The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily.

On September 13, 1848, a 25-year-old man by the name of Phineas Gage received a horrific brain injury while working on a railroad in Vermont.

The odds of anyone surviving such an accident were a million to one. Yet despite astronomical odds, he survived his injury and became a case study for

neuroscientists ever since.

Learn more about Phineas Gage and his incredible story and how it helped us understand the

workings of the human brain on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. There's very little we know about the early life of Phineas Gage.

To be perfectly honest, if it wasn't for the event I'll be discussing in this episode,

Phineas Gage probably would have been unknown to history.

In 1823, he was born in New Hampshire Hampshire and that's where he was raised.

He was of average height and weight and we know that he was unusually healthy growing up.

He was never sick and based on a single photo that remains he was quite handsome.

At the age of 25 he had become a

blasting foreman that worked for railroad companies. He and his crew were probably

independent contractors who would work for various railroads in the region. On the day in question he was working

for the Rutland and Burlington Railroad near the town of Cavendish, Vermont.

He and his crew were assigned to blasting away some rock. The process of

blasting rock back in 1848 wasn't without risk, but it

was something that Phineas would have done many times before and by all accounts

he was experienced and skilled at the task. Basically you would drill a hole into the rock with a

hammer and an iron spike. Then you would fill the hole with gunpowder, put some clay or

sand behind it, and very carefully tamped down the gunpowder and the sand.

Once everything in the hole was packed you would light a fuse, get out of the way, and the

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