CLASSIC: The Weird, Surprisingly Recent Origin of the Tooth Fairy

Ridiculous History

iHeartPodcasts

History, Society & Culture

4.3 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ben here: Noel and I are sailing the seas this week -- wish us luck! Luckily, our Super Producer Max is holding it down with some of our favorite Classic episodes. Here's one for all the kids scared of dentists: "For millions of kids in the West, the story is as mysterious as it is profitable: Once your baby teeth begin falling out, hide them beneath your pillow. Sometime in the night, the Tooth Fairy will retrieve the tooth, leaving you some cash -- perhaps spare change, perhaps as much as twenty dollars -- to thank you for your gift. So where does this idea come from? Join the guys as they explore the strange, surprisingly recent origin of the Tooth Fairy. (And parents, if you're listening with your kids, be warned: This episode does include spoilers.)"

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Transcript

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0:00.0	fellow ridiculous historians, it's pretty weird when we think about all the strange things that are
0:07.4	treated as normal. Imagine if you went to some part of the world that did not have a tooth fairy
0:14.1	and you told a child, hey, when you lose your tooth, put it under wherever you're sleeping and a magical creature will give you money.
0:24.3	I'm pretty sure I've brought this up to you before, Ben, and I think I may have even sent you one of
0:28.0	her little missives, but the, I want to say, Icelandic pop singer Aurora, she made the delightful
0:34.6	point that when you brush your teeth, it's the only time you clean your skeleton.
0:40.2	Beautiful.
0:41.0	Let's roll the show.
0:43.6	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:48.1	Malcolm Gladwell here.
0:49.4	This season on Revisionous History, we're going back to the spring of 1988 to a town in northwest Alabama,
0:55.5	where a man committed a crime that would spiral out of control.
0:59.2	And he said, I've been in prison 24, 25 years. That's probably not long enough.
1:03.9	I didn't kill him.
1:05.6	From Revisionous History, this is The Alabama Murders.
1:09.9	Listen to Revisionous History, The Alabama Murders on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:18.1	I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new season of heavyweight...
1:21.6	And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke.
1:26.2	A man who robbed a bank when he was 14 years old.
1:29.6	And a centenarian rediscovers a love lost 80 years ago.
1:34.1	How can a 101-year-old woman fall in love again?
1:41.3	Listen to heavyweight on the I-heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
	...

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