Keeping it Fresh: Preservatives and The Poison Squad

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2018

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than a century ago, enterprising manufacturers added brand-new chemical preservatives into food to keep it fresh as it traveled from the farm into rapidly growing American cities. Milk no longer went rancid! Meat no longer spoiled! But some scientists wondered: could all these preservatives be doing more harm than good? It took a crusading chemist named Harvey Washington Wiley to take this the fight all the way to Washington, D.C., where he recruited a “poison squad” to test their health effects—and, in the process, created the nation’s first law to protect against poisons in our food supply. But did he succeed? Are the preservatives we eat today safe? Listen to this episode to hear Wiley’s story—and learn why some of the chemicals he tested are still in our food today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this episode comes from Remotely Curious, a podcast from Dropbox all about our
0:06.7	new world of work, whether hybrid, remote, or as Dropbox calls it, virtual first.
0:13.1	Each episode features a conversation asking tough questions, like how to navigate the
0:17.4	unwritten rules of dress, build creative partnerships, navigate hard times, and make the most of
0:22.8	every fresh start in your remote work life.
0:25.6	Here from some of today's top experts like podcaster and musician Rushikesh Hereway,
0:30.2	behavioral scientist Katie Milkman, and more.
0:33.2	Follow and listen to Remotely Curious wherever you get your podcasts.
0:39.6	First, sweet tarts dare to combine sweet and tart, but they didn't stop there.
0:45.4	Now they've combined soft and bouncy to bring you new sweet tarts, gummies fruity splits.
0:51.7	A uniquely delicious dual-sided gummy with one side that's sweet, and the other side
0:57.2	that's tart, but entirely smooth and squishy.
1:01.4	A powerfully perfect combo.
1:03.9	Sweet tarts dare to combine.
1:05.9	This song by a group called The UK's is about a science experiment.
1:23.6	Really, it was a pretty punk science experiment that transformed American food while also
1:28.5	kind of poisoning its subjects.
1:30.4	It was called, as you already heard, the Poison Squad trial.
1:33.4	In this episode, we're talking to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Deborah Blum, who just
1:38.7	published a brand new book all about the Poison Squad.
1:42.2	It's called, yes, the Poison Squad.
1:45.7	One chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the 20th century.
	...

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