Quackery
A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
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Narrated by:
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Hillary Huber
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Written by:
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Lydia Kang
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Nate Pedersen
About this listen
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra.
Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious "treatments" - conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists, and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil) - that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. This book seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.
©2017 Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen (P)2018 TantorYou may also enjoy...
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What listeners say about Quackery
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- adam martin
- 2024-11-03
how bad the narration was
I couldn't listen to the narration. wooden stiff delivery almost sounding like ai. I wish I could get a refund
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