{"podcast":{"title":"The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean","slug":"the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844","podcast_index_feed_id":550844,"rss_url":"https://feeds.redcircle.com/2d0e7d24-b3a2-4dfc-a54c-fefdbedbf2b8","website_url":"https://redcircle.com/shows/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean","image_url":"https://media.redcircle.com/images/2026/3/25/16/8acc36e9-3d93-4fce-94e0-f752e6eeabe1_62-6aaa0908-655f-4559-a05d-430cc696c652-shrunk.jpg","author":"Sam Kean","episode_count":135,"summary":"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.","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844"},"episode":{"title":"The Great Balloon Escape","slug":"the-great-balloon-escape","published_at":"2025-12-09T14:41:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-great-balloon-escape","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844","url":"https://samkean.com/podcast/","audio_url":"https://audio2.redcircle.com/episodes/79c6cc71-44d3-4e82-9102-d7fb453de0cf/stream.mp3","summary":"Astronomer Jules Janssen was desperate to escape the siege of Paris in 1870 and observe an eclipse in Africa—work that he hoped would confirm his discovery of a brand new element in the Sun, helium. So he devised a plan to escape the city in a hot-air balloon, despite promises by the German army to shoot him as a spy if he dared try... Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy","meta_description":"Astronomer Jules Janssen was desperate to escape the siege of Paris in 1870 and observe an eclipse in Africa—work that he hoped would confirm his discover…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1087,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/episodes/the-great-balloon-escape/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-great-balloon-escape.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}