The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures

Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist of the 19th century, was a big fan of collecting specimens. Some of those specimens would crawl around and feed on one's blood. In this episode we'll talk about …

Botox, the widely popular injectable medication, has been on the market and popular for a while now. What you might not realize is that there's an intricate and fascinating story behind the discovery…

On this episode, Mike leads a discussion of the history of defining narcissistic personality disorder as a psychiatric diagnosis. Starting with Napoleon Bonaparte, and including other historical exam…

Behavioral health is certainly within the bounds of medicine and, thereby, medical history. The Stanford Prison Experiment asked the question of whether the environment of prison compelled bad behavi…

If you're like me (Dr. Max) and the words "Dropkick Murphy" conjure images of the legendary Boston-based punk rock band, you might be surprised to know the history behind that name.

In this interview…

He conquered many lands, sailed many seas, and was finally awarded his own Netflix miniseries, but at the age of 32, the ruler of Macedonia known throughout the ages as Alexander the Great, died in t…

This is a fascinating dive into the world of genetics, set against a backdrop of a curious dermatology finding, and ending with one of the most interesting and convoluted paternity cases you may ever…

This episode of the Curious Case Vault has an admittedly grim premise--a patient who suffered two gunshot wounds to the head.  In this discussion, Alba leads us through a case of a young Brooklyn, NY…

Rabies is a fascinating and frightening infectious disease.  It has a long history in the natural world and stories involving a case of it rarely end on a happy note.  

It just so happens there is at …

The 1920's was a time in the U.S. when anybody with a clever sales pitch and a willingness to pull a patent could devise a concoction and call it a "medication."  Unfortunately, the heyday of the "pa…

A 30 year old woman in 1842 comes down with an awful gastrointestinal illness and a physician is called.  He recounts the case in this article and asks if this might have been something called "Chole…

This unusual, recurrent epidemic illness has popped its head in and out of the annals of history.  It goes by many names: the English Sweats, coma somnolentum, Schlafkrankheit ("sleep sickness"), and…

Let's do a neurologic case featuring  an American music legend who sought help after developing unusual headaches and a distorted sense of smell.  We'll figure out what happened and who it is in this…

CPR (aka cardiopulmonary resuscitation) is a simple way to save a life.  When a heart stops, the modern teaching is to "get on the chest" and start giving compressions. 

But it may surprise nobody th…

We decided to throw out a little bit of a bonus episode.  In what we're calling the Curious Case Vault for now, we'll go into the archives of a well-established medical journal and read a real case r…

He was dubbed "The 8th Wonder of the World" in the wrestling universe.  The career of Andre the Giant was legendary and interesting on it's own, but on this episode we'll dive into the history of the…

Who do you picture when someone says the word "surgeon?"  There are many common depictions of surgeons in popular media--from TV shows and other avenues of fiction.  What makes up the persona of a su…

Halloween may be approaching, but this is no ghost story.

This episode's unusual case takes us back in time to Paris, 1882.   It is based on a patient known as Mademoiselle X, who was brought in for e…

When you hear the story of how syphilis research was carried out in the United States in the 20th century, you'll probably start to understand why there is a history of mistrust of the medical establ…

You've heard the sayings about how hard life was back in the 18th and 19th centuries, but have you ever considered the life of a chimney sweep in London during those times? Far from the cheery charac…