Home Podcasts The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean
The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

Sam Kean 136 episodes Latest Jun 2, 2026

A topsy-turvy science-y history podcast by Sam Kean. I examine overlooked stories from our past: the dental superiority of hunter-gatherers, the crooked Nazis who saved thousands of American lives, the American immigrants who developed the most successful cancer screening tool in history, the sex lives of dinosaurs, and much, much more. These are charming little tales that never made the history books, but these small moments can be surprisingly powerful. These are the cases where history gets inverted, where the footnote becomes the real story.

Episodes

NASA’s Unmentionable(s) Adventure Jun 9, 2026 1130 In the 1960s, NASA needed a better spacesuit. So they turned to the one firm on earth capable of meeting their strict standards—the Playtex underwear company. Episode below!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Pioneers and Vestiges of Evolution Jun 2, 2026 1108 His book on evolution rocked 1800s England. Not Charles Darwin. Robert Chambers, whose infamous tome both horrified Darwin, yet paved the way for him.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Angel of the Concentration Camp May 26, 2026 1049 Nurse Laura Cobb saved more lives than Clara Barton or Florence Nightingale, and under far worse conditions—in a brutal World War II concentration camp. So why did the world forget her?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Battery Dope May 19, 2026 1132 In the 1950s, scientists hated politics. Then one Allen Astin got fired. After that, scientists knew they had to play politics—or face professional annihilation.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Making of the “Flat Earth” Myth May 12, 2026 1041 No one in Columbus’s time believed the world was flat. So why did so many children learn this bogus “fact” in school? It all goes back to Rip van Winkle...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Forensic Pseudoscience May 5, 2026 1104 When the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, the two most scientific detectives in the world took on the case. But they overlooked the real enemy—their own petty prejudice.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Manhattan Project Propaganda Apr 28, 2026 1066 The Smyth Report is the strangest book ever written on atomic bombs—as well as highly effective science propaganda, warping our view of everything from the Manhattan Project to Robert Oppenheimer. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Back-Breaking Science Apr 21, 2026 1085 When a British sub sank with all hands, JBS Haldane volunteered to investigate by experimenting on himself—even if it meant losing his own life in the process. (Part 2 of 2.)Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Canaries in the Submarine Apr 14, 2026 1033 There’s only one thing Dr. John Haldane loved more than running dangerous experiments on himself—running them on his son Jack. But the duo would revolutionize our understanding of the human body.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Charles Lindbergh, Lab Rat Apr 7, 2026 1150 When Charles Lindbergh's sister-in-law developed heart trouble, he teamed up with a Nobel-Prize-winning doctor to save her. He had no idea the dark paths his work would lead him down, including Nazi politics and eugenics...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
The Publicity Stunt that Sparked the Scopes Monkey Trial Dec 16, 2025 1139 Exactly a century ago, teacher John Scopes was charged with the “crime” of teaching evolution. But Scopes was hardly a defiant Galileo, nobly standing up for truth. In fact, he never even taught evolution. (Really.) But despite the unseemly origins of the Monkey Trial, Scopes proved himself a genuine hero...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com
The Great Balloon Escape Dec 9, 2025 1087 Astronomer Jules Janssen was desperate to escape the siege of Paris in 1870 and observe an eclipse in Africa—work that he hoped would confirm his discovery of a brand new element in the Sun, helium. So he devised a plan to escape the city in a hot-air balloon, despite promises by the German army to shoot him as a spy if he dared try...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Op

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