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August 16, 2022 15 mins
Not only were western cultures happily eating raw fish for ages, at one point they were uh, in fact eating it so raw as for it still, in fact, to be alive.

That’s right, today we’re talking about the 1939 craze of college students competing to swallow as many as they could of the humble goldfish.

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Find transcripts and sources on the website: www.foodhistorypodcast.com

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References:


https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/great-goldfish-swallowing-craze-1939-180954429/#:~:text=The%20Great%20Goldfish%20Swallowing%20Craze%20of%201939%20Never%20Really%20Ended,-A%20Harvard%20undergrad's&text=One%20of%20the%20weirdest%2C%20most,once%20eaten%20a%20live%20fish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldfish_swallowing
https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2011/01/1939-the-year-of-goldfish-swallowing.html
https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/goldfish-swallowing/
https://dutchreview.com/news/live-goldfish-swallowing/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odori_ebi
https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/the-fish-prasadam-remedy-annual-festival-where-thousands-swallow-live-fish-to-cure-asthma/articleshow/91811468.cms#:~:text=In%20Hyderabad%2C%20fish%20prasadam%20is,that%20fish%20prasadam%20cures%20asthma.

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