You and Betty and the Nancy's and Bill's and Joes and Jane's will find in the study of science

a richer, more rewarding life.

Welcome to Inquiring Minds. I'm in Dravis Gontas. This is a podcast that explores the space

where science and society collide. We want to find out what's true, what's left to discover,

and why it matters.

This week we have a special treat for you. Coming back onto the podcast is Deborah Blum. You might remember Deborah Blum

from Chris Mooney's interview back in episode 16, the very beginning of inquiring minds,

where she talked to him about her earlier book, The Poisoner's Handbook. Well, now she's back

with a completely different book. It's called The Poison Squad, but it's not what you think. It's not

the squad that does the poisoning. It's the squad rather that gets poisoned. It's all about food

safety and the history of labeling and food safety in the U.S. And it's fascinating. It's

definitely overturned a lot of the misconceptions that I had about what it was like

to eat in the 19th century. Deborah Blum, welcome back to inquiring minds. Thank you. It's so

great to be here. So this book is totally the opposite of what I thought it was going to be.

After reading the Poisoners Handbook, I kind of thought that the Po thought it was going to be. After reading the Poisoners

handbook, I kind of thought that the Poison Squad is going to be, it was a bit of a sequel to that.

And, you know, it was so different from that that it kind of shocked me when I, because I didn't

even read the press materials that came along with that. I was going to jump right in. And I was like,

wait a minute. Yeah, I had a moment when I

started really getting into the research thinking, what have I done? That's right. It's very different.

I mean, what caused you to go back and look into this story? Yes, because, you know, I'm not like one of the

nation's known food writers. And this is really about food safety. So, you know, I'm not like one of the nation's known food writers, and this is really about food safety.

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