The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

History Podcasts

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...

Episodes

The Pioneers and Vestiges of Evolution

The Angel of the Concentration Camp

The Battery Dope

The Making of the “Flat Earth” Myth

Forensic Pseudoscience

Manhattan Project Propaganda

Back-Breaking Science

The Canaries in the Submarine

Charles Lindbergh, Lab Rat

The Publicity Stunt that Sparked the Scopes Monkey Trial

The Great Balloon Escape

The Corny, Cringy, Very Bad Television Show that Just Might Save Your Life

Bringing an Extinct Owl Back to Life

Trickster, Birder, Soldier, Spy

Why Not Just Rename the “Hitler Beetle”?

John James Fraudubon

The Bird that Made John James Audubon a Legend

The Dignity of the Ig Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Disease

Dinner with King Tut audiobook preview