エピソード

  • 040. Victorian Laughing Gas Soirées: Science Meets Society

    040. Victorian Laughing Gas Soirées: Science Meets Society
    2025/12/02
    Explore the Victorian craze for “laughing‑gas” soirées, where nitrous oxide transformed elite drawing‑room gatherings into euphoric, laughter‑filled spectacles. The episode traces the gas’s scientific origins, its adoption by aristocrats as fashionable entertainment, the elaborate logistics of the parties, and the social forces that made them popular. It also examines the medical warnings, the fad’s decline, and how this fleeting trend illustrates the timeless interplay between scientific novelty and cultural desire.

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    15 分
  • 039. Mind Control Madness: The MK‑Ultra Secret

    039. Mind Control Madness: The MK‑Ultra Secret
    2025/12/02
    A Cold War CIA program sought to weaponize mind control, funding secret experiments across universities and hospitals. Researchers tested LSD, other drugs, electro‑shock, sensory deprivation, and “psychic driving” on unwitting subjects, including patients and military personnel. The project’s brutal methods were exposed in the 1970s, leading to public outrage, congressional hearings, and eventual termination. Its legacy raises urgent questions about ethics, consent, and the misuse of scientific power in today’s data‑driven world.

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    16 分
  • 038. Blue Cats: The Bizarre Traffic Experiment

    038. Blue Cats: The Bizarre Traffic Experiment
    2025/12/02
    A 1970s interdisciplinary study painted domestic cats bright blue to test whether increased visual salience could improve urban safety. Researchers applied a non‑toxic dye, tracked the felines with radio collars, and recorded driver reactions. The experiment showed a modest rise in driver attention but also unintended hazards, sparking ethical debate and influencing modern wildlife‑visibility methods. The story highlights the limits of creative, cross‑field research and the importance of rigorous ethical oversight.

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    18 分
  • 037. The Poisoned Umbrella Assassination

    037. The Poisoned Umbrella Assassination
    2025/12/02
    A dissident journalist defected to the West and used radio broadcasts to expose his home regime’s abuses. In 1978, Soviet intelligence engineers turned an ordinary umbrella into a covert weapon, embedding a ricin‑filled micro‑pellet that fired into the target’s thigh with a simple press. The victim died within days from acute poisoning, prompting a forensic breakthrough that revealed the “poisoned umbrella” plot and highlighted the extreme lengths Cold‑War powers would go to silence opposition.

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    16 分
  • 036. Corn Flakes: From Moral Crusade to Breakfast Empire

    036. Corn Flakes: From Moral Crusade to Breakfast Empire
    2025/12/02
    A turn‑of‑the‑century health crusade linked bland diets to moral purity, targeting sexual self‑gratification. An accidental overcooked grain became a crisp, easily digestible breakfast food marketed as a tool for self‑control. Commercialization transformed the austere health product into a mass‑market cereal empire, shifting focus from moral regulation to convenience and branding. The story illustrates how food innovations can arise from ideological motives and later become cultural staples.

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    15 分
  • 035. Radiation‑Fit Shoes: The X‑Ray Fitting Fiasco

    035. Radiation‑Fit Shoes: The X‑Ray Fitting Fiasco
    2025/12/02
    A 1940s shoe chain partnered with a radiology firm to use low‑dose X‑ray imaging for ultra‑precise foot measurements, promising perfectly fitted shoes. The device exposed dozens of customers daily to ionizing radiation, causing tingling, skin irritation and mild radiation‑sickness symptoms. Media exposure led to lawsuits, regulatory action, and a settlement that banned the practice and spurred stricter safety rules for commercial radiation use. The fiasco became a cautionary tale about unchecked tech hype.

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    13 分
  • 034. Soviet Ape‑Human Super Soldier Project

    034. Soviet Ape‑Human Super Soldier Project
    2025/12/02

    A secret Soviet program explored turning apes into super‑soldiers, blending brute strength with human tactics. Driven by Lysenko’s pseudo‑science and military ambition, researchers proposed cross‑species fertilization, hormone boosts, and neural implants, while a covert NKVD unit oversaw the work. Declassified files reveal fragmented experiments—gorilla‑derived testosterone injections and failed hybrid embryos—but no conclusive proof of a viable half‑human, half‑ape. The saga highlights how totalitarian pressure can push science into ethically monstrous, speculative realms.


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    14 分
  • 033. Electrifying the Dead: Aldini’s Gothic Science

    033. Electrifying the Dead: Aldini’s Gothic Science
    2025/12/02
    A 19th‑century physician pushed the limits of early electricity by applying galvanic currents to a freshly executed corpse, causing muscles to twitch, jaws to open, and eyes to flicker. His sensational demonstrations sparked public fascination, inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and laid groundwork for modern electrotherapy and defibrillation. The episode explores the scientific, cultural, and ethical legacy of using electricity to animate dead tissue and its lasting impact on medicine and imagination.

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    15 分