To quote Mr. Peanut Butter, "Is this a crossover episode?"
It sure is!
I was very fortunate to join Shea over at Rainy Day Rabbit Holes for this very special episode in which we both share a story related to the fraudulent, and hidden horrors, of medical history. Shea kicks things off with the story of Clark Stanley, "the Rattlesnake King," and how he tricked the masses into buying his magical cure-all: snake oil. I then follow with the story of the Victorian opium eaters, whose recreational drug use was lauded by writers like Thomas De Quincey, but the unregulated use of opium proved to have a very dark (and often deadly) side.
I hope you enjoy this first special crossover between our two shows! Check out Rainy Day Rabbit Holes for more unhinged stories from history: www.rainydayrabbitholes.com.
You can also keep up with Outcasts of the Earth at www.ootepod.com.
Theme music: "Southern Gothic" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro music: “D´vil,” anrocomposer
Sources:
Anon., "A Plea from a Young Laudanum Addict," 1889.
Thomas De Quincey, Confessions of an English Opium Eater, 1821.
David T. Courtwright, Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World, 2002.
Jonathan S. Jones, Opium Slavery: Civil War Veterans and America's First Opioid Crisis, 2025.
Roy Porter, Quacks: Fakers and Charlatans in Medicine, 2000.
James Harvey Young, The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation, 1961.
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