The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

When scientists recovered one of the first submarines in history, from the U.S. Civil War, they were stunned at the state of the bodies inside. There were no signs of panic or distress. So how did the sailors on the Hunley really die?

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

In the 1930s, German scientists tried reviving extinct beasts for the Nazis—using sophisticated science that has uncomfortable echoes in certain conservation efforts today.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

Lassoing giraffes? 🦒 Wrasslin’ Rhinos?! 🦏 When new animals were needed for the Berlin Zoo, its keeper went Wild West on them. His exploits were as wild as the Serengeti itself. (Part 1 of 2.)

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

Birds do it. 🦉 Bees do it. 🐝 But do astronauts a thousand miles above the trees do it? 🚀👩‍🚀 Maybe! Everything you need to know about sex in space.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

An audio excerpt from my new book, The Museum of Long Things. Available now!

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

In the 1960s, NASA needed a better spacesuit. So they turned to the one firm on earth capable of meeting their strict standards—the Playtex underwear company. Episode below!

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

His book on evolution rocked 1800s England. Not Charles Darwin. Robert Chambers, whose infamous tome both horrified Darwin, yet paved the way for him.

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

Nurse Laura Cobb saved more lives than Clara Barton or Florence Nightingale, and under far worse conditions—in a brutal World War II concentration camp. So why did the world forget her?

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

In the 1950s, scientists hated politics. Then one Allen Astin got fired. After that, scientists knew they had to play politics—or face professional annihilation.

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

No one in Columbus’s time believed the world was flat. So why did so many children learn this bogus “fact” in school? It all goes back to Rip van Winkle...

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, the two most scientific detectives in the world took on the case. But they overlooked the real enemy—their own petty prejudice.

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

The Smyth Report is the strangest book ever written on atomic bombs—as well as highly effective science propaganda, warping our view of everything from the Manhattan Project to Robert Oppenheimer.

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

When a British sub sank with all hands, JBS Haldane volunteered to investigate by experimenting on himself—even if it meant losing his own life in the process. (Part 2 of 2.)

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

There’s only one thing Dr. John Haldane loved more than running dangerous experiments on himself—running them on his son Jack. But the duo would revolutionize our understanding of the human body.

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

When Charles Lindbergh's sister-in-law developed heart trouble, he teamed up with a Nobel-Prize-winning doctor to save her. He had no idea the dark paths his work would lead him down, including Nazi politics and eugenics...

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

Exactly a century ago, teacher John Scopes was charged with the “crime” of teaching evolution. But Scopes was hardly a defiant Galileo, nobly standing up for truth. In fact, he never even taught evolution. (Really.) But despite the unseemly origins of the Monkey Trial, Scopes proved himself a genuine hero...

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

Astronomer Jules Janssen was desperate to escape the siege of Paris in 1870 and observe an eclipse in Africa—work that he hoped would confirm his discovery of a brand new element in the Sun, helium. So he devised a plan to escape the city in a hot-air balloon, despite promises by the German army to shoot him as a spy if he dared try...

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

In the 1970s, paramedic units were illegal in the United States. One (very bad) television show, Emergency!, set out to change that—and saved tens of thousands of lives in the process.

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

The work of Richard Meinertzhagen helped convince biologists that the Forest Owlet of India had gone extinct. But after Meinertzhagen’s frauds were exposed, one biologist grew obsessed with finding out whether it just might be alive still. (Part 2 of 2)

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862

He was a brilliant ornithologist—and a spy so colorful that James Bond was based on him. Richard Meinertzhagen was also a liar and a thief, and perpetrated the biggest fraud in biology history. Episode below!

Our Sponsors:
* Check out ElevenReader and use my code "Spoon" for a great deal: https://elevenreader.io

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean--7430574/support.

Check out my new book from National Geographic - 'The Museum of Lost Things', about the greatest lost treasures in history!

https://www.amazon.com/Museum-Lost-Things-Treasures-Legendary/dp/1426223862