This week we talk about the darker side of cell culturing history including a man named Alexis Carrell and his not so "Immortal Chicken Heart". Also unfortunately more about eugenics...

We also get into the final months of Henrietta's life. Her cancer was incredibly aggressive and in the end there was nothing that doctors could do to stop it. However they also could have treated her with much more kindness and dignity in her final days.

After that we look into all of the fast medical advancements and breakthroughs that happened because of Henrietta's cells. We talk about the first HeLa production and Distribution factory set up at the Tuskegee Institute in order to help perfect the Polio Vaccine. We also get into the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study happening at the same time and going on for 40 years!???

After that we discuss the creation of the first private for profit HeLa factory at Micro Biologic Associates moving the use of Henrietta's cells from pure research and altruistic development of lifesaving vaccines to a money driven for profit tool. And can you believe it, even after making massive piles of money no one thought to compensate the source of their fortunes.

This episode is a bit of a long one but we hope you enjoy! Thanks for listening!

Sources:

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot (2010)

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This week we are talking about Henrietta Lacks, a young black woman born in the 1920’s and her cells that would change the face of modern medicine. Scientists would call Henrietta's cells HeLa cells.

The First HeLa cells were removed from her cervix in 1951 at Johns Hopkins hospital only a few months before her death caused by cervical cancer. Henrietta was 31 when she died. These cells however would live on long after their owners death.

The HeLa cells would become one of the most medically significant breakthroughs in science over the next half a century. They were used to help cure polio, Sent into space to test what happened to human cells in zero gravity, testing chemo therapy, Made Genetic Screening possible, Advanced In vitro fertilization research Advancing cloning research(yuck).

Basically anything that needs to be tested for human use has spent some time working with HeLa. it has become the defacto research workhorse. Demand for HeLa cells grew so large that factories had to be built just to propagate her cells.

Today there are trillions of descendants of those original cells taken from Henrietta in labs all over the world. However Henrietta died just months after the first sample was taken. That sample was taken without her explicit consent and the family didn't even learn that scientists were using her cells until 20 years later and even after a multi million dollar industry was created around the Hela Cells, the family didn't receive a dime until 2023.

We also talk about a woman named Mary Papanicolaou who voluntarily received a Pap Smear every day for 21 years! Wild.

Hope you enjoy!

Sources:

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot (2010)

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This week we are wrapping up the Jay Gould story! After tanking the Gold exchange, Jay got right back to work messing up the train industry.

He had a dream of connecting a transcontinental rail path, and he got to work purchasing any train companies he could get his rascally little hands on. By WHATEVER means necessary.

All the while, perpetrating some stunning examples of price fixing, insider trading, and pump and dump schemes leaving most of his business partners in his wake. All activities that are highly illegal today but were just part of doing business back in Gilded Age America!

By 1881, Gould personally owned over 15,000 miles of rail line or about 15% of the countries total railways.

We follow the ups and downs of this last chapter of his life before he eventually contracting tuberculosis and passing away at 56 leaving behind a huge legacy and a massive fortune but since he liked to stay mysterious and not put his name on anything most people don't think of him as the shady titan of business that he actually was.

We hope you enjoy!

Sources: American Rascal How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune by Greg Steimetz

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We are back with another installment of the Jay Gould story. This week we have moved on from leather and firmly landed in the world of trains.

Gould thought he saw a prime opportunity in the Erie Railroad. however he wasn't the only one. In order to gain control of these tracks and trains, Gould would have to pick a fight with the already infamous Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both men were willing to stop at no cost to get control including but not limited to tanking the entire economy to do it.

Eventually Gould and his partner James Fisk were able to narrowly gain control of the railroad. This fight between Gould, Fisk, and Vanderbilt would later be called the Eerie War.

The success against Vanderbilt really put Gould on the map giving him enough power and money to make some even riskier bets and perpetrate some even more brazen rule breaking. This time with much wider reaching consequences. But that will be next week.

We hope you enjoy!

Sources: American Rascal How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune by Greg Steimetz

Send us a text! Let us know what topics you want us to cover!

We are back with another installment of the Jay Gould story. This week we have moved on from leather and firmly landed in the world of trains.

Gould thought he saw a prime opportunity in the Erie Railroad, however he wasn't the only one. In order to gain control of these tracks and trains, Gould would have to pick a fight with the already infamous Cornelius Vanderbilt. Both men were willing to stop at no cost to get control including, but not limited to, tanking the entire economy to do it.

Eventually Gould and his partner James Fisk were able to narrowly gain control of the railroad. This fight between Gould, Fisk, and Vanderbilt would later be called the Erie War.

The success against Vanderbilt really put Gould on the map giving him enough power and money to make some even riskier bets and perpetrate some even more brazen rule breaking. This time with much wider reaching consequences. But that will be next week!

We hope you enjoy!

Sources: American Rascal How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune by Greg Steimetz

Send us a text! Let us know what topics you want us to cover!

This week we start a new series on Jay Gould, one of the richest men in America in the 1800s. He isn't one of the most well known titans of the time, but he was one of the richest men in America and was one of the pioneers of taking advantage of the stock market.

He manipulated the money markets in innovative, possibly criminal ways, and was the catalyst for a lot of market regulation on Wall Street and the railroads.

For the start of our series we talk about his beginnings in map surveying and leather tanning, his first forays in the railroad, and the lessons he was learning from the wealthy men of the time.

Sources: American Rascal How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune by Greg Steimetz

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This week we are wrapping up our series on Floreana Island in the Galapagos. The Baroness and Robert have been missing for weeks, Rudolph is no better off, and Friedrich has forgotten that poison is bad for you.

Thankfully the drought is finally over, and the Wittmers just keep working away and trying to mind their own business.

Sources:

Eden Undone- A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War 2 by Abbott Kahler

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

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This week things are getting spicy on Floreana Island. Tensions are rising in a drought that will never seem to end, and the desperation is causing everyone to act a little out of character. People are starting to suffer, animals are dying, and a few folks even disappear!

Dore and Margret's accounts of 1933 continue to diverge, as the story gets more complicated and we work on keeping it together.

Sources:

Eden Undone- A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War 2 by Abbott Kahler

The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden

Send us a text! Let us know what topics you want us to cover!