The Disappearing Spoon podcast
When Tenure Means Life and Death
After a tenure dispute, engineer Valery Fabrikant murdered four colleagues. So why is he still allowed to publish scientific papers?
The Disappearing Spoon is Distillations’ sister podcast, hosted by best-selling author Sam Kean. The show examines overlooked stories from our past, such as the dental superiority of hunter-gatherers, the sex lives of dinosaurs, and many more moments that never made the history books. When the footnote becomes the real story, small moments become surprisingly powerful.
The Seeds of Starvation
A scientific mystery straight out of an Agatha Christie novel.
When Scientific Brilliance Isn’t Enough
In medicine, going rogue is never a good idea.
The Curse of Knowing Too Much
How paranoia doomed a nuclear patent lawyer.
The Enigmas of Foreign Accent Syndrome
Can you really collapse and wake up speaking a totally new language?
The World’s Only Natural Nuclear Reactor
French authorities thought uranium had been stolen for rogue atomic bombs. The truth was much more incredible.
How New DNA Sleuthing Can Expose Dangerous Killers—and You
The downside of using genetic genealogy to fight crime.
The Real Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer
Sam Kean examines the dark, restless side of the father of the atomic bomb.
The Brilliant, Groundbreaking, and Wildly Overrated Leonardo da Vinci
Revisit the reputation of the renowned Renaissance man with host Sam Kean.
Death Squared
Explore scientist John Calhoun’s mouse utopia and what it can tell us about the ways we impose lessons for society onto lab experiments.
Death by Nutrition
How an antarctic scientific expedition turned deadly thanks to an unlikely source: dog liver.
The Roadside Apocalypse
We all know how much the automobile changed the world for people. This episode explores how drastically it changed—and harmed—wildlife.
The Blind Visionary
The story of Thomas Schall, a U.S. Congressman dedicated to reforming our messy, lopsided, archaic, and maddingly inconsistent monthly calendar.
The Scariest Paradise on Earth
Explore the contradictions of Korea’s biggest natural wildlife refuge: the war-ravaged border between the North and South known as the DMZ.
The Naked Shibboleth
Naked mole-rats are blind, yet they can still recognize—and kill—outsiders. How? And what does it have to do with the Old Testament?
The Debaucherous Legacy of Johnny Appleseed
Sam Kean explores how the legendary gardener’s reputation as the patron saint of the American wilderness ignores his boozy origins.
Sugar: The Most Evil Molecule
Trace how such a sweet treat has caused so much harm—from slavery to the Nazi death machine.
The Lifesaving Rat Poison
Follow blood thinner warfarin’s unlikely journey from moldy clover and cow killer to lifesaving drug.
The Making of a Lobotomist
The story behind notorious surgeon Walter Freeman’s contempt for his father, failures with his sons, and obsession with lobotomies.