Hosted by Adam Blumenberg · 🇺🇸 US · EN · 52 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Toxic History! is a narrative medicine lecture series where medical experts tell you stories from the history of poison. Human beings have known about poison – substances that harm and even kill– for thousands of years. Poisons have been seen as mysterious, supernatural, and enigmatic. What are these plants, mixtures, and elements with such powerful properties? It is only in the past century that science has begun to demystify these chemicals and explain how they work. Still, the impact they have on the world – from cultish mass suicides to chemical attacks to a single case of homicide – can be profound. Toxic History! explores the impact on society, culture, and science behind poisonous events in history.
Adam Blumenberg hosts Toxic History!, a history show with 52 episodes published.
If you were to make a list of the people who have most shaped the world as we know it, Thomas Midgley, Jr. probably wouldn’t crack the top 50. Yet his influence has directly and indirectly touched the lives of billions a
Watching fireflies on a summer evening is one of the joys of the season. However, a fireflies light harbors a secret, and that secret can kill.
Conspiracy theory….or conspiracy fact? MK Ultra was one of the most controversial government programs that engaged in mind blowing atrocities. Let’s go down the rabbit hole together and explore what is known about the hi
Dr. Robert Buchanan’s murder trial captivated the public with its shocking details and gruesome display. Take a deep dive into the tragic story of this physician, where, not one, but two innocent lives were caught in the
From controlling libido to epilepsy, bromides surged in popularity but experienced an equally precipitous decline in 19th century medicine. As the paradigm of disease explanation progressed from humors to pathology, brom
There is a long, perhaps to be forgotten, history of clinicians performing observational n=1 studies upon themselves to “prove” their safety and efficacy of the proposed therapy. The talk is to describe toxicology-relate
The episode traces how the FDA evolved from a modest watchdog born of early 20th-century drug tragedies into a powerful regulatory agency, highlighting key reforms that reshaped American medicine. It then unpacks the lon
Dr. William Palmer, surgeon, gambler, toxic murderer. The historical account of Dr Palmer and the events that made him a notorious serial killer.
Karen Wetterhahn, a super star organic chemist at Dartmouth College who worked on heavy metal toxicity, presented to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Memorial Hospital on January, 20th 1997. She was profoundly ill, and shortly lapsed
Methylene blue is a vividly blue dye that holds the distinction of being the first fully synthetic medication to be given to human beings, and played a major part in the scientific advances of the late 19th century. Its
Apples have been associated being forbidden fruit and source of nefarious poisonings all throughout folklore. This presentation delves into whether there is any historical legitimacy to these tales, and if we have anythi
Join us as we discuss the history of the radium craze in the early 1900s and how its early popularity led to the tragic demise of many young women who worked as radium dial painters. Their story helped establish the fiel
The goal of bringing the full color spectrum onto the canvas is important to artists but many of the early compounds had significant toxicity. The talk will discuss the adverse effects from some of the heavy metals found
Arsenic, known since antiquity as the ‘king of poisons’, gained infamy among nobility and the bourgeoisie as a public menace. Synonymous with crimes of ‘fashion’, arsenic poisoning was the silent killer and a nearly untr
This presentation delves into the toxicological roots of the infamous Witch Trials and other historical confessions of witchcraft and lycanthropy. Discover how the use of plants like belladonna and datura contributed to
The German bombing of Bari, Italy in December 1943 had disastrous consequences for the Allies. Learn more about the mysterious cargo in the port that day, the Allied cover-up that followed, and the diligent detective wor
Construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel was one of the worst occupational disasters in American history. Its construction resulted in large numbers of casualties, both acute and chronic, secondary to silicosis and other oc
Explore the medical history of King George III, a monarch whose reign was marked by brilliance, chaos, and the shadow of madness. This toxicological exploration unveils the personal struggles behind the politics, from th
There has been doping in sport throughout modern times, but before the steroid era athletes used different agents to enhance their performance. Learn about how strychnine use in the 1904 and 1908 Olympic marathons may ha
In 1983 patients began presenting with sudden onset Parkinsonian symptoms after using a new designer drug. Dr. Langston eventually was able to link the cases to exposure to the contaminant MPTP, and the future of Parkins
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Toxic History! is hosted by Adam Blumenberg. The show is categorised under history (health) and has published 52 episodes.
Toxic History! has published 52 episodes.
Toxic History! regularly covers history, health, fitness. It sits in the history category, with a health focus.
Toxic History! is accessible for guests with genuine history expertise. A personalised, episode-aware pitch will still outperform a generic one every time.
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Episodes of Toxic History! average 22 minutes. a focused format where a clear narrative arc and tight preparation matter most.
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