Distillations | Science History Institute

By Science History Institute

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Subscribers: 445
Reviews: 2
Episodes: 351

Dan
 Aug 4, 2020

Andy
 Feb 9, 2019
Great straight science

Description

Distillations is the Science History Institute’s critically acclaimed flagship podcast. We take deep dives into stories that range from the serious to the eccentric, all to help listeners better understand the surprising science that is all around us. Hear about everything from the crisis in Alzheimer’s research to New England’s 19th-century vampire panic in compelling, sometimes-funny, documentary-style audio stories.

Episode Date
ALS Patients Take on the FDA
Jul 30, 2024
The Fraud that Transformed Psychiatry
Jul 23, 2024
Cancer Virus Hunters: An Interview with Gregory J. Morgan
Jul 16, 2024
The Ames Test
Jul 09, 2024
Is Ozempic Different?
Jul 02, 2024
Traffication: An Interview with Paul Donald
Jun 25, 2024
Dyes, Drugs, and Psychosis
Jun 18, 2024
Pink: An Interview with Dominique Grisard
Jun 13, 2024
Can Color Heal Us?
Jun 11, 2024
The Word for Blue
Jun 04, 2024
New Season Trailer! Coming June 4th
May 28, 2024
Exploring 'Health Equity Tourism'
Oct 24, 2023
The Mothers of Gynecology
Apr 18, 2023
Correcting Race
Apr 11, 2023
"That Rotten Spot"
Apr 04, 2023
Black Pills
Mar 28, 2023
Bad Blood, Bad Science
Mar 21, 2023
The African Burial Ground
Mar 14, 2023
Return, Rebury, Repatriate
Mar 07, 2023
The Vampire Project
Feb 28, 2023
Keepers of the Flame
Feb 21, 2023
Calamity in Philadelphia
Feb 14, 2023
BONUS EPISODE: Cheddar Man
Feb 10, 2023
Origin Stories
Feb 07, 2023
New Season Trailer! Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race
Jan 20, 2023
Mechanochemistry
Jul 13, 2022
Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code
Mar 01, 2022
The Sinister Angel Singers of Rome
Dec 07, 2021
Disappearing Spoon: The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association
Nov 30, 2021
The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer
Nov 23, 2021
Disappearing Spoon: The Harvard Medical School Janitor Who Solved a Murder
Nov 16, 2021
Disappearing Spoon: Burn After Watching
Nov 09, 2021
History’s First Car Crash Victim
Nov 02, 2021
Real Life Zombies
Oct 26, 2021
How Climate Change Will Remake the Human Body
Oct 19, 2021
The ‘Mary Poppins’ Cancer
Oct 12, 2021
Disappearing Spoon: Kangaroo (and Pig and Monkey and Dog and Donkey) Courts
Oct 05, 2021
Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
Sep 28, 2021
What Causes Alzheimer's?
Sep 21, 2021
What the All Souls Trilogy Teaches Us about Alchemy, Family, and Knowledge Hierarchy
Aug 24, 2021
Chasing Immortality
Aug 17, 2021
Interview with Jeremiah McCall
Aug 10, 2021
Learning History with Video Games
Aug 03, 2021
Ladies Talking to Ladies about Ladies (in Science)
Jul 27, 2021
Paradise Is Burning
Jul 20, 2021
Interview with Colin Dickey
Jul 13, 2021
Ghost Hunting in the 19th Century
Jul 06, 2021
Vampire Panic
Jun 29, 2021
We're Back! Distillations Summer Season Preview
Jun 15, 2021
Interview with Stéphane Bancel
Jun 07, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: The Anatomy Riots
Jun 01, 2021
When a Hole in the Head is a Good Thing
May 25, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: When Mosquitoes Cured Insanity
May 18, 2021
The Death of the Lord God Bird
May 11, 2021
Disappearing spoon: Chewing it Over—and Over and Over and Over
May 04, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: What's the Longest Word in the English Language?
Apr 27, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: Why Don’t We Have a Male Birth Control Pill Yet?
Apr 20, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: Crowdfunding Radium
Apr 13, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: Parking lot or Peking lot?
Apr 06, 2021
The Disappearing Spoon: Orphan Vaccines
Mar 30, 2021
Tales of Love and Madness from the Periodic Table
Mar 23, 2021
Predicting the Pandemic: An interview with Wendy Zukerman, Host of "Science Vs." Podcast
Mar 16, 2021
COVID's Hidden Toll on Nurses
Dec 18, 2020
Between Us and Catastrophe
Oct 27, 2020
Space Junk
Sep 08, 2020
Who Owns Outer Space?
Sep 01, 2020
The Alchemical Origins of Occupational Medicine
Aug 25, 2020
Bonus Episode: Doing Science with an Invisible Disability
Aug 20, 2020
Science and Disability Part 2
Aug 18, 2020
Bonus Episode: A Short History of Disability in the United States
Aug 13, 2020
Science and Disability
Aug 11, 2020
Collecting Monstrosity
Aug 04, 2020
Preview: New Season Coming August 4th!
Jul 21, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with Magda Marquet
Jul 09, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with Robert Langer
Jun 25, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with Mark Stevenson
Jun 18, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with John Maraganore
Jun 09, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with Katrine Bosley
Jun 04, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with William Haseltine
May 28, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with Susan Weiss
May 21, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with Sue Desmond-Hellmann
May 14, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Pandemic Perspectives with John C. Martin
May 05, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Spit Spreads Death
Apr 14, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: The Blooper Reel
Apr 07, 2020
Preview: We're moving to seasons!
Feb 11, 2020
How Philadelphia's Water Pollution Problems Shaped the City
Jan 07, 2020
BONUS EPISODE: Jane Hodgson
Dec 18, 2019
Roe v. Wade v. Rubella
Dec 17, 2019
Preview: Roe v. Wade v. Rubella
Dec 04, 2019
Promo: LIVE Halloween show!
Oct 24, 2019
The Alzheimer's Copernicus Problem, Part 1
Oct 22, 2019
The Alzheimer’s Copernicus Problem, Part 2
Oct 22, 2019
Preview: The Alzheimer's Copernicus Problem
Oct 08, 2019
Science on TV
Sep 17, 2019
Preview: Fall 2019
Aug 13, 2019
Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic, Part 2
Jun 25, 2019
Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic, Part 1
Jun 25, 2019
Preview: Rare Earths
Jun 18, 2019
The Myth of the Cuyahoga River Fire
May 28, 2019
Preview: The Myth of the Cuyahoga River Fire
May 21, 2019
High Steaks at the Border
Apr 23, 2019
Preview: High Steaks at the Border
Apr 09, 2019
Making the Deserts Bloom
Mar 19, 2019
Preview: Making The Deserts Bloom
Mar 06, 2019
Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science
Feb 12, 2019
Sex(ism), Drugs, and Migraines
Jan 15, 2019
Preview: Happy Holidays from Distillations!
Dec 18, 2018
The Mouse That Changed Science: A Tiny Animal With a Big Story
Nov 19, 2018
Preview: The Mouse that Changed Science
Nov 13, 2018
Treating America's Opioid Addiction Part 3: Searching for Meaning in Kensington
Oct 16, 2018
Treating America’s Opioid Addiction Part 2: Synanon and the Tunnel Back to the Human Race.
Sep 18, 2018
Preview: Treating America's Opioid Addiction, Part 2
Aug 31, 2018
Treating America’s Opioid Addiction Part 1: The Narcotic Farm and the Promise of Salvation
Aug 21, 2018
Preview: We're hard at work on our next season!
Jul 17, 2018
Fighting Smog in Los Angeles
Jun 26, 2018
Preview: Smog in Los Angeles used to be way worse
Jun 19, 2018
Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?
May 22, 2018
Preview: Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?
May 15, 2018
Whatever Happened to the Ozone Hole?
Apr 17, 2018
The Man, the Myth, the Laser
Mar 13, 2018
The Yoga Pant Problem
Feb 13, 2018
The Almost Forgotten Story of Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh
Jan 09, 2018
Sci-Fi Radio Drama: A Cautionary Tale of Technology Run Riot
Dec 12, 2017
Butter vs. Margarine: one of America's most bizarre food battles
Nov 14, 2017
Grandmothers Matter: Some surprisingly controversial theories of human longevity
Oct 17, 2017
Refugee Doctors: Escape is only the first challenge
Sep 12, 2017
High-Tech and Amish: Using 21st-century medicine to maintain a 300-year-old way of life.
Aug 15, 2017
Political Science: Out of the Lab and into the Streets
Jun 13, 2017
Rethinking Ink: Lasers, Tattoo Removal, and Second Chances
May 02, 2017
Making Senses: How Biohackers Are Using Artificial Perceptions to Enhance Reality
Apr 04, 2017
The Smell of Shame: How Deodorant Became Omnipresent in America
Mar 15, 2017
Fizzy Water: The Unnatural History of a Carbonated Drink
Feb 16, 2017
Second Skin: The Unexpected Origin of the Sports Bra
Nov 08, 2016
(Natural) Childbirth
Oct 04, 2016
Best of 2016: Insiders vs. Outsiders in Medicine
Sep 06, 2016
Human-Centered Therapy . . . with Robots
Aug 09, 2016
This Is Not Your Great-Grandfather’s Taxidermy
Jul 05, 2016
Babes of Science, a Guest Episode
Jun 07, 2016
The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco
May 04, 2016
Power in the Blood: When Religion and Medicine Meet in Your Veins
Apr 05, 2016
Do You Need That Kidney? Rethinking the Ethics of Organ Transplants
Mar 01, 2016
DDT: The Britney Spears of Chemicals
Feb 02, 2016
Is Space the Place? Trying to Save Humanity by Mining Asteroids
Jan 05, 2016
Sex and Gender: What We Know and Don’t Know
Dec 01, 2015
Stealing Industry Secrets: Not as Easy as You Think
Dec 01, 2015
Genetic Engineering and Organic Farming: An Unexpected Marriage
Oct 06, 2015
Where Have All the FEMA Trailers Gone?
Sep 02, 2015
Science and the Supernatural in the 17th Century
Jul 29, 2015
Distillations Turns 200
Jun 30, 2015
Acts of God, Acts of Men: When We Turn Nature into a Weapon
May 26, 2015
Old Brains, New Brains: The Human Mind, Past and Present
Apr 29, 2015
Fads and Faith: Belief vs. Fact in the Struggle for Health
Mar 31, 2015
Innovation and Obsolescence: The Life, Death, and Occasional Rebirth of Technologies
Feb 13, 2015
Trash Talk: The Persistence of Waste
Jan 20, 2015
Life with HIV: Success without a Cure?
Dec 16, 2014
Babies on Demand: Reproduction in a Technological Age
Nov 18, 2014
Fogs of War: The Many Lives of Chemical Weapons
Oct 21, 2014
Wake up and Smell the Story: Sniffing out Health and Sickness
Sep 23, 2014
The Teeth Beneath Your Feet: Oddities in Urban Archaeology
Aug 12, 2014
Intoxication and Civilization: Beer's Ancient Past
Jun 30, 2014
Alchemy's Rainbow: Pigment Science and the Art of Conservation
May 05, 2014
Meet Joe Palca: A Radio Story About Making Radio Stories
Mar 18, 2014
Drawing History: Telling the Stories of Science through Comics and Graphic Novels
Feb 04, 2014
Why the Chicken Became a Nugget and Other Tales of Processed Food
Dec 20, 2013
Digging Up the Bodies: Debunking CSI and Other Forensics Myths
Dec 03, 2013
Zombies! How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Zombie Apocalypse
Oct 22, 2013
Atomic Power and Promise: What's Become of Our Nuclear Golden Age?
Oct 21, 2013
Episode 181: Chemotherapy
Sep 03, 2013
Episode 180: Best of Distillations #12
Aug 19, 2013
Episode 179: Best of Distillations #11
Aug 05, 2013
Episode 178: In the Air
Jul 22, 2013
Episode 177:The Old Show
Jul 08, 2013
Episode 176: The Adult Show
Jun 24, 2013
Episode 175: The Kid Show
Jun 11, 2013
Episode 174: Water Webs
May 28, 2013
Episode 173: Power Up
May 14, 2013
Episode 172: On Beauty
Apr 29, 2013
Episode 171: Underground Worlds
Apr 16, 2013
Episode 170: Urban Agriculture
Apr 01, 2013
Episode 169: Neighborhood Preservation
Mar 18, 2013
Episode 168: So Argon Walks Into a Bar...
Mar 04, 2013
Episode 167: Cold War Chemistry
Feb 18, 2013
Episode 166: Alchemy After Dark
Feb 04, 2013
Episode 165: In Good Taste
Jan 22, 2013
Episode 164: Bones
Jan 07, 2013
Episode 163: A Day in the Life - Night
Dec 23, 2012
Episode 162: A Day in the Life - Noon
Dec 10, 2012
Episode 161: A Day in the Life - Morning
Nov 26, 2012
Episode 160: Teflon
Nov 12, 2012
Episode 159: Kean on Genes
Oct 29, 2012
Episode 158: The Alchemical Quest
Oct 15, 2012
Episode 157: Smoke and Mirrors
Oct 01, 2012
Episode 156: Hard to Stomach
Sep 17, 2012
Episode 155: Shipwrecks
Sep 04, 2012
Episode 154: Fast and Slow
Aug 20, 2012
Episode 153: Best Of Distillations #10
Aug 03, 2012
Episode 152: Best of Distillations #9
Jul 23, 2012
Episode 151: Tears
Jul 09, 2012
Episode 150: Sweat
Jun 22, 2012
Episode 149: Blood
Jun 08, 2012
Episode 148: Across the Pond
May 26, 2012
Episode 147: Babies
May 11, 2012
Episode 146: Something in the Air
Apr 27, 2012
Episode 145: Asbestos
Apr 13, 2012
Episode 144: Mystery of Mass (Spec)
Mar 30, 2012
Episode 143: Fairyland of Chemistry
Mar 16, 2012
Episode 142: Midcentury Mutants
Mar 02, 2012
Episode 141: Disaster Recovery
Feb 17, 2012
Episode 140: Swapping Spit
Feb 03, 2012
Episode 139: The Brain on Sports
Jan 20, 2012
Episode 138: Your Genome
Jan 06, 2012
Episode 137: Cocktails
Dec 23, 2011
Episode 136: Good Vibrations
Dec 09, 2011
Episode 135: Black Friday
Nov 25, 2011
Episode 134: Is Anybody Out There?
Nov 11, 2011
Episode 133: Halloween Candy
Oct 28, 2011
Episode 132: Harvest
Oct 14, 2011
Episode 131: Dinosaurs
Sep 30, 2011
Episode 130: Our Chemical Landscape – The Wild
Sep 16, 2011
Episode 129: Taste
Sep 02, 2011
Episode 128: Our Chemical Landscape – The Farm
Aug 19, 2011
Episode 127: Best of Distillations #8
Aug 05, 2011
Episode 126: Best of Distillations #7
Jul 22, 2011
Episode 125: Chem-moo-stry
Jul 08, 2011
Episode 124: Our Chemical Landscape – The Suburb
Jun 24, 2011
Episode 123: Under the Sea
Jun 10, 2011
Episode 122: Our Chemical Landscape – The City
May 27, 2011
Episode 121: Geek Chic
May 13, 2011
Episode 120: Nuclear Medicine
Apr 29, 2011
Episode 119: Climate Change
Apr 15, 2011
Episode 118: Placebos
Apr 01, 2011
Episode 117: Women's History Month
Mar 18, 2011
Episode 116: Crime Fighters
Mar 03, 2011
Episode 115: Black History Month
Feb 18, 2011
Episode 114: Elements of Expression
Feb 04, 2011
Episode 113: Burning Rubber
Jan 21, 2011
Episode 112: Nuclear Power
Jan 07, 2011
Episode 111: A Distillations Carol
Dec 24, 2010
Episode 110: Essential Elements - Air
Dec 10, 2010
Episode 109: East Meets West
Nov 26, 2010
Episode 108: Essential Elements - Fire
Nov 12, 2010
Episode 107: Medical Gross Out
Oct 29, 2010
Episode 106: Essential Elements – Water
Oct 22, 2010
Elemental Memoir Lesson Plan
Oct 14, 2010
Episode 105: Periodic Table Contents
Oct 08, 2010
Episode 104: Essential Elements – Earth
Sep 24, 2010
Episode 103: Herbal Remedy
Sep 10, 2010
Episode 102: Best of Distillations #6
Aug 27, 2010
Episode 101: Best of Distillations #5
Aug 13, 2010
Episode 100: Birthday Episode
Jul 30, 2010
Celebrate 100 Episodes of Distillations
Jul 27, 2010
Episode 99: Summer BBQ
Jul 16, 2010
Episode 98: Climate Engineering
Jul 02, 2010
Episode 97: Immortality
Jun 18, 2010
A Summer Brew for You
Jun 11, 2010
Episode 96: Infamous Science
Jun 04, 2010
Episode 95: Cleaning Up -- Retro Edition
May 21, 2010
Episode 94: Scientific Visions
May 07, 2010
Episode 93: Kids’ Science
Apr 23, 2010
Episode 92: Scientific Collaborations
Apr 09, 2010
Episode 91: Marvels and Ciphers
Mar 26, 2010
Episode 90: Useful Waste
Mar 12, 2010
Episode 89: Plastic World
Feb 26, 2010
Episode 88: A Sense of Scent
Feb 12, 2010
Episode 87: Scientific Journeys
Jan 29, 2010
Episode 86: In Sickness and in Health
Jan 15, 2010
Episode 85: International Year in Review
Jan 01, 2010
Episode 84: Crystals
Dec 18, 2009
Episode 83: Fellows in Action
Dec 04, 2009
Episode 82: Food Myths
Nov 20, 2009
Episode 81: Light
Nov 06, 2009
Episode 80: Autumn
Oct 23, 2009
Episode 79: Changing Phases
Oct 09, 2009
Episode 78: Public Science
Sep 25, 2009
Episode 77: Innovations and Inventions
Sep 11, 2009
Episode 76: Working Class Chemistry
Aug 28, 2009
Episode 75: Best of Distillations #4
Aug 14, 2009
Episode 74: Best of Distillations #3
Jul 31, 2009
Episode 73: Brave New Worlds
Jul 17, 2009
Episode 72: Space and Place
Jul 03, 2009
Episode 71: Breakfast
Jun 19, 2009
Episode 70: The Chemistry of Dentistry
Jun 05, 2009
Episode 69: Lab Safety
May 22, 2009
Episode 68: Integrated Circuits
May 08, 2009
Episode 67: Baseball
Apr 24, 2009
Episode 66: Cleaning Green
Apr 10, 2009
Episode 65: Going to the Dogs
Mar 27, 2009
Episode 64: sLowlife
Mar 13, 2009
Episode 63: Biofuel
Feb 27, 2009
Episode 62: Chemical Romance
Feb 13, 2009
Episode 61: Space Science
Feb 06, 2009
Episode 60: Professional Networks
Jan 30, 2009
Episode 59: Winter Sports
Jan 23, 2009
Episode 58: Presidents & Policy 
Jan 16, 2009
Episode 57: Library & Information Services
Jan 09, 2009
Episode 56: New Year's Resolutions
Jan 02, 2009
Episode 55: Anniversary
Dec 26, 2008
Episode 54: Holiday Greetings 2008
Dec 19, 2008
Episode 53: Faking It
Dec 12, 2008
Episode 52: Wine
Dec 05, 2008
Episode 51: Global Health
Nov 28, 2008
Episode 50: Children's Health
Nov 21, 2008
Episode 49: Eating
Nov 14, 2008
Episode 48: Alchemy
Nov 07, 2008
Episode 47: Making Up
Oct 31, 2008
Episode 46: Charging Up
Oct 24, 2008
Episode 45: Making Modernity   
Oct 17, 2008
Episode 44: Sweet Dreams
Oct 10, 2008
Episode 43: Cause and Effect
Oct 03, 2008
Episode 42: Women in Chemistry
Sep 26, 2008
Episode 41: Self-Experimentation
Sep 19, 2008
Episode 40: Agriculture
Sep 12, 2008
Episode 39: Photography
Sep 05, 2008
Episode 37: Best of Distillations #1
Aug 22, 2008
Episode 38: Best of Distillations #2
Aug 22, 2008
Episode 36: Olympics
Aug 15, 2008
Episode 35: Things We Wear
Aug 08, 2008
Episode 34: Criminal Chemistry
Aug 01, 2008
Episode 33: Molecular Gastronomy
Jul 25, 2008
Episode 32: Religious Experience
Jul 18, 2008
Episode 31: Motherhood
Jul 11, 2008
Episode 30: American Chemistry
Jul 04, 2008
Episode 29: Left Behind
Jun 27, 2008
Episode 28: Summer
Jun 20, 2008
Episode 27: Illumination
Jun 13, 2008
Episode 26: Performance
Jun 06, 2008
Episode 25: The Chemistry of Time
May 30, 2008
Episode 24: Beer and Brewing
May 23, 2008
Episode 23: Preservation
May 16, 2008
Episode 22: Virtual Classrooms
May 09, 2008
Episode 21: Sound
May 02, 2008
Episode 20: Spring Cleaning
Apr 25, 2008
Episode 18: Beyond the Chip
Apr 11, 2008
Episode 19: Jamestown
Apr 11, 2008
Episode 17: Dual Use
Mar 28, 2008
Episode 16: Vitamania!
Mar 28, 2008
Episode 15: The Art of Science
Mar 21, 2008
Episode 14: Blockbuster Science
Mar 14, 2008
Episode 13: The Nanoscale
Mar 07, 2008
Episode 12: Chemistry as Technology
Feb 29, 2008
Episode 11: Wonder Drugs
Feb 22, 2008
Episode 10: Color
Feb 15, 2008
Episode 9: The Love Show
Feb 08, 2008
Episode 8: Chemistry in the Classroom
Feb 01, 2008
Episode 7: Electronics
Jan 25, 2008
Episode 6: The Chemistry of Texts
Jan 18, 2008
Episode 5: The Body Chemical
Jan 11, 2008
Episode 4: Measurement
Jan 04, 2008
Episode 3: Happy Holidays from CHF!
Dec 28, 2007
Episode 2: Cleaning Up
Dec 21, 2007
Episode 1: Communicating Chemistry
Dec 14, 2007