How Trepanation Worked

In the late 1800s, white supremacists in Wilmington, NC staged a coup and bloody massacre of its black citizens in order to stem the tide of black progress and stifle the vote. This is that story.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Weather balloons are the workhorse of the meteorological world, which is why they’ve been used daily around the world for most of a century. Let’s salute these unsung heroes of weather prediction by getting to know them better. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Have you ever wondered what makes your ticker tick? Josh and Chuck take you back to high school biology for a stroll through the ins and outs of the little pump that keeps everything from your lowly pinky toe to your mighty brain going strong.See omnystudio.com/listener for priva ... Show More

<p>Trepanation is an ancient surgical procedure and we've found the millennia-aged skulls to prove it - each punctured and gouged to relieve inner-pressure and inner-madness. But is such cranial perforation truly a relic of a primitive age or do modern trepanation advocates have ... Show More

<p>For the majority of human history, a failing vital organ was a death sentence. Yet hard-won lessons from countless tragic medical experiments have given modern humans the amazing ability to swap a failing organ from a healthy one, often with good odds of surviving the operatio ... Show More

<p>The search for life-saving medical innovations has a dark side: human experimentation. And, while history is unfortunately chock-full of horrifying experiments on innocents, it isn't all stuff from the ancient past. In fact, experiments on unconsenting humans may continue in t ... Show More

Why was a transfusion of lamb’s blood believed to cure epilepsy? What surgical procedures could you get in ancient Egypt? And were medieval surgical practitioners really a help to patients – or a hindrance? Speaking with Emily Briffett, Paul Craddock unravels the long history of ... Show More

First they came for their heads. Then they came for their brains. In this classic Stuff to Blow Your Mind two-parter, Robert and Joe discuss the weird and fascinating history of head and brain preservation, veneration and theft. (originally published 2/2/2021) Learn more about yo ... Show More

First they came for their heads. Then they came for their brains. In this classic Stuff to Blow Your Mind two-parter, Robert and Joe discuss the weird and fascinating history of head and brain preservation, veneration and theft. (originally published 2/4/2021) Learn more about yo ... Show More

<p>On the conclusion to our series on the history of lobotomies, we explore just how the procedure became the most popular mental health treatment of the forties, despite the horrific and unpredictable side effects that came with shoving an ice pick up through an eye socket and w ... Show More

Today, it is one of the most commonly performed surgeries. But when was the hysterectomy, the removal of the uterus, first performed? How has this procedure interacted with ideas such as femininity and eugenics? And WHY would a very brave woman perform this surgery on herself?Kat ... Show More