“Why the Black Death Actually Helped Workers”
👉 For more insights, check out the full book and audio summary here 📖
📕 Transcript and audio of this episode is available here for free
Title: Get Well Soon
Author: Jennifer Wright
Category: World History, Health, Food & Nutrition
What if the single greatest force shaping human history wasn't kings or generals, but tiny, invisible microbes? Sam and Sophie sit with that idea as they dive into Jennifer Wright's darkly hilarious history of plagues.
They walk through the dancing plague where doctors built a stage and hired musicians to cure it, the Tudor doctors who killed patients with blankets, and how the Black Death actually cleared the way for the Renaissance. The pair also cover cholera and Dr. John Snow's fight against the miasma theory, the 1918 flu's terrifying overreaction, and how polio led to one of humanity's finest moments with the March of Dimes.
If you've ever wondered why we panic, blame, and try stupid cures when faced with the unknown, this episode names the pattern and leaves you with a strange hope: we're flawed and magnificent, and we're still here.
Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright. If you want the full written summary, the whole library is on 7minutebooks.com/app — over 6,000+ fiction and nonfiction titles, unlimited access from $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 lifetime.
Chapters
00:00The Dancing Plague01:44Leprosy And Scapegoating02:19Black Death And The Renaissance03:16Cholera And Dr. John Snow04:02Polio And The March Of Dimes04:37AIDS And Resilience
Topics
Related episodes
