July 10, 2025 • 43 mins
Everyone in the developed world knows someone who's tried a 'fad diet' -- these are the so-called miracle practices that promise to help people lose weight and keep it off, through any number of potentially dubious methods. But where did they come from? In today's episode, Ben, Noel and guest producer Dylan dive deep into the Victorian era of tapeworms, super-chewing, and more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:28):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our guest
super producer, Dylan the Chainsaw Fago.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Dylan.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, you like that. Dylan is anything.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
He's He's the most gentle chainsaw I ever did. Now
he's a velvet chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Chainsaw for the beadle.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Dear, I missed a story. Dylan just held up his
injured hand. Is that chainsaw relating?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
It is here? Sorry, buddy, you're okay?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Dylan? Do you want to hop on? I can and
talk about that. It's okay If not.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, I was trying to cut down a tree on
the fourth of July and cut into my hand. God,
but I'm gonna be okay. You didn't lose any fingies, right, No,
I no feeling, and you know I was headed to
the emergency room yelling, am I gonna be able to
play guitar? Jesus? This is so stressful? Oh my god,
I'm so glad you're okay.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
That is, as a fellow guitarist, not nearly as good
as you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I understand the terror.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
There and I'm bringing this up here because we are
an audio podcast. So everyone playing along at home, please
note imagine if you will, a guy who looks like
he absolutely can mop up in a fight. Dylan's got
this really cool bandage around. Yeah, just so that's Nold Brown.
(01:52):
They called me Ben Bullen.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Today we are exploring something that is controversial for a
lot of reasons. For a lot of people. It's something
called the fad diet.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yeah for sure, if anyone is uh, I swear when
I was reading through this incredible research brief brought to
us by research associated extraordinary wren Fest Jones the best,
by the way. We love her work so much. I
couldn't help but think of the movie A Cure for Wellness.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Do you remember this film?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Me a god, I do.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Sort of a very love craft very lovecrafting and play
on the works of John Harvey Kellogg.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
And another film reminds me of wait, what was it? Something? Wellsville.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Two Tickets to Wellsville is about like yogurt and eemas
and stuff, but obviously.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Sanitarium like health health health camps essentially not all the
time consensual and oftentimes not based on what we would
consider real science.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Oh not at all.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
And like you know, certainly we had controversial versions of
this well into these and two thousands, even pejoratively often
called fat camps, you know, as a as a you know,
a bigger bone fellow, I personally take issue with that.
But yeah, we are talking about fad diets today and
it goes back a lot farther than you might think,
or maybe exactly as far as you might think, depending
(03:18):
The word diet is actually derived from the Greek word diatya, which,
according to Louise Foxcroft from BBC Magazine, described a whole
way of life. Dieting back then was about all around
mental and physical health.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
That's a very progressive form of the idea of a
balanced diet, you know, referring.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
To a lifestyle choice. It's holistic, it's grishtaltic, right. It
encounters things like not just ingestion and expenditure of calorie,
but also mental wellness, also community connection. This think of
it more like a rechedus at this point, a well
(03:58):
lived life and how to define and pursue such The
original point of what we would loosely call diet in
the days of the Greeks was getting a hold of
a greater good for your body as a as a
huge organism and your function in a larger society. But
(04:19):
now the word diet is used everywhere.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Diet coke, right.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I swear I distinctly remember this, maybe the mandala effect,
but I distinctly remember seeing something called diet bacon and thinking, now,
I don't know about.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
That, maybe fake and bacon.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
There's certainly that, like the vegan bacon and all of that,
but even a lot of those meatless substitutes are super
carbi and not necessarily like one hundred percent better for
you calorically speaking, I guess if you're going from non
meat thing, they definitely fit the bill. I was just
thinking about the Greeks and the wellness thing, and then
the films that I was talking about, and I think
(05:03):
I just tried googling Greek enemas and I got a
whole bunch of results for Greek animals. So I don't know,
Greek anemas was as much of a thing.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
As you get to put the quotation marks around.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I might have misspelledious.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I spelled it like maybe a little more like Onoma,
like the Tool album, and all right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
But I mean, so we're asking a real good question here, Noel.
The question is when did this switch? When did the
use of the word diet or dietas, When did it
transform into what we use the word for in the
modern day. As Red points out, we can put a
lot of the switch here on the Victorians. The Victorian era,
(05:46):
they didn't have Instagram to you know, hold influencers pedaling
diet teas or laxatives. Louis Armstrong by the way, big
fan of laxatives or weight loss. But they did have
a phenomenal breakthrough in technology, the steam powered printing press,
(06:06):
which meant that a lot more people had the opportunity
to read. Also, they did not have maybe the necessary
critical thinking skills to evaluate the mallarchy from the truth archy,
the malarkey from the proarchy.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
We certainly this technology helped to aid some folks in
disseminating their quack diets, you know, in the form of
pamphlets or booklets. So why don't we jump right in
There is a fellow before Atkins became kind of synonymous
with dieting, or Jenny Craig.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
If people you know of a certain age, remember that.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Low carb tortillas, things like that diet everything, which does seem,
by the way I was going to point out, it
seems to be being leaned away from a bit. We've
got your coke zeros now and the word diet. Certainly
there's the legacy diet coke. They're never going to get
rid of that, but they don't promote it, right, it
just sort of exists. Diet mountain dew not always available,
but like coke zero, they've actually promoted. We've got a
(07:11):
guy by the name of William Bant who in his
eighteen sixty three book letter on Corpulence, You're gonna have
to help me out with corpulence bend because I always
think of like a.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Corpse, but what corpuscles? What is corpulence?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Ob city?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Oh okay, oh okay, gob city got it.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
He lays out a diet plan that really worked for
him anyway, to the point where he felt like he
wanted to spread the word. He was so popular that
the word Bant, or that his name shortened to Bant,
became a verb for dieting.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
You know, to bant was to diets.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, And this occurs in Oxford English Dictionary. It stays
there from the late eighteen hundreds all the way to
nineteen sixty three. You might say, for example, someone gives
you a good tiramasu or crazy eighteen hundreds dessert and
(08:10):
you say, ah, thanks, but you know, I appreciate it.
I'm banting right now, And that would be the way
you would that would be deployed, the same way you
would say, I'm on a diet right now, like no
sugar for me. It's eighteen sixty two and bant is
He's about five feet five inches tall. He weighs two
(08:32):
hundred and two pounds, which is a pretty noticeable metric
for his part of the world at this time in history.
And his height, yes, yeah, and his heightened right, So
the metrics combined ed. He is experiencing joint pain. He's
(08:53):
not having a great time at field days or at sport.
And he says he has that what we will call it, Dylan,
and I will call it in East Tennessee it come
to Jesus more. You may have the same statements in augusta.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
He says, Look, I've got to make a difference. Let
me see how I can improve myself. And he looks
at the current improvement propositions or regimens of the day,
things like going to a Turkish bathhouse, going to a
sweaty spa, doing a lot of jumping jacks, rigorous calisthetics,
(09:32):
and he says, look, this is just making me hungrier.
I want to consume more calories. Add to this, the
poor guy has some other health problems. He's losing his hearing,
and eventually his doctor tells him something crazy. The guy
he pays the look at his ears, says, you know what, man,
(09:56):
there is a correlation between your weight and your problems
with his hearing. This is where we meet that your
doctor himself, William Harvey.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Harvey suggested to Bant that he cut out certain foods
carbi stuff, fatty stuff, lactose stuff, bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer,
and potatoes, and recommended that he live on animal proteins,
fruits and non starchy vegetables. Funny thing, this is definitely
still a popular choice, you know, for certain types of
(10:29):
diets today. I mean, it definitely works, whether or not
your anti meat, animal protein or not. This is something
that is in many ways in certain schools of thought,
still suggested and can be very effective. Although Bant was
allowed no beer, but he could have up to six
glasses of red wine or sherry a day on this diet,
(10:51):
and Red points out that this well exceeds the Center
for Disease Controls current metrics for heavy drinking Champagne and beer.
Of course we're off limits because of how sugar they are,
and red wine and I believe tequila are still something
that are allowable in things like the Keto diet.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
This was really working for man.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
He lost a pound a week on this diet and
his joint pain started to subside and miraculously surprising, I
think to even us in the modern day.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Here his hearing came back.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Interesting, and let's step back here for a second, because
the correlation, the inspiration from the year doctor William Harvey
comes from not just him picking up vibes or improvising. Instead,
Doc Harvey here had been experimenting on sugar intake in canines,
and he did so because he believed there was a
(11:46):
link between glycogen that comes from your liver and hearing
loss and diabetes, or as Mac and south Park like
to say, diabetes. So as you're saying no, this guy
is not just losing a pound a week on cutting
out sugar. Essentially, he is also getting his hearing back.
(12:11):
It's a whole new world. He wants to communicate this success.
He publishes the first two versions of his book, weirdly
called Letters on Corpulence. He distributes them to the public.
He's not charging anyone. It's not about the money, it's
about the message. He starts to make a little bit
of profit on the third edition of this work, and
(12:35):
it is only in that third edition that he gives
his ear doctor Harvey credit for his contribution. With that
being said, Oh, we should have put this at the front.
None of this is medical advice. Oh absolutely, none of this.
You're going to hear a lot of terrible ideas as
a matter for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Yeah, I think we set that up pretty well at
the top. Speaking of terrible ideas, how about ingesting paris,
you know for funzies. This is some cure for wellness
type stuff. I believe there were leeches in that. There
is another film that takes place during the Victorian era
that's very recent called The Ugly step Sister, and it
(13:15):
is apparently like a really macabre, fractured fairy tale version
of I want to say Cinderella that I believe that's
the one with the evil stepsisters, but it has a
plot point that involves ingesting a tapeworm.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Tapeworms an old enemy of the humans and other living organisms.
So let's say you're in the Victorian era. You don't
quite have the wherewithal to control sugar intake. You may
not have the privilege of choosing what you want to eat,
(13:54):
but you can swallow the egg of a tapeworm derived
from a cow in pill four. And the hope here
is that most of the tapeworms are going to die
in your stomach acid. That's just the nature of attrition.
But what if one of these tapeworms makes it through
your bubbling guts of your stomach acid and reaches your intestines,
(14:19):
reaches maturity, and then it starts to absorb some percentage
of the food nutrients and calories you ingest. This means
that you get that theoretically, this is their pitch. This
means that you can eat whatever you want and you
will not gain weight.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
But there's a big problem.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, So first catch most cases,
the eggs in those little Victorian era pills. First, they're
hard to swallow. Pill technology is not what it is today.
But also they're dead eggs.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Their dead egg so it would be like a placebo
effect situation and or just a nasty tummy egg.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, and that's still not the worst catch. The worst
catch is if it works. If a tapeworm egg is alive,
does survive stomach acid, and the ingestion process makes it
to the human intestine, it can live for decades and decades.
Unlike some other parasites, this is not a short lived
(15:28):
parasitic cycle. They can also grow to be up to
thirty feet long. They can get this. Folks reproduce without
a partner, so the one egg that makes it through
to human intestines can build its own Brady bunch inside you.
This can lead to of course, massive hilarious diarrhea, brain swelling, dementia.
(15:53):
You're gonna be throwing out, You're gonna have seats.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
You imagine the pharmaceutical TV commercial for tapeworms. Like in
all of this side effects that are rattled off at
the end, you kind of you started the list just now. Man,
not to get off track here, but someone pointed out
to me, we're talking a lot on our other show stuff
that I want you to know about the advent of
AI and machine learning and all of that and how
it affects culture, et cetera. Somebody pointed out that the
(16:18):
first kind of company that is just strictly going to
generate purely AI commercials will be pharmaceuticals, because those commercials,
for all intents and purposes already look vaguely AI and
or stock footage driven.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
You know what I mean. They're just so blaz.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, and they're illegal in all countries except for New
Zealand and the United States.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
What's up New Zealand? I mean the United States. I
get it, but I thought New Zealand was better than that.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
We thought, Yeah, we're not angry, you guys, We're confused
and a little disappointed. Also shout out to one of
the best shows on television ever in the West, Always
Sunny in Philadelphia. There is an episode where in the
care arc or Frank Reynolds does ingest a tapeworm through
fecal transplant in order to in an attempt to lose weight.
(17:09):
This is based on reality because you can still buy
tapeworm diet approaches on the dark web today. This we
can't crazy this, This next statement we can consider medical advice.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Hear us don't do These folks don't do it, just can't.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
We can't advocate for stuff. But I feel like we
can tell you what you should not do, right, I.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Think we can suggest very strongly that you not ingest
parasites on purpose. I think we're safe and well within
our expertise as human.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
People to offer that bit of advice.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yes, yeah, but what if you just sweat it out?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Well, that's worse too. I mean that's just losing water weights, right, like,
I mean it's right, well, sure, schmitz or whatever as
they call it in the Sopranos culture. Can be a
nice way to relax after a heavy workout, can be
a nice way to loosen the muscles and relax the
joints and things like that. But even people that do
(18:12):
it for weight loss purposes usually like to make weight,
you know, if you're a boxer or a wrestler or
something like that. But it is not long term. And
as someone who's been diving and doing a lot of
exercise stuff lately, my way fluctuates sometimes three pounds day
to day, depending on what time I weigh myself and
depending on how much water I've retained.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
And that is absolutely a thing.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, And even being a night walker myself in these punishing,
perishing Georgia summers, I will lose weight at night, exactly,
worry some degree. And it's as we said, it's water weight.
Around the time in the Victorian era, our buddy Charles Goodyear,
(18:55):
who later would been associated with tires.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, well, we.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Did an episode that research associated Jeff uh prepared for
us about the history of the Goodyear Tire Company, the
Goodyear Blimp and their weird staypuffed marshmallow tire man mascot Babendum,
who was for some.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Reason originally an unhinged alcohol totally.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah, I think, which was smoking in some of those
Maybe I'm no, you're a base he because he's Bibendi.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, he's Babendi. Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
This is because Charles Goodyear is the guy credited with
discovering the process of vulcanization, which makes rubber more elastic
and pliobndy if yeah, yeah, babendi, if you treat it
with heat and sulfur, and this means that now you
can mold rubber into a variety of shapes. It makes
(19:53):
it more ductile, right, it means it won't snap when
you bebend it, especially in cold temperature, and so immediately
people attempt to capitalize on this, and they say, why
don't we make rubber underwear, why don't we make rubber corsets.
Now we know the internet is crazy, that's still.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Absolutely certain circles.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
They are often referred to as kinky potties, and that's okay,
I'm not whatever, not kink shaming at all. It is
very much a subculture BDSM whatever you want to call it,
these types of share yeah, and also club culture and
very much a fashion choice. But not many people necessarily
wearing them for health reasons anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Right right, right, yeah, And of course we're not gonna
yuck a yum. We are going to tell you that
the first rubber undergarments were not for any sort of
admitive or romantic pursuit. They were a diet craze because
the thought was, okay, they were kind of like spanks.
(20:54):
They would smooth out your excess body silhouette. But they
would also and this was seen as a big like
a big plus a value add this would make you
sweat your keyst off. And the idea was that you
sweat just like you're walking around in Atlanta's heat. You
(21:16):
would lose water weight. As we said, the pickle of
it is water weight is temporary.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yeah, I mean, can you imagine the smell of those
sweated rubber garments?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Oh my gosh, who was not good?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Right?
Speaker 4 (21:33):
You know what it makes me think of immediately when
I think of sweaty rubber garments is the original Batman
movie when he's walking through all those.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Flames in that clearly very rubber suit.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I mean he must have had what Wren describes here
as a full body swamp ass.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And the thing that, look, let's take some time as
fans of film, we're cinophiles, like folks, we hope you
are too. The biggest plot hole is and the Keaton
Batman franchise is that he cannot.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Turn his head. He had to turn his hole. Yeah,
he had to full torso pivot. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And did you know that he was wearing like nikes
that those are special custom Nikes And if you look
at the screen used version of the suit, they're like
kind of you know, bespoke nikes, much like the auto lacing.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Shoes and Back to the Future too. Mm hmmmmm.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Nailed it. Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Well, let's let's say this right. So we've explored the
idea of eliminating sugar, which actually does have some sand
to it. We've explored the faustian dangerous bargain of outsourcing
weight loss to parasites. We've talked about getting some gear
on you. But let's talk about this. What if you
take a queue from the health reformer Horace Fletcher, and
(22:56):
you say, ABC, we're not quoting Glenn Garrett Glynn Ross here,
not always be clothesy, always be chewing.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, I love this nickname.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
This guy should have been a King of France or
something known as the Great Masticator, which means the great
chewer masticating. It's a great word. Horace Fletcher, like you said,
he was all about chewing. He thought that swallowing food
before it had been completely liquefied into some sort of
like slurry could result in poor health consequences, including obesity.
(23:31):
According to a fabulous podcast from Science History Institute, I'm
just gonna go ahead and quote what Wren pulled out
of this episode, but do check out their podcast. A
mouthful of bread might take a few dozen shoes to liquify,
but once with a green onion, it took Fletcher seven
hundred and twenty two shoes before he let himself swallow.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
How many licks does it take to get to the
tutsiro center of a tutzerral pop?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It depends on how you want your poop.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Also true that they should have used that for the
ad campaign. One shoe per second, which is twelve straight
minutes of chewing or masticating.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Here's one for everybody with miss a photo. No, no, yeah,
we're not gonna do all twelve. We're not gonna do
seven two. Actually, I gotten a healthy conversation on a
plane about someone who refused to chew like a person anyway.
Obviously Fletcher bit myopic. He was too obsessed, right, Yeah,
(24:29):
bit pro chew. And he is very high fluting, very
dignified and proud about the results of his ingestion process.
He's a poop, goes into it, he says, shows it off. Yeah,
he parties. Yeah, he shows it off at parties. That
is a true story, folks. He also says, look, where's
(24:50):
the poop. My poop is the best evidence that my
diet is super efficient. I'm getting all the nutrients out
of it. And he mailed again a true tale. He
mailed a physiologist at Yale a box of his own
poop in hopes of proving his diet was a success. Now,
(25:11):
if we have a physiologist in the audience tonight, I
know we have several. You guys know when this didn't work, right?
We know you shouldn't just mail your mind.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
No, you shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You need to be asked before you mail.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
That sounds like something Jared Leto would do, like as
a method acting, you know, technique in one of his
joker roles. Ben, are you familiar with this this German
design feature known as the flash spooler?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yes, yeah, the poop proof.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
It's apparently a little bit of an antiquated design, but
it can still be found in a lot of German bathrooms.
The function of the flash spooler, which translates roughly to
shallow flusher, is to prevent splashage, but also to give
a perfect little spot that might give you know, the
excretor the opportunity to examine their stool. I think that
(26:05):
our boy here would have been a big fan of
the flash spooler.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I remember the first few times I saw it, I
was mystified, but I thought it was a win in
rome situation, and you know, what am I going to
call the front desk and tell them to change their
culture change?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
I think what we've both expressed our pro bidet stance.
And one thing, when we were traveling in the Middle East,
I noticed that is not the case in any other
country that I've ever been to, including Europe, where you'd
think it'd be a thing, But days in every public toilet,
but like handheld ones that are like attached to the
wall like a little little sprayer sprayer.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. This is part of
the great conversation right about cleanliness, about fat diets, about
efficiency of the human body. If we fast forward to
today's society, will see that there is a proliferation of
(27:06):
what we'll call over the counter or OTC weight loss medications,
not all created equally. Some have dubious claims, some are older,
some are basically amphetamines, and some are newly rolled out
things like what we call GLP once the most famous
(27:28):
of which would be ozembic.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I mean it's a medication that has kind of been
repurposed to great effects and success for a lot of folks,
So no judgment there at all. I think it's kind
of a little bit odd the way culture is sort
of like poo pooing it when it's very much it
helps people, myself included. I've absolutely taken these in the
past and it helped me kind of get rid of
some of that food noise, which is the thing people
talk about that I've always struggled with some you know,
(27:53):
super positive about people using it correctly. The thing about
it is, though it's not a miracle drug. You while
some people do and I don't think this is the
right move, you really shouldn't just rely on it and
it alone. You really should pair it with like a
change in your diet, a change in your exercise regimens,
that whole lifestyle thing that we talked about, in order
to make sure that the weight stays off and to
(28:15):
help promote kind of healthy habits.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, it's not uncommon for one medication or substance to
be initially deployed for one condition and then to be monetized.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
For different conditions off label.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Things sometimes off label.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, just so, I'm thinking, for instance, about the discovery
of viagra right, which is now most popularly known as
an erectile dysfunction medical it was.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Originally I don't think I know about this, Ben.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, I believe originally it was meant to address things
like hypertension.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Got it so, circulatory issues.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
And then we must imagine, we're just ridiculous hit history
cinematic here. We must imagine that moment in a study
where all these heart patients were like, no, I'm great, yeah,
exactly what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
What is it a priapism?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yes, yes, the two messens that continues to.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah that's right.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, well in this case since it's a desired effect,
but absolutely true, Ben. This was also the case with
a lot of other kinds of drugs, like you said, Ben,
including some that were extremely addictive like methamphetamine, some that
were toxic, and in some cases, some that would outright
(29:43):
kill you.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
This is in the thirties and through the sixties, by the.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Way, Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. GLP ones originally were supposed
to treat obesity and diabetes, and now they've entered their
second act. Back in the earlier days. Oh gosh, we
have a discussion about this on our sister show Stuff.
They don't want you to know how the Russians would
give heat pills to people that would keep you awake,
(30:09):
but if you took too many for too long they
would literally cook you anyway. Yeah, denotrophan, all amphetamine, rainbow pills,
these things were they were finding their true north of
use and abuse. Denotrophenol in specific was used to make
explosives during World War Two, and in nineteen thirty four,
(30:35):
after World War Two, it was sold as a weight
loss drug. Even pharmacologist at Stanford approved this. And all
this stuff did when you consumed it was to kick
your metabolism into overdrive, sort of like if you're listening
to a podcast played at regular speed and then you
(30:56):
hit that two X button. That's what it did to
people's tabitalisms. There were aggressive side effects excessive sweating, that
makes sense, right, increased body temperature, sure, but there were
other things like cataracts.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Can I also just double back really quickly on the
GLP one discussion. It does feel that there's some similarities
in the way that's been so broadly rolled out and
like so widely used, and perhaps not enough attention paid
on any potential long term knock on consequences. I just
want to point that out. It is absolutely a personal choice.
I'm not saying anyone should do that, and there are
(31:32):
perhaps things to weigh because as we know, you know,
money rules everything, and the moment people figured out they
could make a load of money, you know, selling that
for weight loss, that's exactly what happened. I do feel
like there might come a time where some research says.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Ooh, maybe that wasn't the best thing for you.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
So just throwing that out there, smart point and well made,
well put, because there aren't really longitudinal studies available yet,
we've got a way a few decades. It reminds me
of the shoe stores. This might be a little old
for a lot of us, but I remember when the
shoe stores would have X ray novelty devices to help
(32:12):
you figure out your shoe size. Yeah, a lot of
people got cancer.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
No way, I'm not laughing. I didn't know that was
a thing. And that is That is man, that's messed up.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Here's another one that I think we both I don't
want to call it shadenfreud, but I think it fascinates
both of us that amphetamines were originally marketed as nasal decongestants.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's how they came out. That is an energy thing.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Just if you got a snuffy nose, what's that word
you taught me in English insulsult fate.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah, for insul fate, I believe is the word for
consuming things nasally. But also, if I'm not mistaken, the
active ingredient and methamphetamine and the reason that they're kept
behind glass now and you have to show an ID
to get it are certain cold medicines. So obviously that
was an active ingredient, you know, in the first place,
(33:05):
I'm just conjecturing there.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
I'm pretty sure that.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Must be the right, like not non confederate. I think
that's something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
So first it comes out as a thing where people
are saying, are you tired.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Of these snuffy knows?
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Don't feel snuffing cocate hour? Yeah, exactly, change aw ve
custom method better means a cleaner nose for.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
A cleaner world.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Also with cocaine, Also with cocaine all over the counter.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Percent Yeah, I mean that's true.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Cocaine was over the counter, and as we know earliest recipes,
this is not a myth. If I'm not mistaken, of
coca cola did contain small amounts of cocaine.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Dylan says, a lot of these sound dangerous. I think
I'll stick to good old laudanum. There you go, are
your children talking back?
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Your children awake at all? That was chan saw Fagan's laudanum.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I'm more of an ether guy myself was preferring to
just huff it from.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
A rag, you know, yeah, like a real American.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Anyway, this amphetterine thing, obviously similar to these other stories,
the market finds other uses for it. It is distributed
to troops multiple sides of World War Two, and the
idea is we can keep the fighting forces running longer,
(34:28):
consuming fewer food resources. And after the war people discovered
this also, you know, provably suppresses appetite, so it becomes
something like rolling stones, mother's little helper. It's a popular
weight loss drug, particularly among the housewives in the West, who,
(34:51):
many of whom have have met a kind of agency,
being allowed into the workplace for the first time, and
now they're being forced back into these domestic roles.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, Poppin' bennies, Bens of drains, dexadrins, little blues and
reds or whatever they used to call them. And these
continue to be popular. What's the word I'm looking for,
recreational pharmaceuticals into the like you know, counterculture scene, the.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Hippie kind of scene. Amphetamines, however, are really really bad
for you.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yes, it turns out, Yeah, it turns out.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
There's turns out is important and causes lack of it
alone causes bad things to happen in the brain and
the body.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
It's also nice to not have compulsive behaviors paranoia, and
it's sort of like not the flex But it's cool
to have as many of your teeth as you can.
It certainly is it kind of is. So there are
side effects like you described. No, especially after long term
or prevalent use. These sorts of substances can induce sollucinations,
(35:59):
chronic noz constipation, vomiting, manic, real, real dangerous cognitive behavior.
But doctors didn't know that because they didn't have those
longitudinal studies just yet. So this is the rise of
what we loosely could call rainbow pills.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Everything you described.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
That little vitamins in there. We find some supplements.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
No, we're talking amphetamines, mainly sedatives, diuretics which I believe
doesn't that make you poop or make you pee? Sorry,
it makes you pee diuretics, yeah, and thyroid hormones.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
In addition to taking other pills and supplements, right.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, And it wasn't until nineteen sixty eight that the
pendulum began to swing back. A journalist medical professionals started
noticing there were troubling things at play. One investigative reporter,
noted in history dot com, went to ten obesity clinics
(37:01):
and was posing as a patient. They were given more
than fifteen hundred things that would qualify as rainbow pills.
This leads to nineteen seventy a guy named Richard Nixon,
who is famous for being kind of a pill himself,
but also yeah, yeah, yeah, a bit of a tricky one.
(37:21):
He passed the Controlled Substances Act, a very imperfect act,
part of a very imperfect thing called the War on Drugs.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Kicked it right on off, didn't he?
Speaker 1 (37:32):
He sure did, man. This reclassified everybody's favorite little helpers
as scheduled to controlled substances, which made it much more
difficult for doctors to prescribe them.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Willie.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
One could argue, this is maybe a positive part.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Of this is like, what are the positive parts? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (37:49):
I think that's true, But you did still have these
boutique clinics, these like, I don't know, kind of what
you might call today these medspots, right, but you yeah,
you had back then these you know, weight loss clinics
where you would maybe have a specialty, a specialized doctor
who was able to kind of loophole his way into
(38:11):
prescribing you the you know, the go go pills in
addition to other supplements, perhaps regiments of exercise. A lot
of these quack kind of like machines like that would
like rub.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
The chub off of you. You know, I'm talking about
belts or whatever.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
I think of the belt too that just goes back
and forth.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Uh. Combine that with the electro shock vest that would
just sort of shock your muscles into contracting. And you
never heard about those.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So we'd have things like that.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Wren also points out, and it has an excellent picture
of these kind of rolling pin machines that.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Would like squeeze your body.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Just I don't think that would just roll around.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
It was not the way. This is not the way.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
It's it's not the way for efficacious medical results. But
the Cetastasia and Me says it would feel nice along
your back or body if depending on the pressure right
the PSI. But yeah, this is this is just another
case we have so much more to get to master cleanses.
(39:19):
We haven't even gotten to.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
That cleanses, juice cleanses with the idea of detoxing, which
I think to this is still a bit people look
askance at this idea of because the thing about this
is a lot of these holistic type remedies, they are
positive and they are sort of a way to just
encourage more full body, you know, nutrition and thinking about
(39:44):
making better choices, eating less processed foods, et cetera. But
once it's really easy though, for it to kind of
spiral into the realm of quackery with even the best
of intentions.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Right right, A lot of this stuff, if you take
out the sorcery of not fully understood medical substances, the
answer is almost always going to be as you said, lifestyle.
I would add calorie deficit right, maintaining that and finding
a place that supports your good choices and reinforces them.
(40:19):
I think we've got to hit so many more fad diets,
as our power ren Fest points out Beverly Hills diet,
military diet. We mentioned keto and ketosis is an interesting
South Beach.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Was a big popular one.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
South Beach nutri system all the hits. We'll get to
them soon.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Weight Watchers is still very much a thing, very much mother.
It's old school. My godmother attends wait Watchers in New
York City. And I will just say too, like, if
you're looking to make a tiny change, you know, diet
and exercise, I swear cutting out sugar, like not putting
sugar in my coffee and cutting out alcohol or drinking
a whole lot less alcohol.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
That'll game changing.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
It makes a difference.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Again, check out the episode on Big Sugar for stuff
they don't want you to know.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Great podcast talking about Big Sugar, the podcast which is
an incredible expose on the brutal and dangerous sugar.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Oh, I got it. I forgot about that one. I
just think about the earlier Oh we.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Did, that's right.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
We did a full deep dive on it ourselves, and
we also had on the host of an investigative piece
podcast series called Big Sugar.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
I was so happy when they confirmed that earlier research.
We're out to something.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
We're going to follow it up.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
We hope you enjoyed this episode, folks. Thank you, as
always so much for tuning in. Thanks to our super
producer returning tattooed from some Adventures mister Max Williams. Thanks
to our guest superproducer Dylan the chainsaw Fag and remember
to buy Chainsaw Fagan Laudanum wherever it is sold, which
(41:54):
no offense. Stillan might not be everywhere these days, kind
of like cheerwine, so pick up a bottle where he
cand thanks to aj Bahamas Jacobs, thanks to orgey Cham
thanks to Jonathan Strickland Ak the Twister.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Who else? Oh man, did we sayeah?
Speaker 4 (42:11):
You starready said Aja Bahamas the he's the puzzler.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Do we have a nickname for Jorge yet?
Speaker 3 (42:16):
No? Wait, he had one. It was like Riverside or something.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Oh, that's right, it wasn't a very good one. We'll
we'll have to workshop that one, but big thanks to Jorge.
Excited to have him back very soon and we have
another crossover with him coming out very soon. If it's
already out on stuff they don't want you to know
or we talk a lot about some of the same
things we talked about in Ridiculous History.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
But a lot deeper and weirder stuff.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
In terms of what were some of your favorite topics
that we touched on in that conversation. Oh, all the
outer space stuff, that's right, yeah, But beyond Big Bang,
we talked a lot about singularity events, a lot about
surveillance state kind of stufflation, the simulation.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
Theory, all that stuff. So do check that one out.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Huge thanks to Chris Fhrasiotis and heaves Jeff cos here
in spirit of course, and thanks again torn Fast.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Jones for this incredible research on fad diets. And thanks
to you Ben. This is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Oh yeah, and thanks to Alex Williams who composed this track.
Everybody tuned in next week, have a great one and
we'll have a classic on Saturday, and we'll be back
on Tuesday with more ridiculous history.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Focus.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
(00:28):
the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so
much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our guest
super producer, Dylan the Chainsaw Fago.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Dylan.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, you like that. Dylan is anything.
Speaker 4 (00:43):
He's He's the most gentle chainsaw I ever did. Now
he's a velvet chainsaw.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Chainsaw for the beadle.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Dear, I missed a story. Dylan just held up his
injured hand. Is that chainsaw relating?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
It is here? Sorry, buddy, you're okay?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Dylan? Do you want to hop on? I can and
talk about that. It's okay If not.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Yeah, I was trying to cut down a tree on
the fourth of July and cut into my hand. God,
but I'm gonna be okay. You didn't lose any fingies, right, No,
I no feeling, and you know I was headed to
the emergency room yelling, am I gonna be able to
play guitar? Jesus? This is so stressful? Oh my god,
I'm so glad you're okay.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
That is, as a fellow guitarist, not nearly as good
as you.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
I understand the terror.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
There and I'm bringing this up here because we are
an audio podcast. So everyone playing along at home, please
note imagine if you will, a guy who looks like
he absolutely can mop up in a fight. Dylan's got
this really cool bandage around. Yeah, just so that's Nold Brown.
(01:52):
They called me Ben Bullen.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Today we are exploring something that is controversial for a
lot of reasons. For a lot of people. It's something
called the fad diet.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yeah for sure, if anyone is uh, I swear when
I was reading through this incredible research brief brought to
us by research associated extraordinary wren Fest Jones the best,
by the way. We love her work so much. I
couldn't help but think of the movie A Cure for Wellness.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Do you remember this film?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Me a god, I do.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Sort of a very love craft very lovecrafting and play
on the works of John Harvey Kellogg.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
And another film reminds me of wait, what was it? Something? Wellsville.
Speaker 4 (02:38):
Two Tickets to Wellsville is about like yogurt and eemas
and stuff, but obviously.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Sanitarium like health health health camps essentially not all the
time consensual and oftentimes not based on what we would
consider real science.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Oh not at all.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
And like you know, certainly we had controversial versions of
this well into these and two thousands, even pejoratively often
called fat camps, you know, as a as a you know,
a bigger bone fellow, I personally take issue with that.
But yeah, we are talking about fad diets today and
it goes back a lot farther than you might think,
or maybe exactly as far as you might think, depending
(03:18):
The word diet is actually derived from the Greek word diatya, which,
according to Louise Foxcroft from BBC Magazine, described a whole
way of life. Dieting back then was about all around
mental and physical health.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I like that.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
That's a very progressive form of the idea of a
balanced diet, you know, referring.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
To a lifestyle choice. It's holistic, it's grishtaltic, right. It
encounters things like not just ingestion and expenditure of calorie,
but also mental wellness, also community connection. This think of
it more like a rechedus at this point, a well
(03:58):
lived life and how to define and pursue such The
original point of what we would loosely call diet in
the days of the Greeks was getting a hold of
a greater good for your body as a as a
huge organism and your function in a larger society. But
(04:19):
now the word diet is used everywhere.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Diet coke, right.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I swear I distinctly remember this, maybe the mandala effect,
but I distinctly remember seeing something called diet bacon and thinking, now,
I don't know about.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
That, maybe fake and bacon.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
There's certainly that, like the vegan bacon and all of that,
but even a lot of those meatless substitutes are super
carbi and not necessarily like one hundred percent better for
you calorically speaking, I guess if you're going from non
meat thing, they definitely fit the bill. I was just
thinking about the Greeks and the wellness thing, and then
the films that I was talking about, and I think
(05:03):
I just tried googling Greek enemas and I got a
whole bunch of results for Greek animals. So I don't know,
Greek anemas was as much of a thing.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
As you get to put the quotation marks around.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I might have misspelledious.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I spelled it like maybe a little more like Onoma,
like the Tool album, and all right, yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
But I mean, so we're asking a real good question here, Noel.
The question is when did this switch? When did the
use of the word diet or dietas, When did it
transform into what we use the word for in the
modern day. As Red points out, we can put a
lot of the switch here on the Victorians. The Victorian era,
(05:46):
they didn't have Instagram to you know, hold influencers pedaling
diet teas or laxatives. Louis Armstrong by the way, big
fan of laxatives or weight loss. But they did have
a phenomenal breakthrough in technology, the steam powered printing press,
(06:06):
which meant that a lot more people had the opportunity
to read. Also, they did not have maybe the necessary
critical thinking skills to evaluate the mallarchy from the truth archy,
the malarkey from the proarchy.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
We certainly this technology helped to aid some folks in
disseminating their quack diets, you know, in the form of
pamphlets or booklets. So why don't we jump right in
There is a fellow before Atkins became kind of synonymous
with dieting, or Jenny Craig.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
If people you know of a certain age, remember that.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
Low carb tortillas, things like that diet everything, which does seem,
by the way I was going to point out, it
seems to be being leaned away from a bit. We've
got your coke zeros now and the word diet. Certainly
there's the legacy diet coke. They're never going to get
rid of that, but they don't promote it, right, it
just sort of exists. Diet mountain dew not always available,
but like coke zero, they've actually promoted. We've got a
(07:11):
guy by the name of William Bant who in his
eighteen sixty three book letter on Corpulence, You're gonna have
to help me out with corpulence bend because I always
think of like a.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Corpse, but what corpuscles? What is corpulence?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Ob city?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Oh okay, oh okay, gob city got it.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
He lays out a diet plan that really worked for
him anyway, to the point where he felt like he
wanted to spread the word. He was so popular that
the word Bant, or that his name shortened to Bant,
became a verb for dieting.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
You know, to bant was to diets.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, And this occurs in Oxford English Dictionary. It stays
there from the late eighteen hundreds all the way to
nineteen sixty three. You might say, for example, someone gives
you a good tiramasu or crazy eighteen hundreds dessert and
(08:10):
you say, ah, thanks, but you know, I appreciate it.
I'm banting right now, And that would be the way
you would that would be deployed, the same way you
would say, I'm on a diet right now, like no
sugar for me. It's eighteen sixty two and bant is
He's about five feet five inches tall. He weighs two
(08:32):
hundred and two pounds, which is a pretty noticeable metric
for his part of the world at this time in history.
And his height, yes, yeah, and his heightened right, So
the metrics combined ed. He is experiencing joint pain. He's
(08:53):
not having a great time at field days or at sport.
And he says he has that what we will call it, Dylan,
and I will call it in East Tennessee it come
to Jesus more. You may have the same statements in augusta.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
He says, Look, I've got to make a difference. Let
me see how I can improve myself. And he looks
at the current improvement propositions or regimens of the day,
things like going to a Turkish bathhouse, going to a
sweaty spa, doing a lot of jumping jacks, rigorous calisthetics,
(09:32):
and he says, look, this is just making me hungrier.
I want to consume more calories. Add to this, the
poor guy has some other health problems. He's losing his hearing,
and eventually his doctor tells him something crazy. The guy
he pays the look at his ears, says, you know what, man,
(09:56):
there is a correlation between your weight and your problems
with his hearing. This is where we meet that your
doctor himself, William Harvey.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Harvey suggested to Bant that he cut out certain foods
carbi stuff, fatty stuff, lactose stuff, bread, butter, milk, sugar, beer,
and potatoes, and recommended that he live on animal proteins,
fruits and non starchy vegetables. Funny thing, this is definitely
still a popular choice, you know, for certain types of
(10:29):
diets today. I mean, it definitely works, whether or not
your anti meat, animal protein or not. This is something
that is in many ways in certain schools of thought,
still suggested and can be very effective. Although Bant was
allowed no beer, but he could have up to six
glasses of red wine or sherry a day on this diet,
(10:51):
and Red points out that this well exceeds the Center
for Disease Controls current metrics for heavy drinking Champagne and beer.
Of course we're off limits because of how sugar they are,
and red wine and I believe tequila are still something
that are allowable in things like the Keto diet.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
This was really working for man.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
He lost a pound a week on this diet and
his joint pain started to subside and miraculously surprising, I
think to even us in the modern day.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Here his hearing came back.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Interesting, and let's step back here for a second, because
the correlation, the inspiration from the year doctor William Harvey
comes from not just him picking up vibes or improvising. Instead,
Doc Harvey here had been experimenting on sugar intake in canines,
and he did so because he believed there was a
(11:46):
link between glycogen that comes from your liver and hearing
loss and diabetes, or as Mac and south Park like
to say, diabetes. So as you're saying no, this guy
is not just losing a pound a week on cutting
out sugar. Essentially, he is also getting his hearing back.
(12:11):
It's a whole new world. He wants to communicate this success.
He publishes the first two versions of his book, weirdly
called Letters on Corpulence. He distributes them to the public.
He's not charging anyone. It's not about the money, it's
about the message. He starts to make a little bit
of profit on the third edition of this work, and
(12:35):
it is only in that third edition that he gives
his ear doctor Harvey credit for his contribution. With that
being said, Oh, we should have put this at the front.
None of this is medical advice. Oh absolutely, none of this.
You're going to hear a lot of terrible ideas as
a matter for sure.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
Yeah, I think we set that up pretty well at
the top. Speaking of terrible ideas, how about ingesting paris,
you know for funzies. This is some cure for wellness
type stuff. I believe there were leeches in that. There
is another film that takes place during the Victorian era
that's very recent called The Ugly step Sister, and it
(13:15):
is apparently like a really macabre, fractured fairy tale version
of I want to say Cinderella that I believe that's
the one with the evil stepsisters, but it has a
plot point that involves ingesting a tapeworm.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Tapeworms an old enemy of the humans and other living organisms.
So let's say you're in the Victorian era. You don't
quite have the wherewithal to control sugar intake. You may
not have the privilege of choosing what you want to eat,
(13:54):
but you can swallow the egg of a tapeworm derived
from a cow in pill four. And the hope here
is that most of the tapeworms are going to die
in your stomach acid. That's just the nature of attrition.
But what if one of these tapeworms makes it through
your bubbling guts of your stomach acid and reaches your intestines,
(14:19):
reaches maturity, and then it starts to absorb some percentage
of the food nutrients and calories you ingest. This means
that you get that theoretically, this is their pitch. This
means that you can eat whatever you want and you
will not gain weight.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
But there's a big problem.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, So first catch most cases,
the eggs in those little Victorian era pills. First, they're
hard to swallow. Pill technology is not what it is today.
But also they're dead eggs.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
Their dead egg so it would be like a placebo
effect situation and or just a nasty tummy egg.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, and that's still not the worst catch. The worst
catch is if it works. If a tapeworm egg is alive,
does survive stomach acid, and the ingestion process makes it
to the human intestine, it can live for decades and decades.
Unlike some other parasites, this is not a short lived
(15:28):
parasitic cycle. They can also grow to be up to
thirty feet long. They can get this. Folks reproduce without
a partner, so the one egg that makes it through
to human intestines can build its own Brady bunch inside you.
This can lead to of course, massive hilarious diarrhea, brain swelling, dementia.
(15:53):
You're gonna be throwing out, You're gonna have seats.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
You imagine the pharmaceutical TV commercial for tapeworms. Like in
all of this side effects that are rattled off at
the end, you kind of you started the list just now. Man,
not to get off track here, but someone pointed out
to me, we're talking a lot on our other show stuff
that I want you to know about the advent of
AI and machine learning and all of that and how
it affects culture, et cetera. Somebody pointed out that the
(16:18):
first kind of company that is just strictly going to
generate purely AI commercials will be pharmaceuticals, because those commercials,
for all intents and purposes already look vaguely AI and
or stock footage driven.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
You know what I mean. They're just so blaz.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
Yeah, and they're illegal in all countries except for New
Zealand and the United States.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
What's up New Zealand? I mean the United States. I
get it, but I thought New Zealand was better than that.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
We thought, Yeah, we're not angry, you guys, We're confused
and a little disappointed. Also shout out to one of
the best shows on television ever in the West, Always
Sunny in Philadelphia. There is an episode where in the
care arc or Frank Reynolds does ingest a tapeworm through
fecal transplant in order to in an attempt to lose weight.
(17:09):
This is based on reality because you can still buy
tapeworm diet approaches on the dark web today. This we
can't crazy this, This next statement we can consider medical advice.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Hear us don't do These folks don't do it, just can't.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
We can't advocate for stuff. But I feel like we
can tell you what you should not do, right, I.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Think we can suggest very strongly that you not ingest
parasites on purpose. I think we're safe and well within
our expertise as human.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
People to offer that bit of advice.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yes, yeah, but what if you just sweat it out?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
Well, that's worse too. I mean that's just losing water weights, right, like,
I mean it's right, well, sure, schmitz or whatever as
they call it in the Sopranos culture. Can be a
nice way to relax after a heavy workout, can be
a nice way to loosen the muscles and relax the
joints and things like that. But even people that do
(18:12):
it for weight loss purposes usually like to make weight,
you know, if you're a boxer or a wrestler or
something like that. But it is not long term. And
as someone who's been diving and doing a lot of
exercise stuff lately, my way fluctuates sometimes three pounds day
to day, depending on what time I weigh myself and
depending on how much water I've retained.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
And that is absolutely a thing.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, And even being a night walker myself in these punishing,
perishing Georgia summers, I will lose weight at night, exactly,
worry some degree. And it's as we said, it's water weight.
Around the time in the Victorian era, our buddy Charles Goodyear,
(18:55):
who later would been associated with tires.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yes, well, we.
Speaker 4 (19:02):
Did an episode that research associated Jeff uh prepared for
us about the history of the Goodyear Tire Company, the
Goodyear Blimp and their weird staypuffed marshmallow tire man mascot Babendum,
who was for some.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Reason originally an unhinged alcohol totally.
Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yeah, I think, which was smoking in some of those
Maybe I'm no, you're a base he because he's Bibendi.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, he's Babendi. Uh.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
This is because Charles Goodyear is the guy credited with
discovering the process of vulcanization, which makes rubber more elastic
and pliobndy if yeah, yeah, babendi, if you treat it
with heat and sulfur, and this means that now you
can mold rubber into a variety of shapes. It makes
(19:53):
it more ductile, right, it means it won't snap when
you bebend it, especially in cold temperature, and so immediately
people attempt to capitalize on this, and they say, why
don't we make rubber underwear, why don't we make rubber corsets.
Now we know the internet is crazy, that's still.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Absolutely certain circles.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
They are often referred to as kinky potties, and that's okay,
I'm not whatever, not kink shaming at all. It is
very much a subculture BDSM whatever you want to call it,
these types of share yeah, and also club culture and
very much a fashion choice. But not many people necessarily
wearing them for health reasons anymore.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Right right, right, yeah, And of course we're not gonna
yuck a yum. We are going to tell you that
the first rubber undergarments were not for any sort of
admitive or romantic pursuit. They were a diet craze because
the thought was, okay, they were kind of like spanks.
(20:54):
They would smooth out your excess body silhouette. But they
would also and this was seen as a big like
a big plus a value add this would make you
sweat your keyst off. And the idea was that you
sweat just like you're walking around in Atlanta's heat. You
(21:16):
would lose water weight. As we said, the pickle of
it is water weight is temporary.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Yeah, I mean, can you imagine the smell of those
sweated rubber garments?
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Oh my gosh, who was not good?
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Right?
Speaker 4 (21:33):
You know what it makes me think of immediately when
I think of sweaty rubber garments is the original Batman
movie when he's walking through all those.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Flames in that clearly very rubber suit.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
I mean he must have had what Wren describes here
as a full body swamp ass.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And the thing that, look, let's take some time as
fans of film, we're cinophiles, like folks, we hope you
are too. The biggest plot hole is and the Keaton
Batman franchise is that he cannot.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Turn his head. He had to turn his hole. Yeah,
he had to full torso pivot. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
And did you know that he was wearing like nikes
that those are special custom Nikes And if you look
at the screen used version of the suit, they're like
kind of you know, bespoke nikes, much like the auto lacing.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Shoes and Back to the Future too. Mm hmmmmm.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Nailed it. Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Well, let's let's say this right. So we've explored the
idea of eliminating sugar, which actually does have some sand
to it. We've explored the faustian dangerous bargain of outsourcing
weight loss to parasites. We've talked about getting some gear
on you. But let's talk about this. What if you
take a queue from the health reformer Horace Fletcher, and
(22:56):
you say, ABC, we're not quoting Glenn Garrett Glynn Ross here,
not always be clothesy, always be chewing.
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah, I love this nickname.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
This guy should have been a King of France or
something known as the Great Masticator, which means the great
chewer masticating. It's a great word. Horace Fletcher, like you said,
he was all about chewing. He thought that swallowing food
before it had been completely liquefied into some sort of
like slurry could result in poor health consequences, including obesity.
(23:31):
According to a fabulous podcast from Science History Institute, I'm
just gonna go ahead and quote what Wren pulled out
of this episode, but do check out their podcast. A
mouthful of bread might take a few dozen shoes to liquify,
but once with a green onion, it took Fletcher seven
hundred and twenty two shoes before he let himself swallow.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
How many licks does it take to get to the
tutsiro center of a tutzerral pop?
Speaker 2 (23:54):
It depends on how you want your poop.
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Also true that they should have used that for the
ad campaign. One shoe per second, which is twelve straight
minutes of chewing or masticating.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Here's one for everybody with miss a photo. No, no, yeah,
we're not gonna do all twelve. We're not gonna do
seven two. Actually, I gotten a healthy conversation on a
plane about someone who refused to chew like a person anyway.
Obviously Fletcher bit myopic. He was too obsessed, right, Yeah,
(24:29):
bit pro chew. And he is very high fluting, very
dignified and proud about the results of his ingestion process.
He's a poop, goes into it, he says, shows it off. Yeah,
he parties. Yeah, he shows it off at parties. That
is a true story, folks. He also says, look, where's
(24:50):
the poop. My poop is the best evidence that my
diet is super efficient. I'm getting all the nutrients out
of it. And he mailed again a true tale. He
mailed a physiologist at Yale a box of his own
poop in hopes of proving his diet was a success. Now,
(25:11):
if we have a physiologist in the audience tonight, I
know we have several. You guys know when this didn't work, right?
We know you shouldn't just mail your mind.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
No, you shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You need to be asked before you mail.
Speaker 4 (25:24):
That sounds like something Jared Leto would do, like as
a method acting, you know, technique in one of his
joker roles. Ben, are you familiar with this this German
design feature known as the flash spooler?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
Yes, yeah, the poop proof.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
It's apparently a little bit of an antiquated design, but
it can still be found in a lot of German bathrooms.
The function of the flash spooler, which translates roughly to
shallow flusher, is to prevent splashage, but also to give
a perfect little spot that might give you know, the
excretor the opportunity to examine their stool. I think that
(26:05):
our boy here would have been a big fan of
the flash spooler.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
Of course. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
I remember the first few times I saw it, I
was mystified, but I thought it was a win in
rome situation, and you know, what am I going to
call the front desk and tell them to change their
culture change?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
I think what we've both expressed our pro bidet stance.
And one thing, when we were traveling in the Middle East,
I noticed that is not the case in any other
country that I've ever been to, including Europe, where you'd
think it'd be a thing, But days in every public toilet,
but like handheld ones that are like attached to the
wall like a little little sprayer sprayer.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. This is part of
the great conversation right about cleanliness, about fat diets, about
efficiency of the human body. If we fast forward to
today's society, will see that there is a proliferation of
(27:06):
what we'll call over the counter or OTC weight loss medications,
not all created equally. Some have dubious claims, some are older,
some are basically amphetamines, and some are newly rolled out
things like what we call GLP once the most famous
(27:28):
of which would be ozembic.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 4 (27:31):
I mean it's a medication that has kind of been
repurposed to great effects and success for a lot of folks,
So no judgment there at all. I think it's kind
of a little bit odd the way culture is sort
of like poo pooing it when it's very much it
helps people, myself included. I've absolutely taken these in the
past and it helped me kind of get rid of
some of that food noise, which is the thing people
talk about that I've always struggled with some you know,
(27:53):
super positive about people using it correctly. The thing about
it is, though it's not a miracle drug. You while
some people do and I don't think this is the
right move, you really shouldn't just rely on it and
it alone. You really should pair it with like a
change in your diet, a change in your exercise regimens,
that whole lifestyle thing that we talked about, in order
to make sure that the weight stays off and to
(28:15):
help promote kind of healthy habits.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah, it's not uncommon for one medication or substance to
be initially deployed for one condition and then to be monetized.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
For different conditions off label.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
Things sometimes off label.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Yeah, just so, I'm thinking, for instance, about the discovery
of viagra right, which is now most popularly known as
an erectile dysfunction medical it was.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Originally I don't think I know about this, Ben.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, I believe originally it was meant to address things
like hypertension.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Got it so, circulatory issues.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
And then we must imagine, we're just ridiculous hit history
cinematic here. We must imagine that moment in a study
where all these heart patients were like, no, I'm great, yeah,
exactly what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (29:13):
What is it a priapism?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Yes, yes, the two messens that continues to.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Yeah that's right.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
Yeah, well in this case since it's a desired effect,
but absolutely true, Ben. This was also the case with
a lot of other kinds of drugs, like you said, Ben,
including some that were extremely addictive like methamphetamine, some that
were toxic, and in some cases, some that would outright
(29:43):
kill you.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
This is in the thirties and through the sixties, by the.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
Way, Yeah, yeah, absolutely so. GLP ones originally were supposed
to treat obesity and diabetes, and now they've entered their
second act. Back in the earlier days. Oh gosh, we
have a discussion about this on our sister show Stuff.
They don't want you to know how the Russians would
give heat pills to people that would keep you awake,
(30:09):
but if you took too many for too long they
would literally cook you anyway. Yeah, denotrophan, all amphetamine, rainbow pills,
these things were they were finding their true north of
use and abuse. Denotrophenol in specific was used to make
explosives during World War Two, and in nineteen thirty four,
(30:35):
after World War Two, it was sold as a weight
loss drug. Even pharmacologist at Stanford approved this. And all
this stuff did when you consumed it was to kick
your metabolism into overdrive, sort of like if you're listening
to a podcast played at regular speed and then you
(30:56):
hit that two X button. That's what it did to
people's tabitalisms. There were aggressive side effects excessive sweating, that
makes sense, right, increased body temperature, sure, but there were
other things like cataracts.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Can I also just double back really quickly on the
GLP one discussion. It does feel that there's some similarities
in the way that's been so broadly rolled out and
like so widely used, and perhaps not enough attention paid
on any potential long term knock on consequences. I just
want to point that out. It is absolutely a personal choice.
I'm not saying anyone should do that, and there are
(31:32):
perhaps things to weigh because as we know, you know,
money rules everything, and the moment people figured out they
could make a load of money, you know, selling that
for weight loss, that's exactly what happened. I do feel
like there might come a time where some research says.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Ooh, maybe that wasn't the best thing for you.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
So just throwing that out there, smart point and well made,
well put, because there aren't really longitudinal studies available yet,
we've got a way a few decades. It reminds me
of the shoe stores. This might be a little old
for a lot of us, but I remember when the
shoe stores would have X ray novelty devices to help
(32:12):
you figure out your shoe size. Yeah, a lot of
people got cancer.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
No way, I'm not laughing. I didn't know that was
a thing. And that is That is man, that's messed up.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
I'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Here's another one that I think we both I don't
want to call it shadenfreud, but I think it fascinates
both of us that amphetamines were originally marketed as nasal decongestants.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
That's how they came out. That is an energy thing.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
Just if you got a snuffy nose, what's that word
you taught me in English insulsult fate.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
Yeah, for insul fate, I believe is the word for
consuming things nasally. But also, if I'm not mistaken, the
active ingredient and methamphetamine and the reason that they're kept
behind glass now and you have to show an ID
to get it are certain cold medicines. So obviously that
was an active ingredient, you know, in the first place,
(33:05):
I'm just conjecturing there.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
I'm pretty sure that.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Must be the right, like not non confederate. I think
that's something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
So first it comes out as a thing where people
are saying, are you tired.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Of these snuffy knows?
Speaker 2 (33:20):
Don't feel snuffing cocate hour? Yeah, exactly, change aw ve
custom method better means a cleaner nose for.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
A cleaner world.
Speaker 4 (33:29):
Also with cocaine, Also with cocaine all over the counter.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Percent Yeah, I mean that's true.
Speaker 4 (33:37):
Cocaine was over the counter, and as we know earliest recipes,
this is not a myth. If I'm not mistaken, of
coca cola did contain small amounts of cocaine.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Dylan says, a lot of these sound dangerous. I think
I'll stick to good old laudanum. There you go, are
your children talking back?
Speaker 3 (33:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Your children awake at all? That was chan saw Fagan's laudanum.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
I'm more of an ether guy myself was preferring to
just huff it from.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
A rag, you know, yeah, like a real American.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Anyway, this amphetterine thing, obviously similar to these other stories,
the market finds other uses for it. It is distributed
to troops multiple sides of World War Two, and the
idea is we can keep the fighting forces running longer,
(34:28):
consuming fewer food resources. And after the war people discovered
this also, you know, provably suppresses appetite, so it becomes
something like rolling stones, mother's little helper. It's a popular
weight loss drug, particularly among the housewives in the West, who,
(34:51):
many of whom have have met a kind of agency,
being allowed into the workplace for the first time, and
now they're being forced back into these domestic roles.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, Poppin' bennies, Bens of drains, dexadrins, little blues and
reds or whatever they used to call them. And these
continue to be popular. What's the word I'm looking for,
recreational pharmaceuticals into the like you know, counterculture scene, the.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Hippie kind of scene. Amphetamines, however, are really really bad
for you.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yes, it turns out, Yeah, it turns out.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
There's turns out is important and causes lack of it
alone causes bad things to happen in the brain and
the body.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
It's also nice to not have compulsive behaviors paranoia, and
it's sort of like not the flex But it's cool
to have as many of your teeth as you can.
It certainly is it kind of is. So there are
side effects like you described. No, especially after long term
or prevalent use. These sorts of substances can induce sollucinations,
(35:59):
chronic noz constipation, vomiting, manic, real, real dangerous cognitive behavior.
But doctors didn't know that because they didn't have those
longitudinal studies just yet. So this is the rise of
what we loosely could call rainbow pills.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Everything you described.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
That little vitamins in there. We find some supplements.
Speaker 4 (36:24):
No, we're talking amphetamines, mainly sedatives, diuretics which I believe
doesn't that make you poop or make you pee? Sorry,
it makes you pee diuretics, yeah, and thyroid hormones.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
In addition to taking other pills and supplements, right.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Yeah, And it wasn't until nineteen sixty eight that the
pendulum began to swing back. A journalist medical professionals started
noticing there were troubling things at play. One investigative reporter,
noted in history dot com, went to ten obesity clinics
(37:01):
and was posing as a patient. They were given more
than fifteen hundred things that would qualify as rainbow pills.
This leads to nineteen seventy a guy named Richard Nixon,
who is famous for being kind of a pill himself,
but also yeah, yeah, yeah, a bit of a tricky one.
(37:21):
He passed the Controlled Substances Act, a very imperfect act,
part of a very imperfect thing called the War on Drugs.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Kicked it right on off, didn't he?
Speaker 1 (37:32):
He sure did, man. This reclassified everybody's favorite little helpers
as scheduled to controlled substances, which made it much more
difficult for doctors to prescribe them.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Willie.
Speaker 3 (37:44):
One could argue, this is maybe a positive part.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Of this is like, what are the positive parts? Yeah?
Speaker 4 (37:49):
I think that's true, But you did still have these
boutique clinics, these like, I don't know, kind of what
you might call today these medspots, right, but you yeah,
you had back then these you know, weight loss clinics
where you would maybe have a specialty, a specialized doctor
who was able to kind of loophole his way into
(38:11):
prescribing you the you know, the go go pills in
addition to other supplements, perhaps regiments of exercise. A lot
of these quack kind of like machines like that would
like rub.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
The chub off of you. You know, I'm talking about
belts or whatever.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
I think of the belt too that just goes back
and forth.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Uh. Combine that with the electro shock vest that would
just sort of shock your muscles into contracting. And you
never heard about those.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So we'd have things like that.
Speaker 4 (38:46):
Wren also points out, and it has an excellent picture
of these kind of rolling pin machines that.
Speaker 3 (38:51):
Would like squeeze your body.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Just I don't think that would just roll around.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
It was not the way. This is not the way.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
It's it's not the way for efficacious medical results. But
the Cetastasia and Me says it would feel nice along
your back or body if depending on the pressure right
the PSI. But yeah, this is this is just another
case we have so much more to get to master cleanses.
(39:19):
We haven't even gotten to.
Speaker 4 (39:20):
That cleanses, juice cleanses with the idea of detoxing, which
I think to this is still a bit people look
askance at this idea of because the thing about this
is a lot of these holistic type remedies, they are
positive and they are sort of a way to just
encourage more full body, you know, nutrition and thinking about
(39:44):
making better choices, eating less processed foods, et cetera. But
once it's really easy though, for it to kind of
spiral into the realm of quackery with even the best
of intentions.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Right right, A lot of this stuff, if you take
out the sorcery of not fully understood medical substances, the
answer is almost always going to be as you said, lifestyle.
I would add calorie deficit right, maintaining that and finding
a place that supports your good choices and reinforces them.
(40:19):
I think we've got to hit so many more fad diets,
as our power ren Fest points out Beverly Hills diet,
military diet. We mentioned keto and ketosis is an interesting
South Beach.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Was a big popular one.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
South Beach nutri system all the hits. We'll get to
them soon.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
Weight Watchers is still very much a thing, very much mother.
It's old school. My godmother attends wait Watchers in New
York City. And I will just say too, like, if
you're looking to make a tiny change, you know, diet
and exercise, I swear cutting out sugar, like not putting
sugar in my coffee and cutting out alcohol or drinking
a whole lot less alcohol.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
That'll game changing.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
It makes a difference.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Again, check out the episode on Big Sugar for stuff
they don't want you to know.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yeah, that's a.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Great podcast talking about Big Sugar, the podcast which is
an incredible expose on the brutal and dangerous sugar.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Oh, I got it. I forgot about that one. I
just think about the earlier Oh we.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
Did, that's right.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
We did a full deep dive on it ourselves, and
we also had on the host of an investigative piece
podcast series called Big Sugar.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
I was so happy when they confirmed that earlier research.
We're out to something.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
We're going to follow it up.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
We hope you enjoyed this episode, folks. Thank you, as
always so much for tuning in. Thanks to our super
producer returning tattooed from some Adventures mister Max Williams. Thanks
to our guest superproducer Dylan the chainsaw Fag and remember
to buy Chainsaw Fagan Laudanum wherever it is sold, which
(41:54):
no offense. Stillan might not be everywhere these days, kind
of like cheerwine, so pick up a bottle where he
cand thanks to aj Bahamas Jacobs, thanks to orgey Cham
thanks to Jonathan Strickland Ak the Twister.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
Who else? Oh man, did we sayeah?
Speaker 4 (42:11):
You starready said Aja Bahamas the he's the puzzler.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Do we have a nickname for Jorge yet?
Speaker 3 (42:16):
No? Wait, he had one. It was like Riverside or something.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
Oh, that's right, it wasn't a very good one. We'll
we'll have to workshop that one, but big thanks to Jorge.
Excited to have him back very soon and we have
another crossover with him coming out very soon. If it's
already out on stuff they don't want you to know
or we talk a lot about some of the same
things we talked about in Ridiculous History.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
But a lot deeper and weirder stuff.
Speaker 4 (42:40):
In terms of what were some of your favorite topics
that we touched on in that conversation. Oh, all the
outer space stuff, that's right, yeah, But beyond Big Bang,
we talked a lot about singularity events, a lot about
surveillance state kind of stufflation, the simulation.
Speaker 3 (42:57):
Theory, all that stuff. So do check that one out.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
Huge thanks to Chris Fhrasiotis and heaves Jeff cos here
in spirit of course, and thanks again torn Fast.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Jones for this incredible research on fad diets. And thanks
to you Ben. This is a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Oh yeah, and thanks to Alex Williams who composed this track.
Everybody tuned in next week, have a great one and
we'll have a classic on Saturday, and we'll be back
on Tuesday with more ridiculous history.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Focus.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.