Hey everyone. This is Gary. I'm off this week traveling and attending a conference and while I'm away I've lined up some vintage episodes and deep cuts that most of you probably haven't heard before and even if you have heard them a refresher never hurts. I'll be back again with brand new episodes on January 30th.

If you were to call someone a snake oil salesman,

it usually means that they're trying to defraud someone and more

specifically it often implies making false medical claims. But what exactly is snake oil and why did

it develop such a bad reputation and why specifically do we use snake oil

for such a negative metaphor?

Learn more about snake oil

and why we still reference it

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The first thing you need to know about snake oil is that it is an actual thing.

Snake oil is not a metaphor.

The reason why snake oil became a metaphor for something fraudulent

and why snake oil salesmen are considered hucksters

is actually really interesting, and it all began in 19th

century America. As railroads were being built across the country, much of the

labor was being done by Chinese immigrants who came over to work on the

railroads.

Working on the railroad was extremely hard work.

Much of the work on railroads in the 19th century was still being done by hand.

Moving rails and hammering spikes with sledgehammers all had to be done manually.

The result of such back-breaking labor was that the hands and muscles of Chinese laborers would often get very sore.

To ease their muscle pains, they would often rub their hands and muscles with a traditional Chinese ointment known as snake oil.

Snake oil is an actual product that is created from Chinese water snakes, also known as Eroboos snakes.

...