Filth Parties (originally aired September 23, 2020)

Published: Nov. 27, 2020, 8 p.m.

b'Dr. Joseph Goldberger and the Fight Against Pellagra
Guest: Alan M. Kraut, Professor of History at American University, and author of \\u201cGoldberger\'s War, the Life and Work of a Public Health Crusader\\u201d\\xa0
Contrary to the popular medical opinion of the time, Dr. Joseph Goldberger discovered that pellagra, a rampant epidemic in the South, was not infectious but diet-related. But the truth was hard to bear for the Southern establishment, and Dr. Goldberger had to resort to throwing "filth parties" where he and his colleagues ingested the disease to make their point. Find out how his discoveries still affect the food you eat today.
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How a Hungarian Physician Saved Women from Childbed Fever and Became the \\u2018Savior of Mothers\\u2019
Guest: Anthony Valerio, editor, teacher, and author of \\u201cSemmelweis\\u201d
Washing your hands isn\\u2019t just the best way to prevent COVID-19 in 2020\\u2014it was also the rallying cry of Ignaz Semmelweis, a young Hungarian doctor trying to end the scourge of childbed fever and lower maternal mortality rates in the 1840s, well before germ theory entered scientific thought.'