Distillations: Science + Culture + History

For as long as humans have been around they’ve worried about their smell. “That’s why we’ve had perfumes for as long as we’ve had people,” says Cari Casteel, a CHF research fellow studying the history of deodorant. But, Casteel says, "it wasn't until the late 19th, early 20th century that the technology and the chemistry catches up to what people want." Today most Americans don’t give a second thought to using deodorant. In fact, some 90% of the population slathers the stuff on. But in the late 19th and early 20th centuries deodorants and antiperspirants were new, and their makers had to convince potential customers (all women) that perfumes alone weren’t cutting it and that their body odor and perspiration were unacceptable. They did so by preying on women’s insecurities, an approach later used successfully on men. In this episode we explore some of the funny, disturbing, sexist, and quirky advertisements from deodorant’s history and discover that today’s commercials are strangely similar to those of the pas

We all know hydration is important to health, but many people find water boring to drink. Juice and Coke aren’t boring, but they aren’t very healthy either. One way to transform water into a more exciting drink is to add bubbles. For centuries carbonated water from natural springs was used as a medicine. Now lifestyle and health concerns have combined to drive fizzy water’s renewed popularity. Join us as we unpack the long history of carbonated water, from natural mineral springs, to the invention of artificial carbonation by a radical 18th-century chemist, to the fading tradition of seltzer deliverymen in New York City. Show Clock 00:01 Intro 00:24 The rise of fizzy water  04:30 Seltzer Boys 06:40 What's the difference between seltzer, mineral water, and club soda?  08:22 The history of carbonated water   11:55 Seltzer and health Credits Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy Producer:  Mariel CarrAssociate Producer: Rigoberto HernandezReporter: Rigoberto HernandezAdditional production by Kyrie Greenberg  Spe

The sports bra is omnipresent in today’s sports landscape. But the current iteration of this nifty item is less than 40 years old, and it arrived with a serendipitous origin story. For this episode of Distillations we talked to Lisa Lindahl, an entrepreneur from Vermont, who in 1979 patented what was to become the modern-day sports bra. It’s a story about a runner who wanted running to be more comfortable. “It was the right product at the right time. It really struck a chord for so many women,” says Lindahl. “This product came into being because it was something I wanted.” We also talked to our museum team about their new exhibition, Second Skin: The Science of Stretch, and the roles stretch fabrics play in health and sports. Christy Schneider, exhibits project manager at the Museum at CHF, says it’s all about getting the body you want, whether you want to dance all night or run a marathon. “How do you that?” asks Schneider. “You clothe it in a second skin.” Show Clock 00:05 Intro00:32 ‘The Sports Bra Seen Ro

Our producer is pregnant. For the past nine months people have asked what her birth plan is, which to her seems like asking what kind of weather she had planned for her wedding day. “All of a sudden my life was full of these terms: natural, medicated, doula, epidural, and it quickly became clear that there was a great debate—and I was supposed to choose a side.”  We wanted to know when this controversy started, and why comedian Amy Schumer is joking about sea-turtle births. So we talked to Lara Freidenfelds, a historian of sexuality, reproduction, and women’s health in America, and learned some surprising things about our nation’s early childbirth practices. Freidenfelds also shared her views about why a growing number of women are opting for unmedicated births, while Amy Tuteur, a retired obstetrician and the author of Push Back: Guilt in the Age of Natural Parenting, tells us that once upon a time all births were natural—and a lot of mothers and babies died. Show Clock 00:01 Inside Amy Schumer: "It's Bette

Over the past year we’ve brought you stories about tacos, taxidermy, and DDT. But at the same time we’ve been thinking about and researching medicine—specifically, how outsiders to the field have helped change the ways doctors practice. Join us to find out how philosophers, transgender patients, and Jehovah’s Witnesses have influenced health care in the United States over the past few decades.  Show Clock 00:04 Intro 01:41 Transgender and intersex patients 06:51 Bioethicists 09:55 Jehovah's Witnesses Credits Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy Guest: Mariel Carr Producer: Mariel Carr Associate Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Music "Nature Kid" by Podington Bear, courtesy of the Free Music Archive. Additional music courtesy of the Audio Network.

Have you noticed any antlered rabbits mounted on the wall of your local coffee shop? Or maybe some geese with butterfly wings? That’s because taxidermy has made a comeback. Our producer, Mariel Carr, wanted to know why, so she spent a few months exploring the alternative—or rogue—taxidermy scene in Philadelphia. Rogue taxidermy takes an artistic approach to the traditional craft. It combines materials, and even animals, in unconventional ways. And it seems to involve a fair amount of glitter. Meet Beth Beverly, a young taxidermist; John Whitenight, an eccentric collector of Victorian taxidermy; and the polar bears and gorillas at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Together they explain taxidermy’s long history of combining art and science, and describe the role arsenic played in taxidermy’s rise to prominence in the 19th century. Show Clock: 00:04 Intro 01:13 This Is Not Your Great-Grandfather's Taxidermy Credits: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy Reporter: Mariel CarrProducer: Mariel Carr Associate Produce

We’re guessing you know who Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton are, and maybe you’re even familiar with Linus Pauling or Roald Hoffmann. But it turns out that a lot of people can’t name a single female scientist besides Marie Curie. Exasperated by this fact, radio producer Poncie Rutsch made a podcast she titled Babes of Science. The show profiles accomplished scientists from history who also happened to be women. We became such fans of the show that we decided to create a special Babes of Science and Distillations collaborative episode. In it Rutsch profiles Barbara McClintock, a cytogeneticist who discovered transposons, or “jumping genes,” and whose radical ideas made it hard for her to gain acceptance in the field. Show Clock: 00:04 Intro 01:46 Babes of Science: Barbara McClintock 14:37 Interview with Poncie Rutsch Credits: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy Guest: Poncie Rutsch  Reporter: Poncie RutschProducer: Mariel Carr Associate Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez These songs courtesy of Free Music Archi

When you bite into a taco, quesadilla, or anything else involving a traditionally made corn tortilla, your taste buds get to experience the results of an ancient chemical process called nixtamalization. The technique dates to around 1500 BCE and involves cooking corn kernels with an alkaline substance, like lime or wood ash, which makes the dough softer, tastier, and much more nutritious. Only in the 20th century did scientists figure out the secret of nixtamalization—the process releases niacin, one of the essential B vitamins. Our guest, archaeologist and nixtamalization expert Rachel Briggs, says that the historical chemical process transformed corn from a regular food into a viable dietary staple, one that cultures around the world continue to rely on for many of their calories. Without nixtamalization Mesoamerican civilizations like the Maya and the Aztec would not have survived, let alone flourished. Benjamin Miller and Christina Martinez are the only chefs in Philadelphia making their tortillas from sc

Everyone knows blood is powerful. The ancient Greeks realized it, Jesus understood it, Dracula certainly recognized it, and your doctor still knows it today. And everybody knows, says hematologist and historian of medicine Jacalyn Duffin, that if we lose a lot of blood, we’re going to die. Jehovah’s Witnesses’ beliefs have led them to refuse blood transfusions—to the consternation of many inside the medical profession. But the religious group still wants medical care, says reporter Alex Ashley, and their advocacy has helped propel a new movement in medicine in which doctors perform surgeries without transfusing blood. Remarkably, it has turned out better for everyone, suggesting that religion and medicine might be less at odds than they sometimes seem. Show Clock: 00:04 Intro01:35 Feature: When a Pint of Sweat Saves a Gallon of Blood14:04 Blood is powerful17:25 Blood is religious18:40 Blood is a miracle21:45 Blood is dangerous24:35 Conclusion Credits: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob KenworthyGuest: Jacalyn Duffin

Scientists experimented with skin and organ transplants for a long time before they finally met with success in the mid-20th century. Now surgeons are expert at performing transplants. The only problem? There aren’t enough organs to go around, which creates some serious ethical dilemmas. First, reporter Dalia Mortada takes us to Tel Aviv, Israel, where a dialysis patient waiting for a new kidney is running out of patience. Conflicting religious interpretations have prevented many Israelis from signing up to become organ donors. This has created a serious supply-and-demand problem, leading many desperate patients to the black market. Mortada tells us how this trend is slowly changing and talks to the doctors, rabbis, and bioethicists behind the shift. Then we talk to American bioethicists Art Caplan and Robert Baker about the pitfalls of the U.S. donation system. “You sign up when you go to Motor Vehicles,” Caplan says, “which may not be the ultimately wonderful place to make [these] decisions, other than the

Americans have had a long, complicated relationship with the pesticide DDT, or dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, if you want to get fancy. First we loved it, then we hated it, then we realized it might not be as bad as we thought. But we’ll never restore it to its former glory. And couldn’t you say the same about America’s once-favorite pop star? We had a hunch that the usual narrative about DDT’s rise and fall left a few things out, so we talked to historian and CHF fellow Elena Conis. She has been discovering little-known pieces of this story one dusty letter at a time. But first our associate producer Rigoberto Hernandez checks out some of CHF’s own DDT cans—that’s right, we have a DDT collection—and talks to the retired exterminator who donated them.  Show Clock: 00:03 Introduction01:26 DDT's Rise06:56 DDT's Fall13:24 DDT's Complicated Legacy  Credits: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob KenworthyGuest: Elena ConisProducer: Mariel CarrAssociate Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez Music: Music courtesy of the Audio Net

2015 was a good year for outer space. Star Wars: Episode VII came out, NASA started hiring astronauts again, SpaceX successfully launched and returned a rocket, and the U.S. Congress passed the SPACE Act of 2015—a bill that gives any American who extracts resources from an asteroid legal rights to the bounty they reap. Since no one has yet mined an asteroid this legislation might seem premature, but it’s essential to the future of two Silicon Valley asteroid mining companies. That’s right, they already exist. They’re just waiting for humans to start colonizing space. Reporters Katie Gilbert and Annie Costakis talk to Daniel Faber, the founder of Deep Space Industries, about his dream: to build the space equivalent of Home Depot, as well as fueling stations and manufacturing plants. They also explain a few of the untested theories behind asteroid mining. We wanted to know more about the history of space dreaming and space colonies, so we talked to Patrick McCray, a historian of science and technology and the a

Several years ago historian of medicine Alice Dreger found herself in a room full of intersexed people, individuals with reproductive or sexual anatomy that is neither typically female nor male. Dreger noticed something strange: many of them had teeth that were in bad shape. She soon learned that many of them had endured such traumatic experiences with doctors that they wouldn’t go near anyone in a white coat, including dentists. We were astonished by this story, so we asked Dreger to tell us more. She joined us for our December podcast alongside Eric Vilain, a medical geneticist and director of the Center for Gender-based Biology at UCLA. While intersex, transgender, and transsexual issues have recently entered the mainstream, our guests explain that there have always been those whose anatomy or identity prevents them from fitting neatly into the categories of male or female. And even with this newfound exposure, tensions continue to exist for them all. But first we’ll hear about the experiences of a transge

Hackers. Spies. Secrets. This is the menacing language of industrial espionage. But how easy is it to plunder a company for its ideas? Not very, says our guest, Douglas O’Reagan, a historian of science and technology. Throughout history, O’Reagan argues, stealing trade secrets has proven more complicated than lifting a blueprint or section of computer code. What makes a company successful is usually much harder to grasp. But first we look at how one company is trying to pass on the skills and secrets responsible for its success. Reporter Susanne Gietl visits the small Bavarian town of Ingolstadt, headquarters of German automaker Audi. There she finds hundreds of Mexican workers learning skills, secrets, and the “German way” to build cars so they can bring that knowledge back to Mexico. Join us for a trip to the murky world of technology transfer. Show Clock: 00:04 Introduction01:40 Feature story: Learning the "German way" 10:20 Interview with Douglas O'Reagan Credits: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob KenworthyGues

Celebrities, politicians, and scientists have fiercely debated the safety of using genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, in food. It remains to be seen whether GMO labeling becomes mandatory in the United States, but there’s no doubt that the “GMO-free” sticker is garnering the prestige and premium prices already reaped by the labels “organic” and “gluten-free.” But what’s the big fuss? And how did this great GMO debate begin?To find out Distillations goes to the soy and corn fields of Iowa where reporter Amy Mayer hears the perspectives of a few Midwesterners, including two farmers who have found a lucrative niche for the GMO-free crops they’re growing. Then, we’ll talk with plant geneticist Pamela C. Ronald and organic farmer Raoul Adamchak. Together they wrote Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. And they’re married—to each other.

Ten years ago Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore into the Gulf Coast and displaced more than one million residents. For many of these people, trailers provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency became their homes. But many of the new occupants soon found it hard to breathe, suffering flulike symptoms, stinging eyes, and nosebleeds. The culprit was formaldehyde, which emanated from the hastily assembled, substandard materials used to make the trailers. A decade after the storms Distillations follows CHF researcher and medical anthropologist Nick Shapiro as he searches for the remaining FEMA trailers. His search takes him to the oil fields of North Dakota, where a different kind of housing crisis is taking place.    

Most of us are familiar with the achievements of Galileo and Newton, but who were their peers? And what was it like to practice science in the 16th and 17th centuries? Come geek out with us as we travel back in time and explore what the world was like when science and the supernatural were not so far apart. We talk to two historians of science, Deborah Harkness and James Voelkel. Harkness is the author of The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution as well asthe All Soul’s Trilogy, a popular fantasy series filled with witches, vampires, demons, scientists, and historians. Voelkel is the curator of rare books at CHF and an expert on Johannes Kepler, a 17th-century astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer.   Though we were unable to time travel for this show (much to our dismay), we did get to visit the Making and Knowing Project’s laboratory at Columbia University, where a group of historians of science are reconstructing a 16th-century workshop and re-creating recipes from an anonymous

This is Distillations’s 200th episode, and we’re celebrating! We pored through hundreds of shows and pieced together some of the funniest, grossest, and most surprising moments in Distillations history. Still chuckling from episode 166, "Alchemy After Dark," where CHF’s rare book curator Jim Voelkel cries from laughter while reading a steamy alchemical passage from yesteryear? Still trying to forget the body-cheese experiment from episode 156, "Hard to Stomach"? Or maybe you’re still perplexed about how a Viagra tablet might wind up in your herbal supplement, as explained in episode 197, "Fads and Faith"? We visit these moments and many more. Thanks for listening, and we hope you’ll join us for the next 200 shows!  CREDITS: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy Producer & Editor: Mariel Carr   Music courtesy of the Audio Network.   

Mother Nature can do a lot of damage. Tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and droughts destroy landscapes and ruin lives. But what happens when humans are the ones creating these disasters? This episode of Distillations explores the many ways humans have provoked nature’s destructive forces purposefully and inadvertently through history. Our journey begins in Oklahoma, a state that now has more earthquakes than California. Reporter Anna Stitt talks to the people affected by these new quakes and finds out how their lives have changed. Then we talk to historian Jacob Darwin Hamblin about his latest book, Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism. He tells us how Cold War military planners sought to use the environment as a weapon and in the process discovered how vulnerable our planet really is. SHOW CLOCK: 00:03 Introduction 01:20 Oklahoma, the Earthquake State 11:07 Interview with Jacob Darwin Hamblin CREDITS: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy Guest: Jacob Darwin Hamblin Reporter: Anna S

The early days of neuroscience relied on tragedy to strike—a rabies infection, a botched lobotomy—before doctors could peek inside the brains of humans. Today advanced technology, such as the functional MRI, helps scientists study brains (and healthy ones at that) far more easily. The revelations they’re making call into question conventional ideas of maturity and our capacity for free will. The story begins at a unique laboratory at Michigan Technological University, called the Mind Music Machine, where reporter Allison Mills talks to a cognitive scientist who’s trying to develop technology that can interpret our emotions.  Then we talk about the history of neuroscience with Sam Kean, a regular contributor to Distillations magazine and author of the recent book The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons. Frances Jensen, a neuroscientist and author of The Teenage Brain, brings us into the present and explains the science behind why teenagers drive their parents crazy. SHOW CLOCK: 00:03 Introduction 02:01 The Mind