The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean cover art

The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

By: Sam Kean Bleav
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About this listen

 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.Copyright 2020 All rights reserved. Art Literary History & Criticism World
Episodes
  • Bringing an Extinct Owl Back to Life

    Bringing an Extinct Owl Back to Life
    Nov 18 2025

    The work of Richard Meinertzhagen helped convince biologists that the Forest Owlet of India had gone extinct. But after Meinertzhagen’s frauds were exposed, one biologist grew obsessed with finding out whether it just might be alive still. (Part 2 of 2)


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    19 mins
  • Trickster, Birder, Soldier, Spy

    Trickster, Birder, Soldier, Spy
    Nov 11 2025

    He was a brilliant ornithologist—and a spy so colorful that James Bond was based on him. Richard Meinertzhagen was also a liar and a thief, and perpetrated the biggest fraud in biology history. Episode below!


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    18 mins
  • Why Not Just Rename the “Hitler Beetle”?

    Why Not Just Rename the “Hitler Beetle”?
    Nov 4 2025

    Taxonomy has a sadly ugly history of naming species after despicable people—even Adolf Hitler. Given the controversy these names generate, there have been many calls to drop them. But taxonomists have so far resisted most of these efforts, for reasons both good and bad...


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    19 mins
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