SYMHC Classics: Polio, The Dread Disease

In the 1950s, two men tried to corner the market on onions on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and manipulate futures contracts. Then Congress took up legislation to expressly forbid contracts for the sale of onion futures. Research: Butz, Earl L. “VINCENT W KOSUGA, SAM S. SIEGEL, ... Show More

This 2022 episode covers Helen Duncan, sometimes described inaccurately as Scotland’s last witch, or the last person imprisoned for witchcraft in Britain, or the last person to be tried under the UK’s 1735 Witchcraft Act.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Tracy shares her surprise at discovering some of the details of Montague Summers's life. Holly talks about bickering within the Society for Psychical Research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

In 1952, polio was everywhere: killing or paralyzing roughly half a million people annually. Yet just 10 years later, paralytic polio cases in the US dropped by 96% and we were on track to get rid of polio for good. But in recent years, the virus started striking back. So, what’s ... Show More

<p>For more than half of the 20th century parents in the industrialized world were freaked out by an unseen waster of youth, the poliovirus. It spread easily and could paralyze children for life or even kill them. Its effects were so horrible that humanity set about ridding if fr ... Show More

In the 1950s, polio spread throughout the United States. Heartbreakingly, it affected mainly children. Thousands died. Thousands more were paralyzed. Many ended up surviving only in iron lungs, a machine that breathed for polio victims, sometimes for years. Scientists raced to fi ... Show More

For much of human history, polio was absolutely terrifying. People weren't sure how it spread, they had no idea how to treat it, and they realized anyone could be infected. This changed with the emergence of polio vaccination, which was considered, for the most part, a massive su ... Show More

Margaret talks with Anney Reese about how a group of people made polio vaccines and ended polio but how one guy took all the credit and ruined our understanding of history.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

A six-year old boy in Papua New Guinea woke up one day in 2018 and was suddenly unable to stand up. Less than a year later, children in three other Asia Pacific nations were experiencing the same alarming symptoms. A disease that had been thought to have been eradicated from this ... Show More