How a Fake Doctor Ran Carnival Sideshows, Saved Thousands of Infants, and Changed Medical History
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 737 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2023
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Dr. Martin Couney carried a secret with him, but the results are unimpeachable. It was Coney Island in the early 1900’s. Beyond the Four-Legged Woman, the sword swallowers, and “Lionel the Lion-Faced Man,” was an entirely different exhibit: rows of tiny, premature human babies living in glass incubators. Here to tell the story is Dawn Raffel, author of The Strange Case of Dr. Couney: How a Mysterious European Showman Saved Thousands of American Babies. "Fascinating, mysterious and compelling...written with great style and the energy of a can't-put-down thriller." —The Chicago Tribune
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