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. This episode is sponsored by audible.com.

By audiobook recommendation today is Quackery. A brief history of the worst ways to cure everything

by Lydia King and Nate Petterson.

What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the Fountain of Youth?

Well, just imagine a time when

doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants, when liquefied gold was touted as

immortality in a glass, and when Strict 9 was given out like Viagra.

Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark humor,

Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable history of medical misfires and

malpractices.

Ranging from merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish morbidly

hilarious treatments conceived by doctors and scientists by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen

that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight up scams.

You can get a free one month trial to Audible and two free audio books by going to

Audible Trial.com slash everything everywhere, or by clicking on the link in the show notes.

The first thing you need to know about snake oil is that it is an actual thing.

Snake oil is an actual thing.

Snake oil is not a metaphor.

The reason why snake oil became a metaphor for something fraudulent

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