Distillations | Science History Institute

Throughout history, there has been continual negotiation over who gets to access fireworks. Control over them has swung like a pendulum between ordinary people and institutions of power—like monarchies, the church, and the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives). And this ongoing tension begs the same question as the myth of Prometheus: who should really be in control of the fire? Join us as we explore the history of our fascination with making things explode and go behind the scenes with both professional and amateurs from the Western Pyrotechnic Association. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Seth Samuel Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya Music by Blue Dot Sessions Resource List Chaldu, Michael. From morning to night, Santa Ynez Valley celebrates nation's 250th birthday. Santa Ynez Valley Star. August 7, 2026 Dig Deeper: Fireworks and Pyrotechnics. Flash! Bang! Boom! Resource Guide Flash! Bang! Boom! A History of Fireworks National Fireworks Association: Tariff Updates Seven people missing after explosion at fireworks facility. NBC News. Tauszik, Brandon. Chasing the Light. Distillations. June 30, 2023. Waters, Michael. The 1900s Movement to Make the Fourth of July Boring (but Safe). Smithsonian Magazine. July 2, 2019. Western Pyrotechnic Association Withington, John. A History of Fireworks. The University of Chicago Press. 2024.

Jayson Porter has written for Distillations magazine on topics ranging from mules and sesame seeds, to arsenic and porgy fish. At first, these things might sound kind of random, but they share a common thread. Together they reveal hidden stories about the black experience in Mexico and the United States. Join us for a conversation with Jayson about using the traces left by everyday objects to examine histories that weren't always written down. This episode was filmed in our studio, and you can watch it on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ScienceHistoryInstitute. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Samia Bouzid Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya Music by Blue Dot Sessions Resource List Porter, Jayson. Rings of Fire, Distillations magazine. February 1, 2024. Porter, Jayson. Mule Power, Distillations magazine. October 16, 2025. Porter, Jayson. Sesame Plots, Distillations magazine. April 17, 2025

Come celebrate our newest Distillations podcast season, American Vice. From cigarettes to alcohol to fireworks, this season is all about our relationship with risk, how science plays a role in it, and how it has shaped the American experience. To do it, we're partnering with our friends at the Crossroads Comedy Theater to bring you a special edition of their popular Study Hall: Comedy Inspired By Lectures show. Join us for an experience unlike any you have seen before—or will ever see again! Enjoy short talks about topics from our podcast episodes, after which Crossroads' cast of amazing improvisers will use what they learned (or didn't learn) to create hilarious scenes right before your eyes! You'll learn, laugh, and leave without homework. The museum will stay open until 6pm, at which time the show will begin. The event is free, but registration is required. Light refreshments will be served.

Many of us have heard of Long COVID, but few of us understand the depth and breadth of the diagnosis or the history leading up to it. We talk with medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall about her book on invisible illnesses and what happens when medical symptoms are hard to explain. We discuss why patients are dismissed and how the history of hysteria, neurasthenia, and chronic fatigue syndrome all contribute to Long COVID denialism. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Seth Samuel Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya Music by Blue Dot Sessions Resource List Mendenhall, Emily. Invisible Illnesses: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID. University of California Press: 2026.

Silver's Volatile History. How long have people been pinning their hopes on silver? And what makes it valuable to us? Is it just because it's shiny and pretty or do we care about its practical uses too? Join us as we go down the rabbit hole to find out how Nevada got its nickname as the Silver State, how The Wizard of Oz might have actually been a hidden story about money, and how a trio of billionaire brothers managed to control more than a third of the world's silver supply. Along the way, we'll find the science in a story about a volatile asset. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Seth Samuel Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

A conversation with the author of The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary. If you've ever read anything about the history of psychedelics, the name Timothy Leary will probably sound familiar. He was a Harvard psychologist who researched psychedelics within academia before getting fired in 1963 and taking his experiments underground. But you might never have heard of Timothy's wife, Rosemary Woodruff Leary. We talk with author Susannah Cahalan about her book on Rosemary and how she played a quiet but foundational role in our early understanding of LSD. We also talk about our history of pinning our hopes on a miracle chemical and why some people are skeptically embracing psychedelics today. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Samia Bouzid Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Corrections In this interview, the Timothy Leary Papers were described as consisting of 400 boxes. The collection actually includes 610 boxes, 11 oversized folders, 22 tubes, 67 audio files, and 1.78 Gigabytes of computer files. A full list can be found here. In this interview, the Rosemary Woodruff Leary Papers were described as ancillary. Technically, the New York Public Library does not refer to the collection as "ancillary" or "secondary." Rosemary's collection has its own separate call number. More information can be found here. In this interview, the Rosemary Woodruff Leary Papers were described as consisting of 25 boxes. The collection actually includes 24 boxes, 1 volume, and 11.75 mb of computer files. A full list can be found here. In this interview, Rosemary's mystical experience was described as taking place when she was seven years old. The incident actually took place in 1943 during the summer after her 8th birthday. In this interview, Martin McLuhan was described as having told Timothy Leary to sell the LSD experience like Coca-Cola. Martin actually told Leary to sell it like Pepsi.

How did a covert chemical treatment permanently change our drinking water? In 1908, two men, John L. Leal and George Warren Fuller, spent 99 days secretly constructing something that would fundamentally alter the Jersey City water supply. Their decision to add chlorine is one that continues to impact our lives for the better, but there was no large-scale testing or approval process. This episode, brought to us by producer Caitlin Faulds, explores the big questions about Leal and Fuller's great experiment. Do the ends justify the means? What if it hadn't worked? And how did people react when they found out? Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Reporter: Caitlin Faulds Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Seth Samuel Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya

Cigarettes: they provide no nutrition and quench no thirst. They serve no purpose other than being an excuse to take a break from the grind before getting right back to it. And on top of that, they're deadly. As far as American vices go, they might be at the top of the list. So how did they get and stay popular for so long? And why are they making a comeback? This two-part episode dives into the rise of this quintessential American product, the science that proved it was dangerous, and the eventual reckoning that came from a mysterious box of documents—one delivered with the return address of an iconic cartoon character. Along the way, we'll uncover what has driven so many Americans to risk their lives to light up despite what the science has told us. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Seth Samuel Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya

Cigarettes: they provide no nutrition and quench no thirst. They serve no purpose other than being an excuse to take a break from the grind, before getting right back to it. And on top of that, they're deadly. As far as American vices go, they might be at the top of the list. So how did they get and stay popular for so long? And why are they making a comeback? This two-part episode dives into the rise of this quintessential American product, the science that proved it was dangerous, and the eventual reckoning that came from a mysterious box of documents—one delivered with the return address of an iconic cartoon character. Along the way, we'll uncover what has driven so many Americans to risk their lives to light up—despite what the science has told us. Credits Host: Alexis Pedrick Executive Producer: Mariel Carr Senior Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Sound Design: Seth Samuel Fact-Checking: Alexandra Atiya Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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