Pandemic History

Explicit content warning

12/14/21 • 112 min

The Infectious of Boys of ComedyTM dig into the history of pandemics.

Life on earth started billions of years ago. Life parasitizing other life, evolved shortly after. And the endless arms between viruses and hosts began. This mix of battles and cooperation gave rise to much of the rich complexity and diversity of life in addition to some of its biggest threats. Early sexual reproduction may even have become more successful than cloning in part to escape disease spread. And now sex is one of the main ways diseases are spread!

And around and around we go...

Modern civilization has created unique opportunities for viruses and modern medicine has created unique defenses. Once again, the arms race continues. Meanwhile, while our biology and psychology haven’t changed much since hunter-gathers so we find our intuitions mismatched for our modern world.

From major events like smallpox, to modern scares like Ebola, to an obscure Australian horse disease, many of the common themes have happened again and again. At a time when many are turning to the news to get daily updates on jargony talking points to argue over, The IBCTM think it’s worthwhile to look back through the last few hundred years of various epidemics to get some perspective.

Catch this episode on YouTube or your favorite app and you will come down with contagious laughter and be super spreading novel insights in no time.

The Infectious of Boys of ComedyTM dig into the history of pandemics.

And around and around we go...

Catch this episode on YouTube or your favorite app and you will come down with contagious laughter and be super spreading novel insights in no time.

Previous Episode

Christmas Origins

The Festive Boys Of ComedyTM get all dressed up in top-of-the-line Christmas outfits to explore the history of the winter solstice.

This holiday season many celebrate some of our most cherished traditions, but where did they come from? Some historians believe Yuletide was the prequel to Christmas and Santa was played by Odin. Some of our traditions may even have been influenced by psychedelics. One thing is clear, there is a rich history of partying very hard during the longest nights of the year.

Kick the Holiday season with the FBCTM! We hope you get some fun conversation topics for holiday parties and maybe even some last-minute gift ideas including some of our favorite board games.

Merry MUMmas to all and a Too Easy New Year!