In the 1960s, choking was a national epidemic. In the United States alone, close to 4,000 people were dying from choking every year. Lobster, ham, and hamburger were common culprits. But steak was by far the greatest offender.
Coroners called for a solution to these “Cafe Coronaries,” and the medical community responded with weird and dangerous gadgets: v ... Show More
Aug 2019
Corn Flakes | The Brothers of Battle Creek | S19-E1
<p>For the first 150 years of American history, American citizens were plagued by gastrointestinal issues. Diarrhea, gastritis and dysentery were pretty much a way of life. Indigestion was such an immense problem, the poet Walt Whitman called it “the Great American Evil.” </ ... Show More
40m 36s
Sep 2019
Skylab: NASA’s Best-Kept Secret| Apollo’s Leftovers | S20-E1
<p>Fifty years ago, America’s space program achieved its greatest triumph, when Apollo Eleven put the first men on the moon.</p><p>The Apollo program was a remarkable success story. But as NASA was sending men to the moon, they were engaged in another, less celebrated project — o ... Show More
39m 2s
Oct 2019
Electric Chair | War of the Currents | S21-E1
<p>On August 6, 1890, a prisoner named William Kemmler became the first man executed in the electric chair. It was designed to be a more humane form of execution, but the gruesome scene in the death chamber that day revealed the device to be anything but. </p><p>Still, the c ... Show More
44m 52s
Feb 2024
Ep. 19 | Life in Paradise/The Stranger
“Life in Paradise”In 1993, a man living in a retirement community in Tennessee falls ill with what he thinks is the flu. But, within hours, he’s comatose and suffering from multiple organ failure. His doctor is stunned, and becomes even more perplexed when the man’s neighbor show ... Show More
35m 24s