, Lacey Spears, incrementally poisoned him with table salt. We warn that this episode is mildly graphic and extremely uncomfortable as it details the ongoing torture of a young child, typical of similar cases that involve Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (formerly known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy).

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!

Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience
Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: An infant Garnett smiling with his mother, Lacey.

• Image 2: Lacey and Garnett cuddling together.

• Image 3: A still image of Garnett and Lacey in the ICU after a mysterious bout of intense illness and seizures.

• Image 4: A still image of the last recorded video of Garnett in the ICU moments before Lacey administers a final, lethal dose of salt into his G tube.

• Image 5: Lacey on trial for the murder of her son in 2015.

• https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/06/18/woman-pleads-not-guilty-to-poisoning-her-5-year-old-son-to-death/

• https://truecrimedaily.com/2016/12/08/mom-caught-on-camera-poisoning-young-son-to-death-in-hospital/

• https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/08/lacey-spears-to-be-sentenced-today-in-sons-death/25446521/

• https://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2014/06/17/lacey-spears-murder-charges-garnett-spears/10665173/

• https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/rockland/2014/03/24/garnett-spears-feeding-tube-life/6855849/

• https://www.lohud.com/story/news/investigations/2014/06/18/lacey-spears-investigated-abuse/10750237/

• https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/7/648

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5915702/#:~:text=Factitious%20Disorder%20Imposed%20on%20Another,make%20her%20child%20appear%20sick.

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5537768/

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037907380300358X

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In light of all the work that went into producing the the COVID-19 vaccine. Harini wanted to go back in time and take us back to the lovely, but slightly dirty 18th century to discuss the very FIRST vaccine ever created for eradicating smallpox! We're calling all milkmaids, surgeons, small children, and red cloth merchants for this episode. 

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!

Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: Edward Jenner, the man who created the very first vaccine, inoculating a small child vs smallpox (via Getty Images)

• Image 2: A graphic of how smallpox can ravage the body (via Medical Xpress)

• https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/25/well/family/covid-vaccine-smallpox-coronavirus.html

• https://www.history.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-of-smallpox

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/

• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2011.00021/full

• https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/smallpox-and-story-vaccination

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

DISCLAIMER

All discussions in this episode are our own opinions and not facts outside of the science and background presented. 

In this episode, Megan talks about the practice of Kambo, an ancient South American tradition of cleansing/purging the body with toxic secretions derived from the Giant Leaf frog. Having found its way into Silicon Valley as the next trending homeopathic medicine (move aside micro-dosing) we ask the question: how appropriate is it to use these culturally sacred practices outside of the tribes from which they originated?

In this episode:

• Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean by Tere Fassbender and Richard D. Logan

• My Next Guest with David Letterman (Lizzo episode) on Netflix

• Grantchester (TV series) on Acorn TV

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!
Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: Phyllomedusa bicolor aka the giant leaf frog contains the toxic secretion used in Kambo ceremonies. The secretions carry unique opioid peptides called deltorphins (which do not occur naturally in any other species) and demorphin.

• Image 2: Secretions being collected from a live giant leaf frog. It’s legs are bound in order to induce the release of Kambo from it’s skin - a reaction that occurs only when the giant leaf frog feels stressed or threatened.

• Image 3: An indigenous Matses healer prepares to place Kambo onto a participant.

• Image 4: Kambo mucous being scraped onto a medicine stick.

• Image 5: Burn marks on a patient’s arm shaped in a line 4-5 burns deep, typical of a Kambo cleansing ritual.

• https://amazonexplorer.com/culture-of-indigenous-matses-people-the-frog-medicine-kambo/

• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15563650.2018.1457153

• https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1556-4029.13641

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214750022000865

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7284396/

• https://clinmedjournals.org/articles/iacp/international-archives-of-clinical-pharmacology-iacp-4-017.php?jid=iacp

• https://www.insider.com/silicon-valley-elites-are-poisoning-themselves-with-kambo-frog-mucus-2021-1

• https://shamanicsnuff.com/shop/kambo/kambo-sticks/

• https://www.vice.com/en/article/gqkxa9/kambo-ceremony-alcoholism-purging-uk

• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/01/style/self-care/kambo-tree-frog-detox.html?referringSource=articleShare

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Grab some gloves and a mask because Harini is taking us into her hot tub time machine back to the 1918 Flu Pandemic. Harini highlights three different character stories around the globe to paint us a picture of the Forgotten Flu! 

In this episode:

• https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/katherine-anne-porter-about-katherine-anne-porter/686/

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!

Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience
Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: A sign of the times not unlike our COVID-19 Pandemic (via Connecticut College)

• Image 2: Women masked up while working (via The Market Watch)

• The Times Machine (NYT)

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1997248/

• https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-happened-when-woodrow-wilson-came-down-1918-flu-180975972/

• https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/03/us/woodrow-wilson-coronavirus-trnd/index.html

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do 19th century Victorian-era London, barbers & surgeons, Jack the Ripper, and a lot of booze have in common? THIS EPISODE. Come one, come all poison pals! Sit yourself down with your finest cuppa Earl Grey, nan's biscuits, and gather by the hearth for warmth as this is a cold-blooded trifecta of poison. Megan tells the three-part tale of George Chapman - the serial poisoner of the 19th century.

In this episode:

• The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison by John Emsley

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!

Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: George Chapman (birth name Seweryn Klosowski) circa 1880s

• Elements of Murder: A History of Poison by John Emsley (2005)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Calling all plant people, this episode is for you! We are doing our very FIRST crossover episode with the evergreen Matt Candeis of the In Defense of Plants podcast, blog, and now BOOK! We couldn't be more excited to put our minds together to bring you an episode all about the deadliest plant in the world - Abrus precatorius, also known as, the Rosary Pea. Praying with your rosary beads isn't going to save you this time! 

In this episode:

• Matt Candeis of In Defense of Plants podcast 

• @indefenseofplants on Instagram

• Blog: https://www.indefenseofplants.com/

• Book: In Defense of Plants: An Exploration into the Wonder of Plants

• Matt's antidote of the week: the incredible findings by the lovely Cariad Williams, Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois, on the flight mechanism of Pterosaurs. Check it out below!

• https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/science/pterosaurs-necks-azhdarchids.html?smid=url-share

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!

Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: Rosary Pea (via The Survival Gardener)

• https://www.poison.org/articles/are-rosary-peas-poisonous-194#:~:text=The%20entire%20plant%20is%20toxic,%2C%20abdominal%20pain%2C%20and%20diarrhea.

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672262/

• https://missouripoisoncenter.org/is-this-a-poison/rosary-peas/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We teased this in the first episode of The Deadly Dose and now it is finally coming to fruition. This episode contains fanatic Indian religious groups, Oregon, beer, sex, a villainous, but BOSS businesswoman, and poison. What more could you want in a story? Join us as Harini takes on the behemoth tale of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and Rajneeshpuram. Pro tip: burn all your maroon clothing before listening. 

In this episode:

• Searching for Sheela (2021 series) on Netflix

• Wild Wild Country (series) on Netflix

• Bat Shit Valley by Documentary Now (a spoof on Wild Wild Country) on Netflix

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!
Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience
Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: Sheela displaying her simultaneous sharp business acumen and ruthlessness (via Netflix)

• Image 2: Bhagwan addressing his countless followers (via Hindustani Times)

• https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/06/a-strange-but-true-tale-of-voter-fraud-and-bioterrorism/372445/

• https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/docs/forensic_epidemiology/Additional%20Materials/Articles/Torok%20et%20al.pdf

• https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-11-01-mn-825-story.html

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK482160/

• https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Epinephrine

• CDC

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We teased this in the very first episode of The Deadly Dose and now it is finally coming to fruition. The infamous story of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the fanatic religious movement that resulted in a massive compound in Oregon (Rajneeshpuram), hundreds and thousands of followers, and poison. 

In this episode:

• Wild Wild Country (series) on Netflix 

• Bat Shit Valley by Documentary Now (a spoof on Wild Wild Country) on Netflix

If you liked this episode please rate, review and subscribe!

Follow us on Instagram: @deadlydosepod

TikTok: @tilscience

Email us your homegrown poison stories at [email protected]

Episode Sources:

• Image 1: Ma Anand Sheela and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (via Netflix)

• Image 2: Hordes of Rajneeshis in their infamous orange robes at the Rajneeshpuram compound in Oregon (via National Endowment for the Humanities)

• Image 3: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (via PBS)

• Netflix “Wild Wild Country”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.