health care

26 Jun / 2018

For a Healthy Glow: Episodes from the Crypt

While working on our upcoming “Forbidden Places” episode, Eric and Jordan discovered that one of our intended subjects no longer qualifies as an area off-limits to the public! So, while they scour the planet for other inaccessible locations we thought we’d raise one of our Season 1 episodes (now with a new intro) from the Horrific History Podcast Crypt for your squeamish delight!

 

For a Healthy Glow: Radiation Poisoning (Episodes from the Crypt)

A finger, hand, limb or life…. What would you give up for the advancement of science? Would you give up as much as the Radium Martyrs of All Nations?

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1 Aug / 2017

Leaving You In Stitches, Part 2: Human Tissue Theft

Leaving You in Stitches, Part 2

Day laborer scams in India, exploitation of people in poverty desperate to provide for their families, surgeries and death threats, this episode has the details on human tissue theft you’ve been waiting for! Horrific History co-hosts Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender are back to continue their two-part episode on human tissue theft (if you missed Part 1, you can find it here)! A large organ trafficking ring catering to transplant tourism, the so-called Admiral of the Kansas Navy who made his fortune as a Quaker doctor who peddled virility miracle cures, organ brokers and donors who are viewed as both saints and sinners, this episode will leave you wondering what your body parts are worth and to whom.

 

“Doctor Dracula” stealing kidneys; goat testicles; pseudoscience, doctor self-experimentation and […]

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2 May / 2017

Mercury in uncomfortable places

It should come as no surprise to listeners of One Night With Venus Part 1 and Part 2 that a syringe full of mercury injected into a vagina was considered top-of-the-line medical treatment in the 16th Century. How often do you get to own such an, um, penetrating insight into the subject? Remember: No squeam allowed!

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28 Mar / 2017

For a Healthy Glow: Radiation Poisoning

For a Healthy Glow

A finger, hand, limb or life…. What would you give up for the advancement of science? Would you give up as much as the Radium Martyrs of All Nations?

 

Horrific History Podcast’s co-hosts, Eric Slyter and Curtis Bender discuss radiation poisoning in history, beginning with late Renaissance alchemy research in 1603 and continuing on to address more modern history including the Manhattan Project, Kyshtym Disaster, Chernobyl, and touching on current-day Fukushima.

 

From capturing the “golden light of the sun” to “seeing one’s death” through x-ray experimentation, this episode discusses all the horrifying things that came with the development of radiation research including blindness, loss of appendages, and even slow painful demises! You’ll hear about radium condoms, miracle “cures” and other products like “liquid sunshine,” as well as the legal case of the “Radium Girls” who had been so exposed to radium over the course of their factory work that parts of them […]

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9 Mar / 2017

Syphilis: Horrific History Today

With our “One Night with Venus” two-part debut episode (If you missed it, you can go directly to Part 1 and Part 2) already shared with the world, we thought we had covered the most horrifying historical details on syphilis and gonorrhea. Unfortunately, horrific things from history don’t always stay in the past. Sometimes they live on into present, where we create the history of tomorrow. We thought that those of you who enjoyed our “One Night with Venus” debut would be interested in this article from CNN from March 1, 2017: Record STD Rates Drive Syphilis in Newborns

 

photo credit: DHPersonal Simon in Light Therapy Bed via photopin (license)