The McDonald's Hot Coffee Case
You're Wrong About
Sarah Marshall
4.6 • 23K Ratings
🗓️ 13 September 2021
⏱️ 73 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mike tells Sarah how a tragic story became a national punchline and a decades-long moral panic. Digressions include a sympathetic psychic, a paternalistic principal and a manure mishap. Mike appears to be unaware of the difference between a cousin and a nephew.
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Sarah's other show, You Are Good
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Links!
- Distorting the Law: Politics, Media, and the Litigation Crisis
- Java Jive: Genealogy of a Juridical Icon
- Newsweek’s “Lawsuit Hell” story
- Retro Report’s “The Misunderstood McDonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit
- Adam Ruins Everything’s “The Truth About the McDonald's Coffee Lawsuit”
- Swindled’s “The Lawsuit”
- Susan Saladoff's "Hot Coffee" documentary
- McTorts: The Social and Legal Impact of McDonald's Role in Tort Suits
- Legal Urban Legends Hold Sway
- Revisiting The United States Application Of Punitive Damages: Separating Myth From Reality
- Six Myths of Capping Pain and Suffering Damages
- The Monster In The Television: The Media's Contribution To The Consumer Litigation Boogeyman
- The Beginning And The Possible End Of The Rise Of Modern American Tort Law
- Debunking Medical Malpractice Myths: Unraveling the False Premises Behind "Tort Reform"
- Blocking the Courthouse Door: How the Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies Are Taking Away Your Right to Sue
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | By the way, I have this idea for a companion show for a million dollar listing. |
| 0:04.0 | It's for like half million dollar listings in cities like Seattle and Portland and it's called for that. |
| 0:23.6 | Welcome to your rang about the show where we always end up back at McDonald's. |
| 0:27.6 | I feel like we've swung back to McDonald's a few times in this show. |
| 0:32.3 | Yeah, this is our McRib episode. I am Michael Hobbs. |
| 0:35.3 | I'm Sarah Marshall. |
| 0:36.4 | And today we are talking about finally the McDonald's hot coffee case. |
| 0:41.9 | And why do you say finally, my friend? |
| 0:44.0 | I mean, this is our free bird. |
| 0:46.3 | This is the thing that we get requests for probably three to five times a week. |
| 0:52.2 | I don't think this was literally the first topic suggestion we ever got, |
| 0:55.5 | but it had to be in the first five. |
| 0:58.0 | And it's also we have talked about this that this is one of the cases that inspired us to do |
| 1:02.4 | the show. That's true. |
| 1:03.8 | It is one of the cleanest examples of a huge, you're wrong about, like in our lifetimes. |
| 1:10.2 | And I think that I first heard about this. |
| 1:12.1 | I know it was a media sensation in like the late mid 90s. |
| 1:16.0 | I want to say like 96. |
| 1:17.8 | The verdict came down in 94. |
| 1:19.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:19.8 | And I know that this was an event that was directly parodied on Seinfeld, |
| 1:23.4 | which I think is kind of a litmus test for cultural relevance. |
... |
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