The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

137 episodes

NASA’s Unmentionable(s) Adventure
2026/06/09 | 18 mins.
In the 1960s, NASA needed a better spacesuit. So they turned to the one firm on earth capable of meeting their strict standards—the Playtex underwear company. Episode below!

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The Pioneers and Vestiges of Evolution
2026/06/02 | 18 mins.
His book on evolution rocked 1800s England. Not Charles Darwin. Robert Chambers, whose infamous tome both horrified Darwin, yet paved the way for him.

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The Angel of the Concentration Camp
2026/05/26 | 17 mins.
Nurse Laura Cobb saved more lives than Clara Barton or Florence Nightingale, and under far worse conditions—in a brutal World War II concentration camp. So why did the world forget her?

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The Battery Dope
2026/05/19 | 18 mins.
In the 1950s, scientists hated politics. Then one Allen Astin got fired. After that, scientists knew they had to play politics—or face professional annihilation.

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The Making of the “Flat Earth” Myth
2026/05/12 | 17 mins.
No one in Columbus’s time believed the world was flat. So why did so many children learn this bogus “fact” in school? It all goes back to Rip van Winkle...

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About The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

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 successful cancer screening tool in history, the sex lives of dinosaurs, and much, much more. These are charming little tales that never made the history books, but these small moments can be surprisingly powerful. These are the cases where history gets inverted, where the footnote becomes the real story.

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