In the pre-antibiotic era, tuberculosis was one of the biggest killers humanity ever faced. The specter of the ‘great white plague’ hung over towns and cities across the world, cities like New York whose population boom in the early 20th century paved the way for this deadly disease to spread throughout crowded tenements. As tuberculosis rates in NYC reached ... Show More
Jun 16
Ep 213 Burns Part 2: It’s like sci-fi but real
At the turn of the 20th century, a severe burn was often a death sentence. Today, that is no longer the case. Over the past eighty years, burn care has undergone a profound transformation thanks to crucial advances across diverse areas of medicine, such as skin grafting, antisept ... Show More
58m 56s
Aug 2021
Introducing - Dr. Death Season 3: Miracle Man
Paolo is a smart and handsome surgeon, renowned for his ability to perform surgeries that
transform his patients’ lives. When television producer Benita covers him for a story, he’ll transform her life too, but not in the ways she expects. As Benita crosses professional lines to ... Show More
8m 55s
Jun 2024
Andrew McDowell, "Breathless: Tuberculosis, Inequality, and Care in Rural India" (Stanford UP, 2024)
Each year in India more than two million people fall sick with tuberculosis (TB), an infectious, airborne, and potentially deadly lung disease. The country accounts for almost 30 percent of all TB cases worldwide and well above a third of global deaths from it. Because TB’s preva ... Show More
1h 27m
Aug 2024
The Deadly Puzzle of Yellow Fever (Replay)
HISTORY This Week returns with new episodes starting September 16th! In the meantime, listen to a favorite classic from the archives.August 27, 1900. Dr. Jesse Lazear, a U.S. Army surgeon, walks into Las Animas Hospital Yellow Fever ward in Havana, Cuba, toting a brood of mosquit ... Show More
30m 8s
Aug 2024
The Radium Girls
<p>When Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898, the chemical element was quickly adopted by manufacturers for its luminescent properties that would go on to be used in, among other things, the painting of clock faces, watches, and instrument panels, allowing them to be ... Show More
1h 22m
Feb 2023
How the Famine Irish built New York
<p>Between 1840 and 1860 the population of New York almost trebled growing from 300,000 to 800,000. This influx of migrants from Europe gave birth to modern Manhattan. At the heart of this story were the 250,000 Irish people who made the city their home in the aftermath of the Gr ... Show More
32m 24s
Feb 2025
The Unsolved Murder of Jeannette DePalma
<p>On the afternoon of August 7, 1972, sixteen-year-old Jeannette DePalma left her house in Springfield, NJ and was never seen alive again. Six weeks later, Jeannette’s remains were discovered when a neighborhood dog returned to its owner at a newly built apartment complex, carry ... Show More
1h 17m