logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2020
45m 34s

How We Almost Got Rid of Polio

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

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 from the Earth.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Oct 9
Everyone Deserves A Good Death
The concept of hospice was created as a way to help people with only a few weeks to live spend their last days comfortable an surrounded by friends and family in the hope they can pass away peacefully. It’s kind of crazy hospice was ever a radical idea.See omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More
51m 29s
Oct 8
Short Stuff: The Call is Coming... FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE
Did you know that the "the call is coming from inside the house" urban legend may be based on a very grisly murder case from the 1950s?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
15m 14s
Oct 7
The Happy Place of Saturday Morning Cartoons
The greatest period in the history of humankind took place in the short era between 1970 and 1995. During that time kids could tune in every Saturday morning between 8 and noon and find the most amazing cartoons ever created, plus tons and tons of ads.See omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More
52m 37s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2020
Cell Strain
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
45m 39s
Mar 2024
The Tainted Polio Story
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
1h 5m
Sep 2021
The Eradication of Smallpox
Smallpox is a viral disease that has existed for millennia. But it’s now one of only two diseases that’s been eradicated through human activity, and a global plan was enacted to do it. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/list ... Show More
45m 34s
Aug 2021
Foot-in-Mouth Diseases
It's deeper than just sounding bad on the world stage. Refusing to treat the unvaccinated. Its all about the optics. Looking at life beyond the ivory towers. Its not political, just submit Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/ ... Show More
1h 48m
Aug 2021
The Very Bad and the Slightly Less Very Bad of the New Climate Change Report
Why your children may or may not choke to death on the dust that was once a river. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
1h 1m
May 2020
Operation Infektion: Russia's AIDS Conspiracy
HIV and AIDS, the syndrome the infection causes, have become the subject of numerous conspiracy theories. Over the decades people have proposed the infection was purposely designed to kill certain segments of the public, or that it was a lab experiment gone wrong, or that it didn ... Show More
50m 11s
Jan 2021
Healing ourselves for our babies’ babies
Family secrets, family history and family curses are all ways we explain away the traumas that we pass from generation to generation. You can’t heal what you can’t feel, and this week Khadeen and Devale are talking about all the ways they hope to change their family’s future. Dea ... Show More
1h 3m
Dec 2020
Vaccination Concerns
We find out how Steve feels about the vaccine. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSteve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
1m 51s
Aug 2017
McDonald’s Broke My Heart
They made the world’s greatest French Fry. Then they threw it away. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 
34m 2s
Mar 2022
Strange News: Tin Foil Hats Make a Comeback, Marines Busted in Human Trafficking Ring, Life Really Does Flash Before Your Eyes at Death
A group of Marines has been convicted of participating in a long-running human trafficking scheme. Terrified by the possibility of government-induced sickness, some protestors have resorted to donning tinfoil hats to exposure to nebulous 'rays.' A new study suggests our lives may ... Show More
58m 18s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami