Episode
Jake Leg Blues
- Published
- May 13, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 1220
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://samkean.com/podcast/
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/episodes/jake-leg-blues/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/jake-leg-blues.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
It was one the largest epidemics in American history: 30,000 people paralyzed over a few months in 1930. A dogged epidemiologist eventually traced the cause to adulterated bottles of an illegal liquor/medicine called “jake.” Yet the epidemic is almost completely forgotten. About the only place it survived was in blues songs... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy