Ep 178 Fluoride 1: The real tooth fairy

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2025

⏱️ 67 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it just us, or does it seem like every other week there’s a new headline about some state or town banning water fluoridation? As it turns out, this has been going on for decades, basically since fluoride was first introduced. Why are some people opposed to fluoride? Is there any basis to their fears? What does fluoride actually do? And how the heck did we find out about it? This week and next, we’re deep diving into our first dental discussion about this revolutionary mineral. In the first of these episodes, we explore the origins of fluoridation and the outcry against it - how did tuberculosis, a gold rush town, and a dentist with an insatiable curiosity set the stage for one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century? And why has there been pushback against it since its inception? Tune in to find out.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:06.6	Have you ever thought about going voiceover?
0:10.0	I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation.
0:15.6	I'm also the girl behind Boy Sober, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about
0:23.9	celibacy, but to me, Boy Sober is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships.
0:30.3	It's flexible. It's customizable. And it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room.
0:36.8	You are actually at the party right now.
0:39.2	Let me hear it.
0:40.7	Listen to voiceover on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:47.9	It is now 25 years since the late Trendley Dean and I journeyed by train from Washington, D.C. to Grand Rapids, Michigan,
0:56.8	to be joined by Philip Jay for a meeting with the mayor to gain his approval for a water
1:02.0	fluoridation experiment. There were no signs of apprehension, of daring, or of pioneering. There was no
1:10.0	suggestion that we were being foolhardy in subjecting
1:13.2	a population of 160,000 people to a procedure which might have either short or long-range
1:20.1	hazards. We were merely replicating nature's best, based on an extensive background of
1:26.3	study data in nature's laboratory. In the United States
1:30.1	alone, some 7 million people in 1,900 communities had, throughout life, used drinking water,
1:38.2	which was naturally fluoridated with a fluoride concentration of 0.7 parts per million or more.
1:45.8	We knew what too much fluoride did.
1:48.7	We knew what too little did.
1:50.8	We knew what the optimum amount was,
1:53.7	and we had reassurance that one part per million fluoride in the drinking water
	...

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