Ghost Hunting in the 19th Century
Distillations | Science History Institute
Release Date: 07/06/2021
Exploring 'Health Equity Tourism'
Distillations | Science History Institute
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a new public interest in health inequities research. With this new focus, there also has come new funding with many researchers and institutions clamoring to receive lucrative funding and recognition in the field, but there are no official guidelines to distinguish a health equity expert. In this episode we sit down with Dr. Elle Lett who coined the term "health equity tourism" to describe when privileged and previously unengaged scholars enter the health equity field without developing the necessary expertise....
info_outline
The Mothers of Gynecology
Distillations | Science History Institute
Of all wealthy countries, the United States is the most dangerous place to have a baby. Our maternal mortality rate is abysmal, and over the past five years it’s only gotten worse. And there are huge racial disparities: Black women are three times more likely to die than white women. Despite some claims to the contrary, the problem isn’t race, it’s racism. In this episode we trace the origins of this harrowing statistic back to the dawn of American gynecology—a field that was built on the bodies of enslaved women. And we’ll meet eight women who have dedicated their lives to...
info_outline
Correcting Race
Distillations | Science History Institute
Certain medical instruments have built-in methods of correcting for race. They’re based on the premise that Black bodies are inherently different from White bodies. The tool that measures kidney function, for example, underestimates how severe some Black patients’ kidney disease is, and prevents them from getting transplants. Medical students and doctors have been trying to do away with race correction tools once and for all. And they’re starting to see some success. About Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race “Correcting Race” is Episode 9 of , a podcast and magazine...
info_outline
"That Rotten Spot"
Distillations | Science History Institute
When the plague broke out in San Francisco in 1900 the public health department poured all of their energy into stopping its spread in Chinatown, as if Chinatown were the problem. This episode reveals why they did it, what it has to do with race science, and what it tells us about the history of public health. Credits Host: Senior Producer: Producer: Associate Producer: Audio Engineer: “Innate Theme” composed by . Additional music by .
info_outline
Black Pills
Distillations | Science History Institute
In 2005 the FDA approved a pill to treat high blood preassure only in African Americans. This so-called miracle drug was named BiDil, and it became the first race-specific drug in the United States. It might sound like a good a good thing, but it had the unintended consequence of perpetuating the myth that race is a biological construct. Credits Hosts: and Senior Producer: Producer: Associate Producer: Audio Engineer: “Innate Theme” composed by . Additional music by . Resource List , by Dorothy Roberts , by Osagie K. Obasogie , by Jonathan Kahn , by Jay...
info_outline
Bad Blood, Bad Science
Distillations | Science History Institute
The word “Tuskegee” has come to symbolize the Black community’s mistrust of the medical establishment. It has become American lore. However, most people don’t know what actually happened in Macon County, Alabama, from 1932 to 1972. This episode unravels the myths of the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Syphilis Study (the correct name of the study) through conversations with descendants and historians. Credits Hosts: and Senior Producer: Producer: Associate Producer: Audio Engineer: “Innate Theme” composed by . Additional...
info_outline
The African Burial Ground
Distillations | Science History Institute
In 1991, as crews broke ground on a new federal office building in lower Manhattan, they discovered human skeletons. It soon became clear that it was the oldest and largest African cemetery in the country. The federal government was ready to keep building, but people from all over the African diaspora were moved to treat this site with dignity, respect, and scientific excellence. When bioarchaeologist Michael Blakey took over, that's exactly what they got. But it wasn't easy. Credits Host: Senior Producer: Producer: Associate Producer: Audio Engineer: ...
info_outline
Return, Rebury, Repatriate
Distillations | Science History Institute
In 2019, Abdul-Aliy Muhammad, a community organizer and journalist, learned that the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology had a collection of skulls that belonged to enslaved people. As Muhammad demanded that the university return these skulls, they discovered that claiming ownership over bodies of marginalized people is not just a relic of the past—it continues to this day. Credits Host: Senior Producer: Producer: Associate Producer: Audio Engineer: “Innate Theme” composed by . Additional music by . Resource List , by Abdul-Aliy Muhammad , by...
info_outline
The Vampire Project
Distillations | Science History Institute
In the 1990s a liberal population geneticist launched the Human Genome Diversity Project. The goal was to sequence the genomes of “isolated” and “disappearing” indigenous groups throughout the world. The project did not go as planned—indigenous groups protested it, and scientists and anthropologists criticized it. This episode examines what went wrong and asks the question: can anti-racist scientists create racist science? About Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race “The Vampire Project” is Episode 4 of , a podcast and magazine...
info_outline
Keepers of the Flame
Distillations | Science History Institute
In the 1970s Barry Mehler started tracking race scientists and he noticed something funny: they all had the same funding source. One wealthy man was using his incredible resources to prop up any scientist he could find who would validate his white supremacist ideology—and make it seem like it was backed by a legitimate scientific consensus. About Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race “Keepers of the Flame” is Episode 3 of , a podcast and magazine project that explores the historical roots and persistent legacies of racism in American science and medicine....
info_outlineThe 19th century was a time of rapid technological leaps: the telegraph, the steam boat, the radio were invented during this century. But this era was also the peak of spiritualism: the belief that ghosts and spirits were real and could be communicated with after death. Seances were all the rage. People tried to talk to their dead loved ones using Ouija boards and automatic writing. Although it might seem contradictory, it's not a coincidence that this was all happening at the same time.
There have always been questions about life after death, but in the 19th century people found new ways to investigate them using these new cutting-edge technological tools. And part of it was that some of these new tools felt supernatural in and of themselves. The radio, the telegraph, the phonograph: these allowed us to speak over inconceivable distances, communicate instantly from an ocean away, and even preserve human voices in time and after death. But something else was going on in the 19th century. The people who were trying to figure out if we could really talk to ghosts were not just on the fringes - many of them were scientists.
Credits
Hosts: Alexis Pedrick and Elisabeth Berry Drago
Senior Producer: Mariel Carr
Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez
Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer
Music:
"Lanterns Ascending" - Jerry Lacey
"Shapeshifter" - Martin Klem
"Behind that Door" - Farrell Wooten
"First Sign" - Mahlert
"Black Core" - Guy Copeland
"Maximum State" - Ethan Sloan
"String Quartet No. 3, Op. 41 Adagio Part 4" - Traditional
"Chronicles of a Mystic Dream" - Grant Newman
"Deep Cellar" - Experia
"Shapeless Inside" - Cobby Costa
"Aquamarine" - Mahlert
"Decomposed" - Philip Ayers
Special thanks to Charley Levin and Lena Kidd-Nicolella for their portrayal of Maggie and Kate Fox.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.