{"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 Sad Story of Darwin’s Self-Procleimed “Stupidest” Child","slug":"the-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child","published_at":"2025-04-22T13:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-disappearing-spoon-a-science-history-podcast-with-sam-kean-550844/the-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child","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/8c692e54-7a44-433c-b0fb-4f3ecd23b9af/stream.mp3","summary":"Leonard Darwin had a lot to live up to. He was the son of the legendary Charles, and several siblings proved to be brilliant scientists as well. But Leonard never quite measured up as a mediocre military officer and two-bit politician. In his fifties, he pronounced his life a “failure.” But in his sixties, he finally found his calling—the dark pseudoscience of eugenics, a field he embraced in part to prove that he wasn’t the failure he imagined. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy","meta_description":"Leonard Darwin had a lot to live up to. He was the son of the legendary Charles, and several siblings proved to be brilliant scientists as well. But Leona…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1110,"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-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child/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-sad-story-of-darwin-s-self-procleimed-stupidest-child.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}