{"podcast":{"title":"Better Known","slug":"better-known-789694","podcast_index_feed_id":789694,"rss_url":"https://media.zencast.fm/better-known/rss","website_url":"https://better-known.zencast.website","image_url":"https://podcdn.zencast.fm/download/Podcast%2Fartworks%2F1493%2Flarge%2Fb3396bcb59674d33f54fa27c6d3855f647834cfcb75b4cb98f2d279c053e83ea%2Fbetter%2520known.png","author":"Ivan Wise","episode_count":446,"summary":"Each week, a guest makes a series of recommendations of things which they think should be better known. Our recommendations include interesting people, places, objects, stories, experiences and ideas which our guest feels haven't had the exposure that they deserve.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-13T18:20:27.658617+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-known-789694"},"episode":{"title":"Matt Kaplan","slug":"matt-kaplan","published_at":"2026-03-01T18:17:49+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-known-789694/matt-kaplan","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-known-789694","url":"https://better-known.zencast.website/episodes/matt-kaplan","audio_url":"https://media.zencast.fm/better-known/3765ae4c-ca43-48fd-aaaf-146aa4daa542.mp3?source=feed","summary":"Matt Kaplan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matt Kaplan is a science correspondent at the Economist. He is the author of The Science of Monsters and Science of the Magical, and co-author of David Attenborough’s First Life: A Journey Through Time. His new book is I Told You So! Scientists who were Ridiculed, Exiled and Imprisoned for Being Right, which is available at https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250372284/itoldyouso/ . The few doctors who worked out that handwashing was essential for preventing the spread of disease were attacked by their peers https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/ignaz-semmelweis-doctor-prescribed-hand-washing George Washington disobeyed direct orders from the Continental Congress and inoculated his troops against smallpox during the Revolutionary War https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/washingtons-war-against-smallpox-revolutionary-inoculation-campaign/ Louis Pasteur was a vicious fellow who engaged in academic fraud. https://cms.viroliegy.com/2022/02/25/louis-pasteurs-unethical-rabies-fraud/ The mild mannered French physician Pierre Alexandre Louis worked out that the common practice of blood-letting was terrible for patients. https://www.grunge.com/812824/the-radical-history-of-bloodletting-explained/ Katalin Kariko https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/scientists-egos-key-barrier-to-progress-covid-vaccine-pioneer-katalin-kariko Experiments exploring novel ideas are getting rarer as the effort needed to get research done steadily goes up https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20180338 This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm","meta_description":"Matt Kaplan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known. Matt Kaplan is a science correspondent at the Economist. He is the author of The…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1774,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/better-known-789694/episodes/matt-kaplan/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/better-known-789694/matt-kaplan.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}