Scurvy, with Jane Flett (episode 17)
Writer, cellist, and horror enthusiast Jane Flett joins the show to tell all about the literal and metaphorical grotesqueness of scurvy, rendering Val awed and sometimes speechless. The Age of Exploration was full of it! Vasco da Gama and Captain Cook get referenced, and we learn about the many cures that were attempted by James Lind, from good ideas to very bad ones. We also play a fun game: what wounds would open on your body if you had advanced scurvy? Your body, your meat sack: you gotta keep putting stuff in it. Bonus body horror: A fun fact about placentas!
Illustration by Gustave Doré from a book-length edition of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
SHOW NOTES:
According to Medical News Today, free radicals in the brain are “are unstable atoms that can damage cells, causing illness and aging.”
The other podcast Val was referring to is called The Dream. Season Two interrogates/exposes the wellness industry. S2E3: “Magic Little Pills” tells the story of the history of vitamins. Scurvy gets a mention, and they cover the ensuing panic.
AlphaHistory.com has a short but helpful article on James Graham and the practice of earth bathing. Also, as Jane put it, the James Graham wiki is *chefs kiss*
An article about the soil study Val was vaguely referring to can be found on EurekAlert! and is called “Healthy fat hidden in dirt may fend off anxiety disorders.”
If you’d like to learn more about scurvy and its history, here are some links that Jane recommends: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/scurvy-disease-discovery-jonathan-lamb
https://idlewords.com/2010/03/scott_and_scurvy.htm
https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-age-of-scurvy
I got my own anxiety-assuaging info about vitamin C at https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/by-the-way-doctor-whats-the-right-amount-of-vitamin-c-for-me
I googled “Why do people eat placentas?” and found a BBC article with just that name. Apparently, many mammals in the animal kingdom consume their afterbirth. Some people think eating the placenta can prevent postpartum depression, increase energy, and give other health benefits, but there hasn’t been enough science to confirm the claims or warn of risks.
You can read (or listen to) Jane’s story “Mermaids” on PANK, and some of their poetry on Hobart.
And you can watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuobv6YktNI
Learn more about them at http://janeflett.com/.