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Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

S1: The Tragicomedy of Typhoid Mary

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

Strange and Unexplained with Daisy Eagan

Society & Culture, Science, True Crime

4.010.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're taking a break this week so here's an episode from our first season you may not have heard yet. We'll be back with a new episode next week!

This is the story of a cook who refused to wash her hands and the health department that chased her around New York City in search of a stool sample. She’d end up alone on an island, but everyone knew her name. Here’s how Mary Mallon became Typhoid Mary.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

There you are on the train and you see someone harassing a woman.

0:05.0

What do you do?

0:07.0

I'll check if she's okay and ask if she wants to report it.

0:10.0

I'll ask the directions to distract him.

0:12.0

I'll tell someone who works at the station.

0:14.0

His mind mate, I'll tell him to stop.

0:17.0

There are many ways you can safely tackle violence against women and girls.

0:21.0

If you think it's wrong, act on it.

0:23.0

Find out how at gov.uk slash enough.

0:27.0

If someone is in danger call 999.

0:34.0

If you have children, you know how impossible it can be to get them to remember to wash their hands.

0:41.0

Ever. Let alone after they use the bathroom.

0:44.0

If my son had it his way, he would eat everything with his hands, which would be marinated in weeks worth of germs.

0:51.0

Even after explaining to him 8,000 times that poop, hands kill.

0:56.0

That's the name of my next album, by the way.

0:59.0

He would still happily eat a hot dog on the toilet if only I would let him.

1:04.0

My son isn't quite 9 years old though.

1:07.0

I can forgive his ignorance of basic hygiene to a point.

1:11.0

Mary Mellon on the other hand was a grown-ass adult who should have known better.

1:16.0

And despite being told many times to wash her goddamn hands after using the shitter,

1:22.0

and before going back to work in the kitchens of wealthy families, she, for whatever reason, refused.

1:28.0

As a result, she left scores of really sick people in her wake, killing a few along the way,

...

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