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.” All these stomach issues were thanks, in part, to breakfast—which looked very different th ... Show More
Sep 2019
Skylab: NASA’s Best-Kept Secret| Apollo’s Leftovers | S17-E1
Fifty years ago, America’s space program achieved its greatest triumph, when Apollo Eleven put the first men on the moon.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 — one even mo ... Show More
39m 2s
Oct 2019
Electric Chair | War of the Currents | S18-E1
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. Still, the chair stuck arou ... Show More
44m 52s
Nov 2019
The Modern Ambulance | S19-E1
Today, if you or someone you know experiences a medical emergency, you dial 9-1-1 and a squad of trained medical professionals arrives at your door. But just 55 years ago, that was not the case.Emergency calls were generally dispatched to funeral homes simply because their vehicl ... Show More
43m 17s
Jul 2019
Cereal Wars - A Divine Mission | 1
It’s the late 1800s and America is in the grip of a bellyache epidemic. But, thanks to a divine revelation, help is on the way in the form of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. In his quest to calm the nation’s bowels, Dr. Kellogg is feeding his ... Show More
24m 27s
Oct 2019
John Harvey Kellogg: The ‘wellness’ pioneer
John Harvey Kellogg is best known, along with his brother, for changing the way the world ate breakfast. But cornflakes were actually a by-product of Dr Kellogg’s lifelong mission to improve the dietary health of patients at his Battle Creek Sanitarium, a once world-famous medica ... Show More
38m 57s
Jul 2019
Cereal Wars - Breakfast of Champions | 2
It’s 1904 and Quaker Oats is about to make an, ahem, explosive entry into the cold cereal business. With the Kellogg brothers at risk of being left behind, Will Kellogg finally decides it’s time to stand up to his brother. He cuts ties and brings the original corn flakes to marke ... Show More
25m 15s
Jan 2023
“It’s Edible!” The Origin of Breakfast Cereal, Part One
Cereal is everywhere nowadays, but how did it become a thing? For most of us, this stuff is the ultimate convenient breakfast, and even the most sugary varieties claim to offer nutritional benefits and a balanced start to your day -- even if those claims may be a bit... misleadin ... Show More
37m 56s