The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
Dr. Max, Dr. Aaron, Dr. Mike, and Alba
This is a show for all the nerdy medical history people.
Three modern emergency physicians and their show's "medical history intern" take a lighthearted, humorous quest through various stories in the history of medicine. Topics from ancient times to recent history, all related to important advancements, people, or discoveries in the history of medicine.
New episodes every two weeks!
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Top 10 The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Book Biopsy: Spare Parts - The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery (with Author Paul Craddock)
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
12/22/22 • 66 min
Our guest this week is author Paul Craddock, here to share his new book with us.
Spare Parts is his first published work and is an excellent read into the history of one of the most complicated frontiers in medicine, transplant surgery. Stretching back to the 16th century and arriving into the present day, we'll go over some of the discoveries that led to the ability to transplant organs in the modern age. We know you'll enjoy this interview and highly recommend reading this book for yourselves. Paul's exceptional storytelling is apparent in our interview and his wit is well suited to his subject material.
Paul is an Honorary Senior Research Associate in the Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences at University College London. His PhD centered on the history of transplant medicine.
Click HERE to get Paul's book and support our guest!
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Bier, Balls, & Cocaine: The Origin Story of Spinal Anesthesia.
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
08/11/22 • 38 min
Not all of the ideas a person has while under the influence of drugs and alcohol are winners. There are exceptions, however. This is a fascinating story about the discovery of a revolutionary anesthetic technique all thanks to two inebriated German physicians playing around with spinal taps, hammers, and self-experimentation in the 1890's.
It gets weird.
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President Cleveland's Secret Surgery (With Presidencies of the United States Podcast)
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
04/11/24 • 55 min
We invited Jerry Landry, host of the exceptional Presidencies of the U.S. Podcast onto the show today to help us discuss the clandestine surgery at sea that was done on President Grover Cleveland in the late 1800's. It was kind of a big deal.
Listen to the end to hear a teaser on the upcoming Patron inspired TV show review. We'll talk about it after our bonus content with Jerry at the end of this episode.
Go check out the Presidencies of the United States Podcast wherever you get your podcasts & follow Jerry Landry's work via his social media links below:
Facebook: @presidencies
Twitter/X: @presidencies89
Instagram: @presidenciespodcast
Threads: @presidenciespodcast
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland Wikipedia on Grover Cleveland, main article
- https://lib.arizona.edu/hsl/materials/collections/secret-illness/cleveland University of Arizona website article on Cleveland’s surgery
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdA5SPM3iWU PBS News Hour feature on the surgery
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441833/ Mohs Surgery
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Tosi Christina Tosi Wikipedia article, she’s an American treasure
- https://muttermuseum.org/ Mutter Museum webpage
- https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/head-and-neck-cancer/risk-factors-and-prevention Cancer.net head and neck cancer risk factors and prevention
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5385680/ - Surgical cure rates (small study)
- https://columbiasurgery.org/news/2015/12/10/president-grover-cleveland-had-deadly-secret Another account from Columbia Surgery
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The Fungus Among Us: Historically Bad Fungal Infections
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
03/30/23 • 65 min
With the success of "The Last of Us" show, we thought we'd take some time to look at historically important cases of fungal infection. We'll investigate a possible explanation for all those witch trials of yesteryear as well as a common childhood fungal infection that accounted for quite the degree of social upheaval in Victorian England.
Also, we'll have our first entry in Mike's mailbag segment. Tune in to see if he gets the question correct.
Full show notes on our website.
References:
- https://microbialcell.com/researcharticles/2020a-kainz-microbial-cell/ overview of Fungal infections, Kainz et. al., 2020 (linked in BBC article)
- https://www.bbc.com/news/health-64402102 BBC Health article about The Last of Us
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials Wikipedia page on Salem Witch Trials
- https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/07/study-zombie-ant-death-grip-comes-from-muscle-contractions-not-the-brain/ Ars Technica blog post on Cordyceps
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/01/20/cordyceps-fungus-last-of-us-hbo/ WaPo article on climate change related to the show
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/#:~:text=The%20Salem%20witch%20trials%20occurred,accused%20and%20compensated%20their%20families Smithsonian Salem Witch Trials article
- https://www.vox.com/2015/10/29/9620542/salem-witch-trials-ergotism Vox article on Ergotism in the trials
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3898692/ mirror neuron review article
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7975928/#:~:text=Herpes%20zoster%20(HZ)%2C%20a,%2C%20or%20varicella%2C%20in%20childhood St. Anthony’s Fire survey article
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK169210/ Ringworm Chapter, Fungal Diseases in the US and Britain 1850-2000
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Unethical Science: The History of the U.S. Tuskegee and Guatemala Syphilis Experiments
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
09/28/23 • 71 min
When you hear the story of how syphilis research was carried out in the United States in the 20th century, you'll probably start to understand why there is a history of mistrust of the medical establishment, especially among the African American community. This episode details one of the bleakest and most shameful chapters in U.S. medical history, a time when ethics were cast aside at the expense of minority communities. We'll talk about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (aka Tuskegee Experiment) as well as the Guatemala syphilis experiments that preceded them.
Sources:
- For symptom confirmation: https://www.uptodate.com/contents/syphilis-epidemiology-pathophysiology-and-clinical-manifestations-in-patients-without-hiv?search=syphilis&source=search_result&selectedTitle=3~150&usage_type=default&display_rank=3#H10 UpToDate (paywall)
- Emily Blunt gets Syphilis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_English_(TV_series)
- Medical Microbiology, Chapter 36: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7716/
- Wikipedia Syphilis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis
- Long Article on Syphilis Origin: https://asm.org/Articles/2019/June/Revisiting-the-Great-Imitator,-Part-I-The-Origin-a
- Republication of the AP study about Tuskeegee: https://apnews.com/article/business-science-health-race-and-ethnicity-syphilis-e9dd07eaa4e74052878a68132cd3803a
- Bioethics statement on Guatamala Studies: https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcsbi/sites/default/files/Ethically%20Impossible%20(with%20linked%20historical%20documents)%202.7.13.pdf
- Wikipedia on Guatemala Studies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala_syphilis_experiments
- Wikipedia on Tuskeegee: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study
- John Charles Cutler Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Charles_Cutler
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"BONUS" Episode: Dr. William Beaumont and a Famous Gutshot (Radio Drama)
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
05/11/23 • 27 min
This episode will be a deviation from our normal format. Unfortunately, the entire episode we'd recorded for release this week was lost to the cyberspace aether. A whole episode just gone from existence. Discovering this with no time to re-record, we decided to release something previously unheard: a Poor Historians Podcast pilot episode.
We had played with several formats for the show and this episode was one such project. It's a brief radio drama about Dr. William Beaumont, a famous surgeon, who happened to treat a fur trader named Alexis St. Martin for a gunshot wound to the abdomen. St. Martin did not die from the wound, but instead a permanent channel grew between his abdominal skin and the inside of his stomach, medically called a "fistula". This was a window into his stomach (literally) and Dr. Beaumont used this opportunity to study how the stomach worked in digestion and its other general duties. In this episode, we imagined what it would have been like to use a time machine to travel to the early 19th century to see how this unfolded in real time.
We'll be back in two weeks with a regular episode, but hopefully our fans and new listeners find this a fun departure. The alternative was no episode and that would make us sad. Enjoy a very new Aaron, Max, and Mike with then just unboxed microphones, fumbling around a story in medical history.
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Radium (Marie Curie and the Radium Girls)
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
03/10/22 • 32 min
Marie Curie and her husband discovered radium and radioactivity in 1898. Soon thereafter everything has radium in it, from beauty products to glow in the dark timepieces. Who would have thought there was a tragic price to be paid for all that "healthy glow?"
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Cold Hard Steel: The Myth of the Modern Surgeon with Guest: Agnes Arnold-Forster, PhD
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
10/26/23 • 59 min
Who do you picture when someone says the word "surgeon?" There are many common depictions of surgeons in popular media--from TV shows and other avenues of fiction. What makes up the persona of a surgeon? In her book, Cold Hard Steel, author Agnes Arnold-Forster draws upon the historical building blocks of the profession to examine our ideas of who the modern surgeon is. Tune in here for a fascinating discussion!
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Guess what? Listeners can get the book at a discount price.
Use this ---->LINK and get 30% off if you use the code AAF30 at checkout!
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Follow Dr. Agnes Arnold-Forster:
- Instagram @agnesjulietaf
- Threads @agnesjulietaf
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Mike's Trivia Challenge Contest is still in effect! Keep those submissions coming for your chance to win a T-shirt and "Show Me Your Guts" coloring book from our sponsor, Artery Ink.
For info to participate, details are HERE on our website.
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The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Story of Problematic Behavioral Health Research
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
02/29/24 • 58 min
Behavioral health is certainly within the bounds of medicine and, thereby, medical history. The Stanford Prison Experiment asked the question of whether the environment of prison compelled bad behavior from those within the system. In order to study this, this 1970's university psychology experiment went to extreme lengths to turn its research subjects (students) into faux prisoners and prison guards in the basement of the department's building.
It might not surprise you to find out that it did not go well.
Ethics in research are indeed important, as you'll appreciate after listening to this one.
References:
- Wikipedia Page on the Stanford Prison Experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
- PDF of original publication of the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/ijcp1973.pdf
- Psychology Today interview with Philip Zimbardo: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/200009/emperor-the-edge
- Wikipedia Page on Philip Zimbardo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo
- Incarceration Rates Reference: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAiP2tBhBXEiwACslfnvW5miAa1VS0WqISsYuBYwIY52hMWPMlcVUG3Kbs_xNgzE4pG2DAuxoC6gMQAvD_BwE
- For further reading: The Milgram Experiment Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
- “The Stanford Prison Experiment” website: https://www.prisonexp.org/
- New Yorker Magazine Column, ‘The Real Lessons of The Stanford Prison Experiment’: https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment
- One of many bootlegs on YouTube of a BBC documentary on the experiment containing actual video footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4txhN13y6A
- Hawthorne Effect, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
- PDF of October 1971 Congressional Testimony by Zimbardo: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/congress.pdf
- Preprint of Haslam’s Article, “Identity Leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment”, in press in American Psychologist: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/b7crx to avoid paywall, noted on PubMed here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31380665/
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Trephination - A History of Holes in Heads
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
11/04/21 • 48 min
Because sometimes you gotta put a lotta holes in heads to figure out when it's beneficial. What's more exciting than old tyme neurosurgical trial and error?
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures have?
The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures currently has 105 episodes available.
What topics does The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures cover?
The podcast is about Stories, History, Medical, Medicine, Humor, Comedy, Podcast, Podcasts and Surgery.
What is the most popular episode on The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures?
The episode title 'Charles Darwin, Kissing Bugs, and Chagas Disease' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures?
The average episode length on The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures is 57 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures released?
Episodes of The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures?
The first episode of The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures was released on Jul 1, 2021.
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