The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures
This is a show for all the nerdy medical history people.
Three modern emergency physicians and their show's "medical history intern" take a lighthearted, humorous quest through various stories in the history of medicine. Topics from ancient times to recent history, all related to important advancements, people, or discoveries in the history of medicine.
New episodes every two weeks!
Episodes
105 episodes
The Finale - John Hunter, the Founder of Scientific Surgery
This is the final episode for the Poor Historians Podcast. It's been a wonderful ride and we're happy to end on what we think is a high note, talking about the topic that interested Dr. Max in starting a show about medical history in the first ...
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1:29:01
The Chicago Tylenol Murders and Halloween Sadism
If you've ever wondered why your over-the-counter pill bottles have that annoying little foil under the cap, you'll be happy to know it's there for good reason. It all stems from this true-crime meets toxicology story. We'll lay it all out here...
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Episode 95
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54:39
Comstock Laws and Women's Health in the Gilded Age with Special Guest, Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, PhD
We welcome our special guest historian to discuss an overview of issues affecting medical history and it's approaches to women's health during the late 19th century into the early 20th. We'll talk about Anthony Comstock and his silly morality-i...
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Episode 94
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1:06:16
The Origins of Placebos and their Effects
This is a fascinating and complicated dive into the history behind the first placebos and observations of their effects. We'll do our best not to lose our own minds trying to sort out the complexities of the placebo effect as we understood it s...
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1:11:43
The Krebiozen Hoax-An Infamous Quack Cancer Treatment
This episode was brought to you by our main source, the excellent book on the topic by Matthew C. Ehrlich entitled, The Krebiozan Hoax: How a mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Org...
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Episode 92
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1:11:56
The Multiple Murder Attempts of "Durable" Mike Malloy: A Medical History Perspective
This episode is a blend of true crime and criminal ineptitude. We'll walk through the story of how a gaggle of NYC barflys in the early 20th century U.S. Prohibition Era conspired (very badly) to murder an Irish immigrant who would later be nic...
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Episode 91
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1:03:36
A History of Breast Surgery: Wax, Oil, and Silicone
This is one of those episodes where we're happy to have Alba's perspective. We'll explore the history of breast surgery, it's various early procedures, and a host of things done to change women's chests for a variety of reasons.Reference...
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Episode 90
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1:14:40
The First U.S. Opiate Crisis: The Civil War and the Opium Eaters
History does have a way of repeating itself--at least in broad strokes. In this episode we'll discuss the first opiate crisis the U.S. ever suffered and do a bit of comparison to modern times. From opium, to morphine, to heroin, these substance...
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Episode 89
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1:00:47
Alcohol in Civilization, Culture, and Medical History
It's probably popular knowledge that alcohol as a substance of use--and potential misuse--has been with humankind since our earliest days. In this episode, Dr. Mike explores the earliest references to alcohol and takes us through a tour of it's...
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Episode 88
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1:08:41
Royal Pains: Medical Movie Show Review
Thanks to a fan suggestion, we went ahead and gave this TV series about an ER doctor turned concierge physician for the rich and famous a try.It had its moments.
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1:19:07
The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks
We've had many requests for this topic over the years and Dr. Aaron finally took charge of it. We'll explore the crossroads of medical history and medical ethics as it applies to the case of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman who's pecu...
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Episode 87
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56:51
Milk Sickness: The Story of Anna Pierce and a Uniquely American Deadly Historic Diagnosis
In the early 19th century, pioneers on the American western frontier were dying of an unusual illness. It even claimed the life of Nancy Lincoln, mother of the accomplished wrestler (and incidental president of the U.S.), Abraham Lincoln. ...
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Episode 86
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48:23
Madame Web: Medical Movie Review
We have a new piece of medicine infused awful cinema to check out. We reviewed Madame Web and boy was it bad, not only as a movie, but also as a portrayal of EMS medicine. Way to go, Marvel.
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1:25:10
Preventing Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn: The Discovery of RhoGAM and the "Man with the Golden Arm"
In the 1930's (and before), there was a mysterious cause of infant mortality. An astonishing number of newborns were victim to a mismatch between their blood type, and that of their mothers. Doctors at the time were not sure why this was happen...
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Episode 85
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51:45
Strolling into Steroids: Pedestrianism and the History of Performance Enhancement in Sports
If you can believe it, watching people walk around was once a spectator sport. It was the Gilded Age and there weren't many options for sport entertainment. We'll investigate how the participants in this early sport-ish activity helped inform t...
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Episode 84
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1:17:01
The Resident Episode 2: Medical TV Show Roast
We said that episode one of this TV series was bad, medically and critically speaking. Maybe that's not fair. It was a pilot, after all. We went ahead and checked out episode 2. It was worse.
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1:29:58
The Green Tongue Epidemic in Post World War II Japan
When a mysterious gastrointestinal illness starts turning into a dangerous neurologic disease accompanied by green tongues in post WWII Japan, researches scramble to find out why people are becoming sick. We'll do a deep dive on this one to fig...
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Episode 83
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1:06:41
The Discovery of Viagra (aka Sildenafil) With a History of Erectile Dysfunction and Priapism Treatments
From the discovery of this well-known medication, to the science behind its function, and spanning all the way to treatments for the underlying condition of erectile dysfunction as well as a complication of said treatments called priapism, this...
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Episode 82
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53:18
The Resident: A Poor Historians Medical TV Show Breakdown & Review
The Patrons have spoken! They suggested we lend our medical expertise in a new and unique manner, by watching, reacting, and reviewing a popular medical show. We chose "The Resident" and boy-oh-boy was it bad. Whether you're a fan ...
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1:35:17
President Cleveland's Secret Surgery (With Presidencies of the United States Podcast)
We invited Jerry Landry, host of the exceptional Presidencies of the U.S. Podcast onto the show today to help us discuss the clandestine surgery at sea that was done on President Grover Clevela...
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Episode 81
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55:59
Charles Darwin, Kissing Bugs, and Chagas Disease
Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist of the 19th century, was a big fan of collecting specimens. Some of those specimens would crawl around and feed on one's blood. In this episode we'll talk about the life of Darwin and the medical history of...
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Episode 80
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53:01
Death To Beauty: The Transformative History of Botox with Dr. Eugene Helveston (Book Biopsy)
Botox, the widely popular injectable medication, has been on the market and popular for a while now. What you might not realize is that there's an intricate and fascinating story behind the discovery of Botox, a literal bacterial toxin.
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51:37
Napoleon's Narcissism: Discussing a Conqueror's Personality Disorder
On this episode, Mike leads a discussion of the history of defining narcissistic personality disorder as a psychiatric diagnosis. Starting with Napoleon Bonaparte, and including other historical examples, we'll examine the diagnosis as defined ...
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Episode 79
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48:19
The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Story of Problematic Behavioral Health Research
Behavioral health is certainly within the bounds of medicine and, thereby, medical history. The Stanford Prison Experiment asked the question of whether the environment of prison compelled bad behavior from those within the system. In order to ...
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Episode 78
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58:34
Dr. Dropkick Murphy: A Legendary Life (Book Biopsy with Author, Emily Sweeney)
If you're like me (Dr. Max) and the words "Dropkick Murphy" conjure images of the legendary Boston-based punk rock band, you might be surprised to know the history behind that name. In this interview, Dr. Max sat down to interview Emily...
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51:55