Why Would You Ask That?

Some diseases really do run in certain ancestries. Others just look that way until you factor in poverty and colonialism. We dig into which is which, what these conditions actually are, and the surprisingly strategic reasons evolution let some of them stick around.CW: Death in Childhood, Medical Racism, Colonialism, Imperialism, Pain as a Medical Symptom, Details of Medical Conditions (Cystic Fibrosis, Tay Sachs, Sickle Cell, Diabetes), PovertyMusic provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License]Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support.

Join us as we learn about the incredible work of Dr. Harvey Wiley and his crusade against corporate greed, food lobbies, and small time fraudster's alike. One man's mission to make sure food is exactly what it says on the tin led to an insane experiment that laid the foundation for none other than the FDA.CW: Human Experimentation, Poison Consumption, Physical Illness, Several Minutes Talking About Poop, Death, Tuberculosis, References to WarMusic provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License]Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support.

Part 3? Kind of. This episode is not about idioms but is from a question we received about "culture-bound syndromes" based on the idiom running amok from our Spilling the Beans episode. You don't need to have listened to parts 1 and 2 to understand this episode. It's all about how the term "culture-bound syndrome" was born and died in a flash. We take a look at what some of these syndromes were/are and what the APA is doing to fix their mistakes. From koro to bouffée délirante, join us in learning what binds us together in mental health awareness.CW: Mental Health Talk (the whole episode), Eating Disorders, Bugs on or in the body (briefly), Skin Picking (briefly), Exoticism/Othering in the Medical CommunityMusic provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License]Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support.

It's aquatic. It's humanoid. It's arguably a mermaid. It was invented by anonymous forum posters and somehow ended up in a paranormal magazine next to a "real" 1958 sighting. This week we chase the Ningen from 2chan to Antarctica to your Pokédex, and detour through the wider world of monsters the internet built from scratch.CW: Whaling, Survival Situation TalkMusic provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License]Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support.

In 2023, Channel 4 aired a mockumentary called The British Miracle Meat, hosted by Gregg Wallace, that got 408 Ofcom complaints in 23 minutes flat. This week we get into how it pulled that off by borrowing a centuries-old literary con, and why horrifying your audience might genuinely be the most effective way to get anyone to care about a crisis they've been ignoring for years.CW: Simulated Cannibalism (including of children), Poverty, Surgery, Medical Harm, Brief discussion of Pedofilia during the section about Brass EyeMusic provided by Dark Fantasy Studios. [License]Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/why-would-you-ask-that--5784165/support.