Special Episode: Dr. Olivia Weisser & The Dreaded Pox
This Podcast Will Kill You

Special Episode: Dr. Olivia Weisser & The Dreaded Pox

May 12, 202651 min

In a time when smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and typhus ran rampant through the streets of London, there was another disease that instilled even more fear than these other killers: syphilis. So feared and so stigmatized was syphilis that it was sometimes called “the secret disease.” A diagnosis would not only sentence you to a drawn-out and painful illness possibly resulting in death, it also labeled you as an outcast and not fit for polite company. Skyrocketing infection rates drove a corresponding rise in syphilis “cures” and an increasingly desperate public. In this TPWKY book club episode, Dr. Olivia Weisser, associate...

Play episode

No transcript for this episode yet

You can still listen to it in the player. On episodes with a transcript, you can tap any word to see its meaning.