The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean
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.
Latest episodes
Jun 1, 2021 • 21min
The Anatomy Riots
How early anatomists provoked some of the strangest riots in history, over stolen corpses (plus, bonus preview of my new book, The Icepick Surgeon!)
May 25, 2021 • 20min
When a Hole in the Head Is Good for You
How a rogue archaeologist in Peru—and a stolen skull—provided the first real evidence that ancient people practiced neurosurgery...
May 18, 2021 • 22min
When Mosquitos Cured Insanity
How one doctor in the early 1900s risked the lives of patients by pitting one ancient scourge (malaria) against another (syphilis)—and won a Nobel Prize in the process...
May 11, 2021 • 23min
The Death of the Lord God Bird
How greed, and a group of Nazi prisoners, killed off one of the most iconic birds in American history, the ivory-billed woodpecker...
May 4, 2021 • 22min
Chewing it Over—and Over and Over and Over
How a weird “scientific” diet fad conquered America in the early 1900s—and easily could have lost World War One for the Allies...
Apr 27, 2021 • 22min
What's the Longest Word in the English Language?
How the unique properties of carbon produced a 1,185-letter word...
Apr 20, 2021 • 22min
Why Don't We Have a Male Birth Control Pill Yet?
How a bottle of prison hooch doomed the most promising candidate in history for a male birth-control pill, and why scientists still can't make one today...https://www.patreon.com/disappearingspoon
Apr 16, 2021 • 30min
Bonus interview with WNYC's Science Diction
A two-fer: (1) A bonus interview with me about the orphan vaccine episode, from a great WNYC podcast called Science Diction. (2) A short episode of Science Diction on Edward Jenner and the very first vaccines.
Apr 13, 2021 • 21min
Marie Curie's (Nearly Disastrous) Trip to America
How the women of America, exactly 100 years ago, scrimped and saved and sacrificed to secure a vital gram of radium for their scientific hero, Marie Curie...
Apr 6, 2021 • 24min
The Most Important Lost Fossils in History
How the legendary Peking Man fossils from China disappeared in the 1940s, and why archaeologists think that maybe—just maybe—they now know where to find them...
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
