Kellogg Brothers (Radio Edit)

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Greg Jenner is joined in 19th-century America by historian Dr Vanessa Heggie and comedian Ed Byrne to learn all about the feuding Kellogg Brothers.

John and Will Kellogg were born into a large family in Battle Creek, Michigan, in the middle of the 1800s. Following a childhood marred by illness and death, John earned a medical degree before returning to run the Sanitorium – a health and wellness centre – in his hometown, where he prescribed a variety of treatments both sensible and surreal, including a vegetarian diet, fresh air and exercise, hydrotherapy, and regular enemas! He was soon joined in his wellness venture by his business-minded brother Will, and together they invented a breakfast cereal we still know and love today: cornflakes. But after years of John’s bullying, Will left to launch his own business: the Kellogg company.

This episode tells the story of these battling brothers and their food and wellness business ventures, exploring everything from their sibling relationship and the competing stories they tell about the invention of their most famous cereal, to John’s Seventh Day Adventist beliefs and his pioneering wife with her meat-free meal replacements.

This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Charlotte Emily Edgeshaw Written by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.0	Hello, I'm Emma Barnett. For most of my career, I've been on live radio, and I love it.
0:13.3	But I've always wondered, what if we'd had more time? How much deeper does the story go?
0:19.2	I remember having this very sharp thought that what you do right now, this is it. This defines
0:25.3	your life. I'm ready to talk and ready to listen. I'm insulted by how little the medical community
0:32.1	is ever bothered with this. Ready to talk with me, Emma Barnard is my new podcast. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:40.3	Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
0:45.4	My name is Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster. And today we are
0:49.7	grabbing our spoons and tucking into a big old bowl of cereal as we sauntered back to 19th century
0:54.9	America to learn all about the Kellogg Brothers. And to help us, we have two very special
0:59.7	breakfast buddies. In History Corner, she's Associate Professor in the History of Science and Medicine
1:04.6	at the University of Birmingham's Department of Applied Health Science. You may have read her
1:08.3	excellent book, Higher and Calder, on the History of Extreme Exploration, and you'll definitely remember her from our episodes on Victorian Bodybuilding and the Northwest Passage. That's not one episode. It'll be weird if it was. It's Dr Vanessa Heggy. Welcome back, Vanessa. It's great to be back. And in Comedy Corner, he's a comedian, actor and writer. You all know him from loads of television programs, including Mock the Week, QI, have a got news for you and live at the Apollo. Plus, he's a staple of BBC Radio for shows like The Unbelievable Truth, the News, Quays and The Infinite Monkey Cage. Maybe you've seen one of his amazing live tour shows, including the award-winning tragedy plus time. That's right, it's Ed Byrne. Welcome to the show, Ed. Thank you very much indeed.
1:44.7	I feel like I shouldn't even be here when I had toast for breakfast. Ed, your first time on the show, we're delighted to have you in. First question I have to ask, contractually obligated. Are you a history fan, lover, admirate? Did he like it at school? Do you partake? Yeah, I mean, history at school, it's interesting.
2:02.5	Like, as an Irish Yeah, I mean, history at school, it's interesting.
2:02.5	Like, as an Irish person, I have massive gaps in what I'm expected to know living in England.
2:08.2	Like, anything to do with the British monarchy that people here just take for granted as knowing.
2:13.8	I'm just absolutely out in the cold on. And I have no notion of who came where.
2:20.6	I mean, having numbers in the king's names helps.
2:23.8	That even having lived now in Britain since the age of 18,
2:27.2	I'm determined to keep it as a black spot in my knowledge.
2:31.6	Well, today we're talking about America,
	...

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