Fluoride To The Rescue (1945) [Archive Episode]

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

**It's the Radiotopia fundraiser! We can only make this show with your support. Give now and help support This Day and all the independent shows at Radiotopia. Thank you! https://www.radiotopia.fm/donate**

As Trump floats RFK Jr -- a fluoride skeptic -- as a possible name to lead the Heath and Human Services department, we thought we'd bring you an episode from the archives about when fluoride first came to the United States.

///

It’s January 24th. On this day in 1945, the town of Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first town in the country to add fluoride to its drinking water.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the program was a huge success when it came to public health, but nevertheless spawned a generation of conspiracy theories about fluoridation.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey there, Jody here, and as I'm recording this, I am watching the news like all of us are coming in left and right, fast and furious, of Donald Trump's nominees for his cabinet as he takes back the White House in the next year.
0:12.7	And we've done lots of episodes that touch on a lot of the stuff that these cabinet officials will have control over from the military to foreign policy to school curriculum. But let's talk
0:22.6	about RFK Jr. Trump has floated his name to head up the Department of Health and Human Services,
0:28.8	which would mean that the vaccine skeptic would be in charge of our nation's health infrastructure,
0:33.6	our preparation for the next pandemic. And RFK Jr. isn't just a skeptic of vaccines, but another
0:39.2	key preventative health measure, fluoride. We did an episode a couple years ago about the
0:44.1	introduction of fluoride into the U.S. water system. It was met way back then with skepticism and
0:50.1	conspiracy theories. I don't think RFK Jr. goes fully like communist mind control tinfoil
0:56.3	hat with fluoride in the way that some people did back in the 40s, as you'll hear, but a lot of
1:01.7	his just asking questions about the side effects and environmental impact of fluoride does reach
1:07.4	back to its arrival in the U.S. water system. So we thought it would make sense to run this
1:12.0	episode now for a little context about where we've been and where we may be headed. So here we go.
1:17.9	An episode from the archives, fluoride comes to save the teeth of America. Take a listen.
1:26.4	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.
1:30.9	My name is Jody Avergan.
1:35.3	This day, January 24th, 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan becomes the first city in the U.S. to
1:42.6	add fluoride to their water as part of a controlled
1:45.8	study to prevent tooth decay. And guess what? The fluoride? It worked. It did just that. Within
1:51.0	10 years, studies had shown a 65% reduction in tooth decay in Grand Rapids, and fluoridation
1:57.8	became standard in the water throughout this country.
2:01.0	There's fluoride in the water that you drink today, and hopefully your teeth are doing well as a result.
2:05.9	All of this, though, was not without controversy.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.