1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:06,440 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:13,440 Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's 3 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:16,040 Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here too, and we're just stuff you 4 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 2: should know in it, doing some stuff you should know, 5 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:21,120 Speaker 2: kind of stuff on the Stuff you should know podcasts. 6 00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,759 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Hey, can I make. 7 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:25,880 Speaker 1: A couple of quick announcements? 8 00:00:26,160 --> 00:00:28,440 Speaker 2: Oh boy, is it a correction about me? 9 00:00:29,120 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 3: No, that's a listener mail. Okay, just a couple of 10 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:39,560 Speaker 3: quick things. Firstly, I have had my front tooth implant redone, 11 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 3: So the next roughly eighty episodes might be a little 12 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 3: lispy here and there. 13 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:51,960 Speaker 2: Can you say sibilants, sibilants? 14 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: It's actually more f's. 15 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:57,000 Speaker 2: Can you say fibilants fibilance. 16 00:00:57,800 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: Yeah. 17 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,600 Speaker 3: Sometimes air just shoots out of that a little toothhole 18 00:01:01,480 --> 00:01:05,520 Speaker 3: tooth the thh at the end. That's problematic. So you know, 19 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 3: here we are again everyone, and bear with it. And 20 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,119 Speaker 3: I appreciate your support. 21 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:15,319 Speaker 2: You can't even tell Chuck like, had you not said something, 22 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 2: maybe one person would have noticed. I think it's fine. 23 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:20,640 Speaker 1: I appreciate that. 24 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:23,680 Speaker 3: Well, yeah, but you'll have some some words you will 25 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:26,679 Speaker 3: stand out. The other quick one is just for this 26 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:34,760 Speaker 3: episode massive CoA trigger warning any vegetarians or vegans or 27 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:39,320 Speaker 3: really anybody who is just grossed out by gross food stuff. 28 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:41,199 Speaker 1: This is choc bowl. 29 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,680 Speaker 2: Yeah. If you find the human body and the stuff 30 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:47,520 Speaker 2: it can do odious two, you might want to just 31 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,960 Speaker 2: be prepared. Yeah, all right, So that was good, good 32 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,280 Speaker 2: CoA buddy. Yeah, because we are talking about what things 33 00:01:55,280 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 2: were like before America started regulating the meat that we 34 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:05,520 Speaker 2: bought in ate and it turns out it was a 35 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,959 Speaker 2: total free for all until then. But it was really 36 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:13,840 Speaker 2: just kind of nestled in a short period. Yeah, you 37 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:16,680 Speaker 2: know where like the Second Industrial Revolution happened and all 38 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:18,880 Speaker 2: of a sudden, everybody moves to the cities and you 39 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,240 Speaker 2: can't buy your bacon from the guy down the street anymore, 40 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,480 Speaker 2: or make your own milk or whatever. You have to 41 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,480 Speaker 2: buy it. And so these companies sprung up to supply 42 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 2: that stuff and they started cutting corners immediately. 43 00:02:30,880 --> 00:02:33,679 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's the American way time and time again. We've 44 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:40,079 Speaker 3: seen from the very beginning corporate interest, corporate lobby all 45 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:42,920 Speaker 3: in the name of profit. And this isn't just US railing. 46 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 3: This is the history of the United States. 47 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 2: Yes, for sure, most of them are advertisers on stuff 48 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,800 Speaker 2: you should know too, probably so so people needed this 49 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:56,240 Speaker 2: stuff and if they filled a void, like it was 50 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:58,519 Speaker 2: a necessary thing that they were doing. But the problem 51 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:04,359 Speaker 2: is because there's zero regulation, I mean none, Like there 52 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:08,560 Speaker 2: was an author named Deborah Blum, and she wrote The 53 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 2: Poison Squad colon One chemist's single minded crusade for safety 54 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,640 Speaker 2: at the turn of the twentieth century, and she said 55 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:19,080 Speaker 2: that there was nothing that could be done to food 56 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,280 Speaker 2: that was illegal because there were no food safety laws. 57 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 2: There was nothing you could do aside from kill your customers. 58 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 2: And even then you might just get some bad press 59 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 2: and everybody's like, oh, well it happens. 60 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 1: Yeah. 61 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:38,760 Speaker 3: I wonder if it was because they just assumed that 62 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:42,440 Speaker 3: these new corporations would just sort of deliver food the 63 00:03:42,520 --> 00:03:45,200 Speaker 3: right way, or I just don't wonder if it was 64 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 3: naivete I mean, eventually it was. Obviously stuff started coming 65 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:53,000 Speaker 3: out as we'll see in this episode, and Congress, you know, 66 00:03:53,240 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 3: bows down to the donors, as they still do today. 67 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 3: But I just wonder what they thought at first, just like, no, 68 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,240 Speaker 3: this is great, and you know, they're supplying more food 69 00:04:02,240 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 3: and I'm sure they're doing it right. 70 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 2: My take on it is because this is like set 71 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 2: largely in the Gilded Age, that there was a general 72 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,960 Speaker 2: like hands off approach like, hey, this business is zooming 73 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 2: this economy into the stratosphere. Sure, and we don't want 74 00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:20,760 Speaker 2: to interfere with it, and I'm sure they're going to 75 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 2: do the right thing anyway. 76 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point. 77 00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 2: So that's my take. I think that there was a 78 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 2: combination of not really realizing that we needed regulations because 79 00:04:30,120 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 2: we never needed them before, and then not wanting to 80 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:37,000 Speaker 2: meddle with this red hot economic engine that was flaming, 81 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:38,920 Speaker 2: just with so many flames. 82 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, flames on the side of your base. 83 00:04:41,760 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, so I guess we should start with milk, huh. 84 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:47,679 Speaker 2: Yeah, why not? Because it was pretty bad stuff. 85 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. 86 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:51,279 Speaker 3: Pasturization had been around for a long time. It was 87 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:53,840 Speaker 3: a minute in the eighteen fifties, but they didn't get 88 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 3: on the widespread pasturization of milk till about the eighty 89 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,080 Speaker 3: or so years later. So if you went and bought 90 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 3: your milk, you know, I think the understanding for a 91 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 3: lot of people is like, oh, well, back then you 92 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:09,640 Speaker 3: would buy your milk from the local dairy, right, and 93 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:13,040 Speaker 3: it was that's way better just to get it fresh 94 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,000 Speaker 3: from the teat like that, and that was not true 95 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 3: because this milk was nasty. It was killing babies. Four 96 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:27,200 Speaker 3: hundred thousand babies a year from drinking bad milk. 97 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:29,800 Speaker 2: In America alone. That's not a global stat that's just 98 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:30,720 Speaker 2: in the United States. 99 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:32,039 Speaker 1: Yeah, unbelievable. 100 00:05:32,560 --> 00:05:33,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. 101 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:34,760 Speaker 1: It is. 102 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:37,240 Speaker 2: It's nuts. So everybody's like, yeah, this just happens. But 103 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:40,520 Speaker 2: I guess people just thought that's what happened when you 104 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 2: drink milk sometimes, or I don't know what the thinking was. Yeah, 105 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:47,520 Speaker 2: But a guy named John Newell Hurdi h R t Y. 106 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,120 Speaker 2: He became the chief Health Officer of Indiana in eighteen 107 00:05:51,200 --> 00:05:53,960 Speaker 2: ninety six, and we should say by this time, just 108 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 2: kind of to give it some context, the pure food movement, 109 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,360 Speaker 2: which was a progressive movement in the nineteenth century, along 110 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:06,280 Speaker 2: with like temperance, suffrage, abolition, it had really kind of 111 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:08,960 Speaker 2: started to gain steam. So this guy wasn't laying the groundwork, 112 00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:12,520 Speaker 2: but his work was very noteworthy. But he became the 113 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,920 Speaker 2: chief Health Officer of Indiana and he immediately started investigating 114 00:06:17,240 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 2: the state's dairy farms and found what they were doing 115 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 2: is what was killing, you know, infants who were being 116 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:25,080 Speaker 2: fed cow's milk. 117 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was because it was cow's milk that was 118 00:06:27,839 --> 00:06:30,120 Speaker 3: watered down so they could stretch profits. But it was 119 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:33,880 Speaker 3: watered down. It's not like they had some beautiful filtration 120 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 3: system from a Poland spring. 121 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:36,320 Speaker 2: Right. 122 00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:38,159 Speaker 1: Actually, I don't even know what a Poland spring is. 123 00:06:39,160 --> 00:06:42,360 Speaker 2: It's a specific spring. It is ironically not in Poland. 124 00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: I had a feeling so they weren't using that. 125 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,039 Speaker 3: Of course, they were using like the farm's pond water, 126 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 3: which was disgusting. It was stagnant at one point, like 127 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:56,279 Speaker 3: he literally held up a bottle of milk from Indiana 128 00:06:56,680 --> 00:06:59,280 Speaker 3: and saw actual worms inside of it. 129 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:01,159 Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't that awful? 130 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:02,479 Speaker 1: Live worms they were moving. 131 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:07,919 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that wasn't all he found. He found insects, hares, blood, pus, 132 00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:11,960 Speaker 2: cow manure. He estimated that just the residents of Indianapolis 133 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:16,120 Speaker 2: ingested about two thousand pounds of cow manure every year, 134 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 2: just from the milk they were drinking. 135 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, that's collective, not each person, of course, but that's 136 00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,320 Speaker 3: still a lot of I. 137 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 2: Think you would ode on cowpoop if you ate that much. 138 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 1: Or maybe it would make you into like a superhero. 139 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:32,160 Speaker 2: There is another really gross one that Dave turned up. 140 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 2: I think it was originally in an Atlantic article about 141 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 2: the early days of milk. But one of the things 142 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 2: that they would do so like if you thinned milk 143 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:44,000 Speaker 2: with water, it was very clearly thinned it. It didn't 144 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 2: look like milk it because it was bluish gray. So 145 00:07:46,480 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 2: they put like chalk or flour or plaster of Paris in. 146 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 2: Not great, but still it gets much worse. You also, 147 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 2: when you got a bottle of milk, expected the cream 148 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:57,840 Speaker 2: to still be there on top. The cream rises to 149 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 2: the top, as they say, right, well, if you've been 150 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:04,240 Speaker 2: watering down your milk, there probably isn't much cream left 151 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 2: in it, but you need to put that cream back in. 152 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,200 Speaker 2: There's something that looks like it. So they said, aside 153 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:11,320 Speaker 2: from stagnant pond water, what else do I have on 154 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,640 Speaker 2: the farm that's basically free that I'm not using that 155 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 2: I can use for this? Oh yeah, these little calves 156 00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 2: that I'm slaughtering and selling is veal. I could use 157 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:22,920 Speaker 2: their brains impure because it has kind of a creamy texture, 158 00:08:22,960 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 2: and that will stand in for the cream that I'll 159 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:27,120 Speaker 2: put on top of the watered down milk that I'm 160 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 2: selling in the bottle. 161 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:32,400 Speaker 3: Yeah, so that is a horrifying thing to hear. Yeah, 162 00:08:32,440 --> 00:08:36,400 Speaker 3: with human ears, we should point out that wasn't It 163 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,840 Speaker 3: wasn't like everybody was doing that. This is like an 164 00:08:38,880 --> 00:08:42,560 Speaker 3: example of you know, who knows, it could have been 165 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,160 Speaker 3: one farm. But what they did find out what was 166 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:48,880 Speaker 3: being used widespread and just sort of with regularity in 167 00:08:48,920 --> 00:08:55,000 Speaker 3: the industry was using formaldehyde to preserve milk pre pasteurization, 168 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,800 Speaker 3: which is you know, we all know it's an embalming 169 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,959 Speaker 3: chemical used for dead bodies to make them last longer. 170 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:06,800 Speaker 3: And this was literally killing babies if you were a 171 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 3: kid in Indianapolis in an orphanage, or actually anywhere in 172 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,840 Speaker 3: the United States. They didn't have a baby formula back then. 173 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:15,840 Speaker 3: You can listen to our episode on do we do 174 00:09:15,920 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 3: one just on baby formula? 175 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, one on formula and one on the breast. 176 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:22,720 Speaker 3: I think, oh, that's right. I thought there was two 177 00:09:22,760 --> 00:09:26,280 Speaker 3: on the breast, but it was too total. That wasn't 178 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:27,360 Speaker 3: trying to be funny. 179 00:09:27,040 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 2: There, Well, it was hilarious. 180 00:09:30,480 --> 00:09:32,959 Speaker 3: They would you know, you would get cow's milk as 181 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:36,600 Speaker 3: a little bebie in an orphanage, so it would you know, 182 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:39,679 Speaker 3: it would it would kill a kid very quickly if 183 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:40,920 Speaker 3: you're drinking formaldehyde. 184 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, it doesn't take much for a little infant, right, 185 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 2: And it's apparently one of those things I read that 186 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:51,640 Speaker 2: it's it will just kill you, like almost immediately if 187 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 2: you ingest the right amount. So it's not good. And 188 00:09:54,200 --> 00:09:56,079 Speaker 2: even if it doesn't kill you right away, it's it's 189 00:09:56,120 --> 00:09:59,240 Speaker 2: not a pleasant way to die. And again, four hundred 190 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:02,920 Speaker 2: thousand babies a year we're dying in the United States 191 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,040 Speaker 2: just from bad milk. So it was definitely more than 192 00:10:06,160 --> 00:10:08,560 Speaker 2: just one one dairy farm in Indiana. It was a 193 00:10:08,559 --> 00:10:09,760 Speaker 2: widespread problem. 194 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: Right. 195 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:14,760 Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely, So you know that's hero number one. Hero 196 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:17,600 Speaker 3: number two also comes to us from Indiana. 197 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:19,559 Speaker 2: Wait, wait, before we move on, you got to tell 198 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 2: him that great, great quote from doctor Herdy. 199 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 3: Oh, I thought it was kind of smarmy. Sure, I 200 00:10:26,040 --> 00:10:28,840 Speaker 3: guess he had the right to be smarmy. A reporter 201 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:32,520 Speaker 3: asked if formaldehyde and milk was dangerous, and he said, well, 202 00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 3: I guess it's all right if you want to embalm 203 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:35,960 Speaker 3: the baby. 204 00:10:37,080 --> 00:10:39,280 Speaker 2: That didn't strike me as smarmy. 205 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,240 Speaker 1: Is it smarmy for the nineteen twenties or whatever? 206 00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 2: I guess, But he's he's saying like that's what the 207 00:10:45,280 --> 00:10:47,600 Speaker 2: milk producers are doing. They're embalming babies. 208 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:49,439 Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I don't know. I thought a man 209 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:52,559 Speaker 3: of science would say it is extremely dangerous. 210 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:55,600 Speaker 2: I see, you know, I see, yeah, I get so. 211 00:10:56,040 --> 00:10:59,719 Speaker 3: Still a hero, a little smarmy maybe, but who is 212 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:00,800 Speaker 3: to spare him? 213 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: The second hoo's your. 214 00:11:02,679 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 3: Hero that's coming in is a gentleman named doctor Harvey 215 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:11,240 Speaker 3: Washington Wiley. In the eighteen eighties, he got to be 216 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:14,480 Speaker 3: in his bonnet about the problem with food. 217 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:16,359 Speaker 1: He was a boiler. 218 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:21,440 Speaker 3: Maker professor there at Purdue, and then the USDA, the 219 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:24,080 Speaker 3: fairly new USDA, said all right, we're going to start 220 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:26,600 Speaker 3: a Bureau of Chemistry, and you're the guy that's going to. 221 00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:29,440 Speaker 1: Run it, right he was. 222 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:34,079 Speaker 2: He essentially dedicated his entire adult life and career to 223 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 2: fighting for like making the American food market wholesome. Essentially, 224 00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 2: like that's what that guy did. And he actually had 225 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:46,600 Speaker 2: a bit of the showman in him. He had a 226 00:11:46,679 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 2: huge ego. Apparently, most of the people who were talking 227 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,600 Speaker 2: about today had enormous egos, and they rubbed up against 228 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:55,280 Speaker 2: one another, and even though they didn't like one another, 229 00:11:55,320 --> 00:11:58,320 Speaker 2: most of them they still managed to work together to 230 00:11:58,400 --> 00:12:01,079 Speaker 2: affect real change. Which is kind of a cool little 231 00:12:01,120 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 2: hats off to everybody. So one of the first things 232 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 2: that doctor Wiley did when the USDA hired him to 233 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:10,960 Speaker 2: run the Bureau of Chemistry, which apparently was a new 234 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,360 Speaker 2: department at the time. This is in the I think 235 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:16,199 Speaker 2: the eighteen eighties or the late nineteenth century at the 236 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:22,319 Speaker 2: very least, he started testing syrup and jam and all 237 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:24,400 Speaker 2: sorts of stuff. I'm not quite sure if he was 238 00:12:24,440 --> 00:12:27,280 Speaker 2: doing it to compare because he was actually researching corn 239 00:12:27,280 --> 00:12:29,400 Speaker 2: syrup at the time, to find out if this was 240 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:31,920 Speaker 2: actually okay to use as a food because there was 241 00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:34,880 Speaker 2: that whole pure food movement was like, hey, I don't 242 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:37,439 Speaker 2: know what we're putting into our food to preserve it, 243 00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:40,160 Speaker 2: Like we didn't used to do that ten years ago 244 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:42,600 Speaker 2: before everybody moved to the city. I'm not sure how 245 00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,560 Speaker 2: I feel about this. So doctor Wiley's job was to 246 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:48,200 Speaker 2: find out if these things were actually harmful or if 247 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:49,959 Speaker 2: you could use them. One of the first things he 248 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:52,400 Speaker 2: found out was that most of the maple syrup and 249 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:55,520 Speaker 2: the honey, like ninety percent of the honey was fake. 250 00:12:55,840 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 2: There wasn't a drop of honey in it. 251 00:12:57,920 --> 00:13:01,360 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was corn syrup. They would flavor a little 252 00:13:01,400 --> 00:13:04,480 Speaker 3: bit with maple. For the syrup, they would flavor it 253 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:05,520 Speaker 3: like whatever fruit. 254 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,040 Speaker 1: I guess. For jam, I'm not sure what they flavored 255 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:08,240 Speaker 1: it with. 256 00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:12,840 Speaker 2: For honey, I don't know either, Like how would you 257 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:14,800 Speaker 2: take a bite and be like, this is honey? 258 00:13:14,840 --> 00:13:16,000 Speaker 1: I guess, I don't know. 259 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:18,800 Speaker 3: But that was just sort of a jumping off point 260 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:20,720 Speaker 3: where he was like, well, wait a minute, if they're 261 00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:24,640 Speaker 3: doing this to honey and maypay syrup, we need to 262 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,320 Speaker 3: start looking into other things. And he started to learn 263 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:34,200 Speaker 3: about formaldehyde in foods. Borax, which is a it's a cleaner, 264 00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:37,160 Speaker 3: you know, like boric acid cleaner under the brand. I 265 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:39,600 Speaker 3: think it was a brand, wasn't it Borax? 266 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:39,920 Speaker 1: Yeah? 267 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:42,359 Speaker 2: I think it was like twenty Mule team Borax. 268 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:44,559 Speaker 1: Oh, that kind of thing. 269 00:13:44,679 --> 00:13:46,480 Speaker 2: Was the name. That was the name of the brand. 270 00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:49,720 Speaker 3: But he started realizing this stuff was in our food. 271 00:13:50,280 --> 00:13:53,800 Speaker 3: He got obviously pretty upset about it and goes to Congress, 272 00:13:53,880 --> 00:13:58,800 Speaker 3: and Congress is not interested in passing anything because, as 273 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:01,440 Speaker 3: you will see, just like you know the things that 274 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:04,560 Speaker 3: go on today, the food lobby was strong and rich 275 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 3: and powerful, and Congress sat on their hands. 276 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:11,040 Speaker 2: Yeah that. Author Deborah Blum also said that like there 277 00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 2: was no political will, not just because they were in 278 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:17,559 Speaker 2: the pockets of like the food producers. They a lot 279 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,480 Speaker 2: of them, most certainly were, and basically all of them 280 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:23,040 Speaker 2: were getting money from them at the very least. But 281 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,200 Speaker 2: that also if you introduced one of these bills, you 282 00:14:26,240 --> 00:14:28,960 Speaker 2: were like a crackpot. You were a quack. You were 283 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 2: you had no idea, right, you had no idea what 284 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:34,920 Speaker 2: it meant to like be in the business world. You 285 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:37,280 Speaker 2: were just a dummy. That's how. That's how these things 286 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:42,280 Speaker 2: were reviewed. And I think something like a hundred or something. 287 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:45,280 Speaker 2: I think like more than one hundred bills were introduced 288 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:47,800 Speaker 2: and just within a decade or so, and only like 289 00:14:47,880 --> 00:14:50,400 Speaker 2: eight or nine of them managed to get passed. Yeah, 290 00:14:50,560 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 2: that's how that's how looked down upon the idea of 291 00:14:54,080 --> 00:14:56,040 Speaker 2: food regulation was at the time. 292 00:14:56,560 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: Yeah. 293 00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 3: So Wiley is a pretty smart guy, he said, He's 294 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:02,680 Speaker 3: kind of had a little bit of showman quality to him. 295 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:07,920 Speaker 3: So he got together an experiment, also sort of a 296 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 3: PR stunt. In nineteen oh two, he took twelve government 297 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:15,000 Speaker 3: clerks and put them in housing in the basement of 298 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,360 Speaker 3: the Agricultural Department building there in DC, and they were 299 00:15:19,520 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 3: exposed to what they called Hygienic Table trials, where half 300 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:30,960 Speaker 3: of these young men were secretly fed formaldehyde, borax, sodium benzonate, 301 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:33,360 Speaker 3: all kinds of nasty chemicals like the stuff that was 302 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 3: going in food, and it was conveniently leaked to the 303 00:15:36,400 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 3: press and doctor Wiley. They were called the Poison Squad, 304 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:42,080 Speaker 3: and doctor Wiley was dubbed Old Borax. 305 00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:47,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, so he he actually became a national figure, like 306 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:52,200 Speaker 2: people like just as the average American knew about him. 307 00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:55,080 Speaker 2: If you read the newspaper, you probably were familiar with doctor. 308 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:57,400 Speaker 1: Wiley, the old Borax, old Borax. 309 00:15:57,720 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 2: And we talked about him in the Poison Squad in 310 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:03,520 Speaker 2: I think that does the FDA Protect Americans episode? Yeah, 311 00:16:03,640 --> 00:16:06,440 Speaker 2: just kind of briefly, But I mean that whole book 312 00:16:06,440 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 2: that Deborah Blum wrote was about doctor Wiley and the 313 00:16:09,200 --> 00:16:12,280 Speaker 2: Poison Squad and the work he did amazing, and Wiley 314 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 2: definitely deserves a lot of credit. He gets less credit 315 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 2: than he probably should get because around that time people 316 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 2: started to kind of look at Teddy Roosevelt, as we'll see, 317 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 2: as the person who really got the legislation pushed through. 318 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,760 Speaker 2: But it probably would not have happened it when it 319 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:34,440 Speaker 2: did without doctor Wiley. But in addition to doctor Wiley, 320 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:37,520 Speaker 2: there was also Teddy Roosevelt and another guy, a muck 321 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:42,760 Speaker 2: ranking journalist, a socialist named Upton Sinclair, and those two 322 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,720 Speaker 2: were considered to be some real driving forces behind food 323 00:16:47,800 --> 00:16:48,960 Speaker 2: regulation in America. 324 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:51,760 Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know what that means. 325 00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 2: It means that it's time for a message break. 326 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:57,320 Speaker 1: Now. 327 00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:58,920 Speaker 3: It means I'm going to go try and find a 328 00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 3: tiny chick lit it to shove into my tooth hole. 329 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 2: You should just switch the colors once in a while. 330 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:07,240 Speaker 1: Aaron Cooper has my flipper. 331 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:10,080 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right, man, quite a gift. 332 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:13,159 Speaker 3: I don't think it would fit now anyway. Okay, So 333 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 3: don't feel bad, Coop. Just keep praying to that thing 334 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:17,399 Speaker 3: every night and it'll be okay. 335 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:40,359 Speaker 1: So weird, all right, we'll be right back, all right. 336 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:43,320 Speaker 3: So we left off with quite a teaser that a 337 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:47,440 Speaker 3: gentleman named Teddy Roosevelt and a socialist writer named Upton 338 00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,360 Speaker 3: Sinclair would change the course of America. 339 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: And boy did they. 340 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,000 Speaker 3: A little background on Teddy Roosevelt just because it really 341 00:17:55,080 --> 00:17:57,919 Speaker 3: applies here to how he got sort of swept up 342 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 3: in all this. To begin with, he was a soldier. 343 00:18:02,280 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 3: He led the rough riders and the invasion of Spanish 344 00:18:06,119 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 3: held Cuba. And the reason that is important to this 345 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:13,639 Speaker 3: story is because that invasion and that whole war was 346 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 3: a lot of Americans died, but not from the battle itself. 347 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:21,720 Speaker 3: I think about four hundred Americans died in combat, but 348 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 3: about fifty five hundred died from disease, from malaria and 349 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:32,040 Speaker 3: dysentery and typhoid. So President McKinley, after the war started, 350 00:18:32,359 --> 00:18:35,399 Speaker 3: just a big military commission to investigate what it was 351 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:37,760 Speaker 3: like to be a soldier in all these awful conditions. 352 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:41,399 Speaker 3: And that very key to this story included the food. 353 00:18:41,119 --> 00:18:41,600 Speaker 1: That they ate. 354 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:46,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, because there was at least among the people who 355 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 2: had fought in the Spanish American War, there was this 356 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,480 Speaker 2: awareness that the roast beef, especially the canned roast beef 357 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:56,959 Speaker 2: god that had been delivered as rations. Yeah. Yeah, you're 358 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 2: walking a fine line just even attempting canned roast beef, Right, 359 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,439 Speaker 2: it better be good. This was so not good. It 360 00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:06,960 Speaker 2: was it was like it would make you immediately start vomiting. 361 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,600 Speaker 2: According to Teddy Roosevelt, Yeah, they called it embalm meek 362 00:19:10,800 --> 00:19:14,000 Speaker 2: because some of it was clearly rotted. But then they'd 363 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:17,160 Speaker 2: added formaldehyde. This wasn't even like, Okay, this is fresh meat, 364 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:19,960 Speaker 2: we're gonna add formaldehyde. They would put the formaldehyde in 365 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,400 Speaker 2: after it was rotted to try to counteract the. 366 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:24,879 Speaker 1: Rod you know, to bring it back to life. 367 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:30,400 Speaker 2: Exactly to frankenstein it up. And they found that that, Yeah, 368 00:19:30,560 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 2: when you ate the stuff, it didn't matter what you 369 00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:34,680 Speaker 2: did to cook it or anything like that. It would 370 00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:37,280 Speaker 2: just make you throw up or just start pooping your pants, 371 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:41,040 Speaker 2: like almost immediately. And Teddy Roosevelt and all the other 372 00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 2: veterans of the Spanish American War were pretty miffed about this. 373 00:19:44,359 --> 00:19:48,000 Speaker 2: So when Roosevelt got the chance to go testify for Congress, 374 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:49,760 Speaker 2: he was the governor of New York by this time, 375 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:54,080 Speaker 2: about that beef, that tinned beef, he definitely took the chance, 376 00:19:54,160 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 2: or took the opportunity. 377 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,760 Speaker 3: Yeah, he called that canned beef a disgrace to our 378 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:04,560 Speaker 3: country and also had a little testimonial description when the 379 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 3: cans were opened to the top was nothing more than 380 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,240 Speaker 3: a layer of slime. It was disagreeable looking, that's putting 381 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,439 Speaker 3: it mildly and nasty. Sometimes we stowed it with potato 382 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:17,159 Speaker 3: and onions. But I could have eaten my hat stewed 383 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 3: with potato and onions rather than the beef. Nearly all 384 00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:21,679 Speaker 3: the men sickened after eating it. 385 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:23,280 Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't that cross? 386 00:20:24,280 --> 00:20:24,600 Speaker 1: Yeah? 387 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:26,159 Speaker 3: Any you know, like you said, by this time, I 388 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,720 Speaker 3: mean he was already a war hero, but governor of 389 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:30,840 Speaker 3: New York, he has you know, some clout all of 390 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:31,640 Speaker 3: a sudden. 391 00:20:32,400 --> 00:20:36,840 Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah. He was fairly well known enough that 392 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:40,200 Speaker 2: when McKinley stood for reelection in nineteen hundred, he chose 393 00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:43,720 Speaker 2: Teddy Roosevelt as his running mate. Yeah, and he was 394 00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:48,320 Speaker 2: still young. I think he was forty two. Less than 395 00:20:48,840 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 2: a year into the second McKinley administration, McKinley was assassinated 396 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:57,040 Speaker 2: and died, and so suddenly Teddy Roosevelt, the vice president, 397 00:20:57,119 --> 00:20:59,920 Speaker 2: is president, and he became the youngest president in history. 398 00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:05,440 Speaker 2: K was forty three, Roosevelt was forty two. And it's 399 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,120 Speaker 2: really weird. It's one of those moments in history where 400 00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:11,639 Speaker 2: the right person happens to be in the right place 401 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 2: to really make things happen that seemed intractable before. 402 00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:17,520 Speaker 1: Yeah. 403 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:19,600 Speaker 2: And I don't know enough about Teddy Roosevelt to fully 404 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,560 Speaker 2: sing his praises, but from what I can tell, just 405 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:25,159 Speaker 2: the brief stuff I've read about him researching this. He 406 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:31,200 Speaker 2: was a really interesting, level headed dude, at least as 407 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:35,160 Speaker 2: far as balancing the interests of the United States went. 408 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,119 Speaker 2: Dare I say that, Well he was. 409 00:21:42,119 --> 00:21:45,640 Speaker 3: He figured big in the foundation of our national parks. 410 00:21:45,400 --> 00:21:47,399 Speaker 2: So that was a big part. But also like in 411 00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:52,240 Speaker 2: this specifically, he saw a very important need that needed 412 00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:55,840 Speaker 2: to be filled, which was the meat producers, but the 413 00:21:55,840 --> 00:22:00,000 Speaker 2: food producers in general, the meat producers in particular needed regularly. 414 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,720 Speaker 2: They were doing some nasty stuff, he found out, and 415 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:06,199 Speaker 2: he went to Congress and was like, make this happen. 416 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,760 Speaker 2: If you don't make it happen, I'm going to basically 417 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:10,879 Speaker 2: expose all of you who are in the pockets of 418 00:22:10,920 --> 00:22:13,280 Speaker 2: this beef trust as they call it, the Big five 419 00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:16,959 Speaker 2: beef producers, which included Armor, Swift, and Libby. Who are 420 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,680 Speaker 2: all three still around making meat in the United States. 421 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:23,400 Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know his hands were even as president, 422 00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:25,480 Speaker 3: tied by Congress and the lobby. 423 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:27,480 Speaker 1: Until that is. 424 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:31,359 Speaker 3: Our final hero of the day comes along a gentleman 425 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:36,919 Speaker 3: named Upton Sinclair, like you said, a hardcore socialist and 426 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:41,119 Speaker 3: a writer who wrote the very very famous book The 427 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,879 Speaker 3: Jungle about well most people, if they've never read the 428 00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:48,680 Speaker 3: Jungle would probably say, yeah, it's about exposing the meat 429 00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:53,480 Speaker 3: packing in Chicago, right, But fourteen I'm sorry, fifteen pages 430 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:58,040 Speaker 3: really covered that meatpacking disgust that we are going to 431 00:22:58,119 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 3: have to talk about. 432 00:22:58,760 --> 00:22:59,560 Speaker 1: So just get ready. 433 00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:04,359 Speaker 3: The book was really about an immigrant worker who comes 434 00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:08,040 Speaker 3: to America and has sort of just stopped on by 435 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:11,919 Speaker 3: capitalism because again, he was a socialist and this was 436 00:23:11,960 --> 00:23:12,439 Speaker 3: his cause. 437 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 1: Right. 438 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:15,720 Speaker 2: Yeah, So in the end of the book, the worker 439 00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:19,040 Speaker 2: who's I think only identified as Urgis j u Rgis, 440 00:23:19,800 --> 00:23:22,320 Speaker 2: he just keeps getting like, he loses his family, he 441 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:25,679 Speaker 2: loses essentially anything good to his life by being ground 442 00:23:25,760 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 2: through the gears of capitalism. And on the other side, 443 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,240 Speaker 2: he comes out and finds that socialism is the answer 444 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:35,359 Speaker 2: and starts dedicating himself to building a socialist paradise or whatever. Right. 445 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,480 Speaker 2: So that was, like you said, the point of the book. 446 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:41,440 Speaker 2: But when America read this book, they did not pay 447 00:23:41,560 --> 00:23:45,320 Speaker 2: any attention to that socialist message at all. In fact, 448 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,840 Speaker 2: plenty of them ignored the fact that there was an 449 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:51,680 Speaker 2: overt socialist message and still read the book and got 450 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 2: something out of it. And what they got was those 451 00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:59,199 Speaker 2: fifteen pages of disgusting descriptions of what was going on 452 00:23:59,280 --> 00:24:05,679 Speaker 2: in Chicago's meatpacking district where essentially all of the beef 453 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:12,400 Speaker 2: and pork and I guess sheep mutton was processed this 454 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:17,120 Speaker 2: one area and just where they kept the live live 455 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:20,719 Speaker 2: stock before slaughter, just when they arrived by train and 456 00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:24,280 Speaker 2: put them into a pen. Just that pen, chuck was 457 00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 2: a square mile big. 458 00:24:27,080 --> 00:24:31,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was known as packing town. And in order 459 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:35,200 Speaker 3: to get this information, he went undercover. He spent seven 460 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:40,160 Speaker 3: weeks posing as a worker in this meatpacking district, which 461 00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:42,480 Speaker 3: was like I said, it's called packing town, but it 462 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:47,040 Speaker 3: was in the heart of the Union stockyards, and like 463 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:48,920 Speaker 3: you said, they would bring in by train. It was 464 00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:53,200 Speaker 3: the most efficient system on earth for processing animals. Ten 465 00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:59,120 Speaker 3: thousand cattle, ten thousand hogs, five thousand sheep a day 466 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 3: coming in being processed. They were doing I think they 467 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,879 Speaker 3: were going through eighteen million animals a year at this 468 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 3: point because of a very innovative new system called assembly 469 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,919 Speaker 3: line work, which is you know, we know what it 470 00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:13,879 Speaker 3: is now, but back then it was kind of revolutionary. 471 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:16,640 Speaker 3: And that they would put make one person do one 472 00:25:16,760 --> 00:25:20,760 Speaker 3: job and one job only, all day long, for twelve 473 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,359 Speaker 3: hours a day, and as fast as they could. 474 00:25:23,880 --> 00:25:26,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, and if you screwed up. The four men would 475 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 2: be like, you had one job. 476 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 3: Yeah, don't get your finger cut off and put into 477 00:25:32,560 --> 00:25:33,160 Speaker 3: a sausage. 478 00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:37,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that would happen, right. They would use everything 479 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:41,280 Speaker 2: they could from the animal. Apparently there was a widely 480 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,440 Speaker 2: known phrase that was used there that they used everything 481 00:25:44,440 --> 00:25:47,760 Speaker 2: about the hog except for the squeal just haunting. 482 00:25:48,080 --> 00:25:48,359 Speaker 1: Yeah. 483 00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:50,679 Speaker 3: Well, I want to point out though, like not in 484 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:55,159 Speaker 3: the way that like an ethical master chef wants to 485 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 3: use or a hunter that you know, provides meat for 486 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:03,080 Speaker 3: their family tries to use every you know, good edible 487 00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:04,080 Speaker 3: part of the animal. 488 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:05,320 Speaker 1: That's a different deal. 489 00:26:05,400 --> 00:26:09,480 Speaker 3: We're talking about like you know, grinding up hoofs for 490 00:26:09,840 --> 00:26:11,680 Speaker 3: you know, filler exactly. 491 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:13,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm glad you pointed that out right. 492 00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:14,720 Speaker 1: Yeah. 493 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 2: So when he wrote The Jungle, he interviewed, first of all, 494 00:26:18,560 --> 00:26:21,560 Speaker 2: he witnessed what he wrote about firsthand. But he said, 495 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:24,800 Speaker 2: like I did not I did not like exaggerate this stuff. 496 00:26:25,040 --> 00:26:28,359 Speaker 2: This is not me embellishing, Like I witnessed this firsthand. 497 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:31,280 Speaker 2: And the stuff that I didn't witness firsthand, I interviewed 498 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:34,080 Speaker 2: people who witnessed it firsthand. Yeah, and so he's like, 499 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:37,439 Speaker 2: this stuff in the book is real. People and we 500 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:39,719 Speaker 2: haven't even really kind of cracked into what was in 501 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:41,840 Speaker 2: those fifteen pages. I say we do that. 502 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 1: Now, should we take a break into it. 503 00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:45,840 Speaker 2: I think that's a fine idea. 504 00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: Chuck, all right, we'll be right back. 505 00:27:08,040 --> 00:27:10,639 Speaker 2: Okay, Chuck, So we're back. It's time to get into 506 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:16,840 Speaker 2: the grizzly details of the jungle. There's some pretty famous 507 00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,360 Speaker 2: stuff in there, just because it just it got out 508 00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,880 Speaker 2: so far and wide. It was a very widely read 509 00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,840 Speaker 2: book and an even more widely discussed book because of 510 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,480 Speaker 2: the disgust that it generated. But for example, when they 511 00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:35,000 Speaker 2: when they generated when they created sausage, like Upton Sinclair 512 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:37,440 Speaker 2: told everybody how the sausage is made, and everybody's like, 513 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 2: we didn't want to know, but now we know, and 514 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,359 Speaker 2: we can't unknow it. They would grind up moldy sausage 515 00:27:43,840 --> 00:27:46,800 Speaker 2: that had been rejected from Europe so it was bad 516 00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:48,600 Speaker 2: when it got to Europe, and then they shipped it 517 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,240 Speaker 2: back to America, and then they used it in the 518 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:55,720 Speaker 2: sausage they fed Americans. That stuff would also be mixed 519 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:58,640 Speaker 2: in with scraps of meat that had been shoveled off 520 00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,480 Speaker 2: of the floor. Probably at that couple of times a day, 521 00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:04,760 Speaker 2: they would shovel meat scraps and flesh and blood off 522 00:28:04,800 --> 00:28:08,440 Speaker 2: of the floor put it into the sausage mixture. That's 523 00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:10,800 Speaker 2: bad enough that it was on the floor, but the 524 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:14,920 Speaker 2: workers frequently had things like tuberculosis and they were spitting 525 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 2: bloody tuberculotic spit onto the floor, so that would get 526 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:22,000 Speaker 2: mixed in with the food scraps, the meat scraps that 527 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:24,400 Speaker 2: would be put into the sausages. There was a rat 528 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,520 Speaker 2: problem there, so they would put out poison pieces of 529 00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:31,240 Speaker 2: bread for the rats, and then when the rats ate 530 00:28:31,280 --> 00:28:33,360 Speaker 2: the bread and died, they put the rats in the sausage. 531 00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 2: And then furguod measure, they put the poison bread in 532 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 2: the sausage too. This was just the sausage that they 533 00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:39,760 Speaker 2: were making. 534 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:43,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I get the feeling that there was. If 535 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,760 Speaker 3: there was a poster on the wall of this workplace, 536 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,560 Speaker 3: it was if it's on the floor, it's in the sausage. 537 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. 538 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 3: Tobacco spit, That's that's probably the best thing you could 539 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 3: hope for. 540 00:28:57,280 --> 00:28:59,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, you being a flavor tobacco spit. 541 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:06,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, if anyone's still listening, you know, obviously potted meats, 542 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:10,040 Speaker 3: you know, mystery meat is kind of a funny thing 543 00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:13,400 Speaker 3: to say these days, but back then it was truly dangerous. 544 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:18,840 Speaker 3: It was you know, organ meats, It was tripe. This 545 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:21,560 Speaker 3: is a quote, and it's hard for me to even 546 00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:24,080 Speaker 3: say this word for because of my tooth and because 547 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 3: it's disgusting. But the hard car cardalin is cardlinagenus, cartilaginous, cartilaginous. Yeah, 548 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 3: there we go, hard cartilaginous gullets of beef after the 549 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 3: tongues had been cut out, was in this potted meat 550 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:40,440 Speaker 3: as well. 551 00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,880 Speaker 2: Yeah, and the potted chicken in particular. It always appears 552 00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 2: in quotes because it was later determined there was no 553 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 2: chicken at all in the potted chicken. It was just, 554 00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,920 Speaker 2: like you said, every piece of the animal they could use, 555 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 2: not for ethical purposes, but because they could sell it 556 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,360 Speaker 2: as potted chicken and tell everybody, yeah, it's just ground 557 00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:58,960 Speaker 2: up chicken, just to eat it and shut up. 558 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,240 Speaker 3: Yeah. So you know this is awful. The workers themselves 559 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:07,920 Speaker 3: are working in deplorable conditions, twelve hours a day in 560 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:11,240 Speaker 3: these disgusting rooms, doing this stuff, the same job over 561 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,360 Speaker 3: and over and over, which was a new thing. Like 562 00:30:13,360 --> 00:30:16,640 Speaker 3: people weren't used to assembly line work much less like 563 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:20,120 Speaker 3: if your job all day is to I don't even know. 564 00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:21,720 Speaker 3: I can't even imagine what they were doing. 565 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,880 Speaker 2: Skinning, slicing, removing, deboning. 566 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, there you go. They I made the joke about 567 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:30,920 Speaker 3: losing a finger, but they did. They would lose digits, 568 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:35,320 Speaker 3: they would lose limbs. This stuff would go into the food. 569 00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:39,560 Speaker 3: There were even people that fell into lard vats and 570 00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:41,880 Speaker 3: boiled alive and that. 571 00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,320 Speaker 1: Went into the food. Yeah, there was a well, they 572 00:30:44,400 --> 00:30:45,200 Speaker 1: went into the lard. 573 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:49,320 Speaker 2: There was a quote that well which eventually went into food, 574 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:52,560 Speaker 2: you know exactly. There was a quote from Sinclair that said, 575 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:54,760 Speaker 2: all but the bones of them went out into the 576 00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 2: world as DRAMs pure beef flowed. 577 00:30:57,720 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 1: I don't think Derams is around anymore. 578 00:31:01,160 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 2: Durhams couldn't survive that one. Yeah, there's another quote from 579 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,800 Speaker 2: Upton Sinclair that he said, I aimed at the public's 580 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,080 Speaker 2: heart and by accident, I hit it in the stomach, 581 00:31:11,440 --> 00:31:14,440 Speaker 2: which is him. Yeah, with him recognizing that he wrote 582 00:31:14,480 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 2: this book about socialism and everybody just focused in on 583 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 2: the really gross food stuff and that even still it 584 00:31:21,920 --> 00:31:24,400 Speaker 2: affected change. It just wasn't the change he was trying 585 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,920 Speaker 2: to affect. But he wasn't one of those guys who's like, 586 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:29,680 Speaker 2: oh great, I'm a celebrity either way, I don't care 587 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:31,600 Speaker 2: how I got there. He turned out to be like 588 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:35,760 Speaker 2: really bitter at everybody missing this message. Like his book 589 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:39,040 Speaker 2: was widely read and nobody got it, at least they 590 00:31:39,040 --> 00:31:41,080 Speaker 2: didn't get it the way that he intended them to 591 00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:41,440 Speaker 2: get it. 592 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, this is another good quote. He said that he 593 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,800 Speaker 3: was made to a celebrity not because the public cared 594 00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:51,760 Speaker 3: anything about the workers, but simply because the public did 595 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:53,800 Speaker 3: not want to eat tubercular beef. 596 00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:57,880 Speaker 2: Yeah. Man, that word. You start messing with that word, 597 00:31:57,880 --> 00:31:59,280 Speaker 2: it gets grosser and grosser. 598 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,480 Speaker 1: Yeah, tubercular beef should open for diarrhea planet. 599 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,600 Speaker 2: Oh boy, I think you've just come up with a tour. 600 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:12,280 Speaker 1: So this is a very sort of a bombshell book. 601 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:16,560 Speaker 3: It was released in nineteen o six in January, sold 602 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,440 Speaker 3: twenty five thousand copies right out of the gate, which 603 00:32:19,520 --> 00:32:21,760 Speaker 3: was just a ton of books back then. There's a 604 00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,960 Speaker 3: lot of books now, as we've learned. Within about five months, 605 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 3: it was translated into seventeen different languages and eventually became 606 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 3: a silent movie as well in nineteen fourteen. 607 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:37,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was, like you said, it was a bombshell. Basically, 608 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:42,520 Speaker 2: that log jam in Congress of you know that had 609 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:47,360 Speaker 2: kept any food regulation bills essentially from passing this book 610 00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 2: like broke it open. It dislodged all that stuff, and 611 00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:56,360 Speaker 2: the reason why was multifaceted. In addition to grossing out 612 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,720 Speaker 2: the public and being like, we're eating this, government, do 613 00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,840 Speaker 2: something about this. Somebody do something about this, you had 614 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:06,200 Speaker 2: that public outcry, which is kind of in line with 615 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,800 Speaker 2: the progressive drum beat, right, you also had a developing 616 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:13,320 Speaker 2: drum beat coming out of the business side, because that's 617 00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:18,160 Speaker 2: where that's the whole The debate was divided between the 618 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:20,720 Speaker 2: progressives who were cranks and crazy and didn't understand business, 619 00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:22,600 Speaker 2: and the business side who were like, to shut up 620 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:24,840 Speaker 2: and eat this stuff. We're trying to make a profit 621 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 2: here and get the engine of the United States revving. 622 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,320 Speaker 2: There was a group in business that was like, hey, 623 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:37,680 Speaker 2: we're already following like food safety practices totally and it's 624 00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 2: really expensive compared to our competitors who are cutting every 625 00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:47,360 Speaker 2: corner possible and selling unsanitary products for way lower than 626 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:51,320 Speaker 2: we can sell our safe products. So if these guys 627 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,240 Speaker 2: start getting regulated, we're going to even the playing field. 628 00:33:54,560 --> 00:33:56,480 Speaker 2: And as a matter of fact, they'll be behind us 629 00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:58,640 Speaker 2: because they're going to have to play catch up expense 630 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:03,160 Speaker 2: wise to get to the same level that we're operating 631 00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:06,520 Speaker 2: at and have been all this time. And I said, ketchup, 632 00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:09,640 Speaker 2: which is ironic because one of those companies that was 633 00:34:09,680 --> 00:34:12,200 Speaker 2: already doing things safe was the Heinz Company. 634 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,279 Speaker 1: Yeah, hats off to the Heinz Company. 635 00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, not just Heines, but also old Taylor Whiskey. 636 00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,319 Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know there were it wasn't everyone. And 637 00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:22,960 Speaker 3: that's a really good point. I'm glad you made it 638 00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:28,120 Speaker 3: because Heines probably since that has been saying. By the way, 639 00:34:28,239 --> 00:34:30,239 Speaker 3: you know, we weren't a part of all that, right, 640 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:34,480 Speaker 3: you know, it should have been called the Jungle Colon 641 00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:40,960 Speaker 3: except for Hines. So Roosevelt all of a sudden is 642 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,360 Speaker 3: getting one hundred calls I'm sorry, not calls. He was 643 00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,400 Speaker 3: getting one hundred letters a day, calls. He would have 644 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,879 Speaker 3: been like, what's happening here about food safety? He calls 645 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:55,840 Speaker 3: up Upton Sinclair. These guys should not be buddies, And spoiler, 646 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:58,320 Speaker 3: they did not end up being buddies. Yeah, it wasn't 647 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,640 Speaker 3: like some crazy like you're like this and I'm like this, 648 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:02,960 Speaker 3: but you know, we have a lot in common. As 649 00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,720 Speaker 3: it turns out, the only thing they had in common, 650 00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:09,839 Speaker 3: it seems like, was that they wanted to clean up 651 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 3: the food situation in the United States. They didn't trust 652 00:35:14,440 --> 00:35:17,239 Speaker 3: each other, of course, they didn't really like each other. 653 00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: Of course, Roosevelt. 654 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,759 Speaker 3: Did not like a muck breaking journalist, and of course 655 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:25,960 Speaker 3: Sinclair was like, Hey, the Beef Trust is giving you 656 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,319 Speaker 3: two hundred thousand dollars for your presidential campaign, which in 657 00:35:31,360 --> 00:35:33,479 Speaker 3: the future, in twenty twenty four, that would be seven 658 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:34,360 Speaker 3: million dollars. 659 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:35,719 Speaker 1: Wow, so you're in. 660 00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:38,920 Speaker 3: The pocket of the Beef Trust, which he denied, of course, 661 00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,640 Speaker 3: because he had to eat that beef in Cuba. 662 00:35:41,760 --> 00:35:44,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, he said, mister Sinclair, I bear no love for 663 00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:46,920 Speaker 2: those gentlemen, for I ate the meat they can for 664 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 2: the army in Cuba. 665 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 3: Yeah, comma, but their checks cashed all the same. 666 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,520 Speaker 2: Well, he lived up to that quote. He took on 667 00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:59,240 Speaker 2: the Beef Trust, and he got this legislation essentially passed 668 00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:02,000 Speaker 2: through as we'll see. And then, just as a side note, 669 00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:05,279 Speaker 2: you mentioned muckrakers. Apparently Teddy Roosevelt was the one who 670 00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:08,720 Speaker 2: inadvertently coined that term. He was giving a speech about 671 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:11,240 Speaker 2: I'm not sure what the whole point of the speech 672 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 2: was about, but he was basically railing against journalists to 673 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:18,399 Speaker 2: go look and dig up scandal. And he allowed that 674 00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:21,560 Speaker 2: there's a role that they play in the public forum 675 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:24,439 Speaker 2: that's a good role, which is if there's somebody doing 676 00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:26,600 Speaker 2: something shady, these guys are going to go find out 677 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,000 Speaker 2: and tell everybody, and that's a public good. What he 678 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:31,680 Speaker 2: was saying is even when given the chance to just 679 00:36:31,719 --> 00:36:34,759 Speaker 2: write legitimate journalism, after that, they still go look for 680 00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,560 Speaker 2: scandal and like try to cause problems that might not 681 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:41,759 Speaker 2: necessarily need, that aren't really problems. And he compared them 682 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:45,440 Speaker 2: to a character from Pilgrim's Progress who was the muckraker 683 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:48,320 Speaker 2: and muck is poop by the way, who had the 684 00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:52,320 Speaker 2: chance to trade in his muckrake for not a muckrake 685 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:54,799 Speaker 2: and didn't even look up to didn't even bother looking up, 686 00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:57,240 Speaker 2: just kept looking down at the muck he was raking 687 00:36:57,600 --> 00:36:59,480 Speaker 2: for not a muckrake exactly. 688 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,480 Speaker 3: So he doesn't like Sinclair, like we said, he certainly 689 00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,520 Speaker 3: doesn't trust him. He thought that the account in the 690 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:08,520 Speaker 3: Jungle was he called it hysterical. So he's like, I'm 691 00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:10,960 Speaker 3: going to look into this myself, and by myself, I 692 00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:12,799 Speaker 3: mean I'm going to have other people do it for me. 693 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:15,880 Speaker 3: Charles Neil, who was a Commissioner of the Bureau of 694 00:37:15,920 --> 00:37:18,520 Speaker 3: Labor at the time, and an attorney from New York 695 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,440 Speaker 3: named James Reynolds would do the same thing. Well, I 696 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:25,520 Speaker 3: don't think they posed as workers, but they did the 697 00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:29,320 Speaker 3: investigation in packing town in Chicago. It resulted in the 698 00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:34,760 Speaker 3: Neil Reynolds report. And basically, I mean the long story 699 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,480 Speaker 3: short of the Neils Reynolds report is, by the way, 700 00:37:37,640 --> 00:37:39,000 Speaker 3: everything he said what's true. 701 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's even more more than than he put 702 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:44,520 Speaker 2: it in his book. That was the thing you said, 703 00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:48,640 Speaker 2: they didn't pose as packing workers. The packing companies knew 704 00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:52,279 Speaker 2: they were coming, and they yes, and they were so 705 00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:55,160 Speaker 2: like the stuff they were doing was just so bad 706 00:37:55,239 --> 00:37:58,440 Speaker 2: and entrenched that they still were caught doing all this 707 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:02,320 Speaker 2: stuff knowing that these were coming to investigate. So now 708 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:09,080 Speaker 2: Teddy Roosevelt has documentation from two people that he trusts saying, yes, 709 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,880 Speaker 2: this is actually going on. This is a huge problem 710 00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:13,960 Speaker 2: and we need to do something about it. 711 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:15,520 Speaker 1: Should we talk about the bathrooms. 712 00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:20,120 Speaker 2: Yes, let's because we haven't been super gross for a minute. 713 00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:23,400 Speaker 3: So like we said, they exposed even worse things than 714 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:25,080 Speaker 3: in the book, and this is one of them. The 715 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:29,600 Speaker 3: bathrooms weren't really bathrooms. Sometimes it would just be a 716 00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:33,480 Speaker 3: little cordoned off area of the same workroom floor where 717 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:37,400 Speaker 3: they're scooping up god knows what to put into the sausage. 718 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:41,920 Speaker 3: There was obviously no sinks, there were no open toilets. 719 00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:43,920 Speaker 3: You would just pee in that corner. There was no soap, 720 00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,160 Speaker 3: no toilet paper, and that's when it was just sort 721 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:47,799 Speaker 3: of cordoned off. 722 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,680 Speaker 1: There were also places where it was just nothing. 723 00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,680 Speaker 3: They would just pee where they were so they could 724 00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:57,360 Speaker 3: keep working as fast as they could. They said, the 725 00:38:57,400 --> 00:39:01,520 Speaker 3: fumes from the urine, I'll just read the quote hints 726 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,920 Speaker 3: in some cases, the fumes from the urine swell the 727 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:08,080 Speaker 3: sum of nauseating odors arising from the dirty, blood soaked 728 00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:09,520 Speaker 3: rotting wood floors. 729 00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:10,600 Speaker 1: Fruitful. 730 00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:13,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, fruitful is hard for me to say. Fruitful culture 731 00:39:13,960 --> 00:39:16,680 Speaker 3: beds for the disease germs of men and animals. 732 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:20,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, and don't forget. Multiple times a day they scraped 733 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,200 Speaker 2: up the stuff that had dropped on the floor and 734 00:39:23,239 --> 00:39:26,000 Speaker 2: put it in the sausage. And I saw a description 735 00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:29,719 Speaker 2: of those floors that really turned my stomach. They called 736 00:39:29,719 --> 00:39:35,799 Speaker 2: them spongy. Isn't that awful because they were rotting from 737 00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:38,840 Speaker 2: spit and blood and urine. That's what the meat was 738 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:39,880 Speaker 2: coming into contact. 739 00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:41,399 Speaker 1: Yeah, so it held even more. 740 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:46,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, so gross, dude, spongy wood as bad enough as 741 00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:46,960 Speaker 2: it is. 742 00:39:47,360 --> 00:39:47,839 Speaker 1: Oh man. 743 00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,920 Speaker 3: So the other thing they did was said, and by 744 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:54,720 Speaker 3: the way, President Benjamin Harris former president, in eighteen ninety 745 00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:58,440 Speaker 3: you signed a very weak meat inspection bill that basically 746 00:39:58,560 --> 00:40:03,439 Speaker 3: put USDA inspectors at these meat packing plants. But all 747 00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:06,560 Speaker 3: they were charged to do was say, well, this cow 748 00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,080 Speaker 3: was healthy before they slaughtered it, and I'm going back 749 00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:12,440 Speaker 3: to sleep now. They had no authority to oversee what 750 00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:14,960 Speaker 3: happened after that point exactly. 751 00:40:15,520 --> 00:40:20,319 Speaker 2: So even the rejected animals that those USDA inspectors would 752 00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:23,080 Speaker 2: be like, this one doesn't pass, muster, get rid of it. 753 00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:25,360 Speaker 2: They would get rid of it, and then when the 754 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:27,120 Speaker 2: inspector left, they would go back and get it and 755 00:40:27,239 --> 00:40:33,080 Speaker 2: process it anyway. So there was no actual like oversight. Yeah. 756 00:40:33,480 --> 00:40:36,360 Speaker 2: Even the oversight that was there was just completely undermined. 757 00:40:36,640 --> 00:40:37,279 Speaker 1: Yeah. 758 00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:41,440 Speaker 2: So this this was like, this was bad news for 759 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:46,280 Speaker 2: the Beef Trust and other packers. This something was now 760 00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:51,040 Speaker 2: going to happen because Teddy Roosevelt had this report, and 761 00:40:51,040 --> 00:40:53,560 Speaker 2: in addition to the jungle being out in public, he said, Hey, 762 00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:56,719 Speaker 2: I've got this report, Congress, I want these I want 763 00:40:56,760 --> 00:40:59,680 Speaker 2: some reforms to be pushed through. Make it happen, or 764 00:40:59,680 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 2: I'm going to release this report that I've commissioned that's 765 00:41:03,080 --> 00:41:05,200 Speaker 2: really getting to blow the lid off of this stuff. 766 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:09,759 Speaker 2: And he got cooperation from the Senate. They passed a bill, 767 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:12,160 Speaker 2: passed a great bill, and then it started to get 768 00:41:12,200 --> 00:41:14,839 Speaker 2: blocked in the House, and I think it came down 769 00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:18,279 Speaker 2: to like two senators or no, two congress people, congressmen 770 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:22,200 Speaker 2: who were so in the Beef Trust pocket that they 771 00:41:22,680 --> 00:41:27,680 Speaker 2: staged a last ditch effort at stopping these meat inspection 772 00:41:27,800 --> 00:41:31,480 Speaker 2: bills from going through. And that finally did it for Roosevelt, 773 00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:36,480 Speaker 2: and he released the Neil Reynolds report, and it just 774 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,279 Speaker 2: made anybody sticking up for the Beef Trust look so 775 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:41,480 Speaker 2: bad that you just couldn't get in the way of 776 00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:42,240 Speaker 2: it any longer. 777 00:41:42,719 --> 00:41:46,560 Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think didn't someone leaked it beforehand too? 778 00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:48,239 Speaker 3: Didn't Upton Sinclair help leak it? 779 00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:54,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, supposedly, And I guess Teddy Roosevelt angrily wired Doubleday, 780 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,080 Speaker 2: the publisher, the actual guy named Doubleday, and said, like, 781 00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,880 Speaker 2: can you please tell up upting Sinclair to leave the 782 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:02,200 Speaker 2: is of ruting the country to me? For once? 783 00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:05,800 Speaker 1: That was smarmy. 784 00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:08,160 Speaker 2: You see smarm everywhere in all the quotes. 785 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:09,520 Speaker 1: I see smarmy people. 786 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:15,080 Speaker 3: So this resulted in two things, the Meat Inspection Act 787 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:18,320 Speaker 3: of nineteen oh six and then eventually the Pure Food 788 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:23,680 Speaker 3: and Drug Act, which outlawed the sale of any altered, adulterated, 789 00:42:23,719 --> 00:42:29,120 Speaker 3: mislabeled foods, drug, medicine, or liquor. Became known as doctor 790 00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:32,120 Speaker 3: Wiley's Law or the Wiley Act. Contribute to doctor Wiley. 791 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,520 Speaker 3: That was not the creation of the FDA, though that 792 00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:38,640 Speaker 3: would come along a little bit later. And like you said, 793 00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:41,719 Speaker 3: we have a great episode on the FDA. 794 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:43,360 Speaker 1: What year was that though nineteen twenty. 795 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:46,880 Speaker 2: Seven, nineteen thirty. The Bureau of Chemistry was part of 796 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:48,960 Speaker 2: the USD until nineteen twenty. 797 00:42:48,640 --> 00:42:51,520 Speaker 3: Seven, all right, So then finally in nineteen thirty we 798 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:52,640 Speaker 3: get our FDA. 799 00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:55,759 Speaker 2: And then finally in nineteen thirty eight, after FDR came 800 00:42:55,800 --> 00:42:59,320 Speaker 2: into office, the federal government was the agent. The FDA 801 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,640 Speaker 2: was finally given real teeth to actually regulate stuff. It 802 00:43:02,680 --> 00:43:07,400 Speaker 2: was kind of nominal for a while until the late thirties. 803 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:09,399 Speaker 1: You gotta say real teeth right now. 804 00:43:09,680 --> 00:43:13,800 Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm sorry, I mean as a slam. 805 00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:14,520 Speaker 1: That's all right. 806 00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:18,120 Speaker 2: Well, if you want to know more about this really 807 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,319 Speaker 2: interesting period in history, go research up Sin Saint Clair, 808 00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:27,480 Speaker 2: Teddy Roosevelt, doctor Harvey Washington, Wiley, read the Jungle, do 809 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:30,120 Speaker 2: all that stuff, and just see how grossed out you 810 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:34,280 Speaker 2: can get before you vomit. And since Chuck laughed at vomit, 811 00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:35,680 Speaker 2: that means it's time for listener mail. 812 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:39,359 Speaker 1: Yeah. I read this. 813 00:43:39,440 --> 00:43:43,680 Speaker 3: It's an email about our live show in Seattle, and 814 00:43:43,719 --> 00:43:46,239 Speaker 3: I read this as sort of a hey, here's what 815 00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:48,680 Speaker 3: you get at a stuff you should know show. Because 816 00:43:48,680 --> 00:43:51,919 Speaker 3: we've got we've got the cities lined up. We haven't 817 00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:54,279 Speaker 3: announced on sale dates or anything, but I think we 818 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:56,200 Speaker 3: can probably say what cities were going through. 819 00:43:56,160 --> 00:43:58,680 Speaker 2: Right Yeah, Yeah, I think it's pretty much in the bag. 820 00:43:59,120 --> 00:43:59,560 Speaker 1: All right. 821 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:06,239 Speaker 3: So we're going to hit Chicago, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis, all 822 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:09,000 Speaker 3: the apolis is and then where are we going in 823 00:44:09,000 --> 00:44:09,879 Speaker 3: the Northeast this year? 824 00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:14,360 Speaker 2: In the Northeast, We're doing DC, We're going to do Boston. Yeah, 825 00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:16,919 Speaker 2: we're going to us New York City, which we haven't 826 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:17,680 Speaker 2: been to in a while. 827 00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:20,480 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been a minute since we've been to New York. 828 00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:24,280 Speaker 3: And then we're going to finish out the year in Durham, 829 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,720 Speaker 3: North Carolina, and our final show the year in Atlanta, 830 00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:28,400 Speaker 3: like we like to do. 831 00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:31,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the schedule as it stands now, and it's 832 00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:34,279 Speaker 2: pretty close to baked, close enough that we're willing to 833 00:44:34,800 --> 00:44:36,520 Speaker 2: say this in the hopes that we don't have to 834 00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:37,319 Speaker 2: edit out of town. 835 00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:38,759 Speaker 1: That's right. 836 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:41,359 Speaker 3: So I read this because this is a little taste 837 00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:42,719 Speaker 3: of what you can get here. And this is from 838 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:49,279 Speaker 3: Mary Benedict, a grandma to a grandson, and they went 839 00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:49,879 Speaker 3: to the show together. 840 00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:51,080 Speaker 2: Oh, this is a great email. 841 00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:53,640 Speaker 3: It was Hey, guys, been listening for about ten years. 842 00:44:53,680 --> 00:44:56,759 Speaker 3: I'm a huge fan and retired teacher. I introduced my 843 00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,920 Speaker 3: grandson just stuff you should know, and he too has 844 00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:02,880 Speaker 3: become a devoted fan. So for Christmas, I gave him 845 00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,960 Speaker 3: tickets to the live event in Seattle. He was thrilled. 846 00:45:06,560 --> 00:45:09,000 Speaker 3: We went to the show, absolutely loved the experience. The 847 00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:11,719 Speaker 3: topic was fun. You two are as great as you 848 00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:14,880 Speaker 3: sound in your episodes. As the questions move forward, so 849 00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:17,840 Speaker 3: we do a little Q and a at the end. Surprise, 850 00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:20,319 Speaker 3: surprise if you haven't been to a show. So as 851 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:23,000 Speaker 3: the questions move forward toward the end, you declared one 852 00:45:23,040 --> 00:45:26,319 Speaker 3: final question which would have left my grandson at the mic. 853 00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:29,319 Speaker 3: I was repeating to myself, please please see that he's 854 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,120 Speaker 3: a kid. Please see that he's a kid, and Chuck 855 00:45:32,160 --> 00:45:34,600 Speaker 3: did exactly that. You asked him how old he was, 856 00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:36,880 Speaker 3: as well as the girl behind him, both were fourteen. 857 00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:39,839 Speaker 3: You apologize to the other side and let the two 858 00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:43,239 Speaker 3: young people talk with you. Please know what a remarkable 859 00:45:43,239 --> 00:45:46,480 Speaker 3: moment that was for my grandson, A euphoric life experience 860 00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:47,000 Speaker 3: in memory. 861 00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:47,560 Speaker 1: So thank you. 862 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:50,439 Speaker 3: I also want to share my appreciation for how kind 863 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,560 Speaker 3: you were to all the people in Q and A. 864 00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,240 Speaker 3: You always asked a question about them or thoughtfully commented 865 00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:57,759 Speaker 3: on personal things they shared with you. 866 00:45:58,160 --> 00:45:58,799 Speaker 1: That level of. 867 00:45:58,719 --> 00:46:01,880 Speaker 3: Compassion and kindness is extraordinary. In my regard for you, 868 00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:05,960 Speaker 3: both rose even higher. And lastly, Josh, thank you for 869 00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:08,920 Speaker 3: your vulnerability sharing that you need to avoid the news 870 00:46:09,520 --> 00:46:13,800 Speaker 3: right now, for your well being, demonstrated strength and emotional 871 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,280 Speaker 3: intelligence to everyone present, and thank you for modeling great 872 00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:22,719 Speaker 3: life strategies. Are you familiar with highly sensitive people? You 873 00:46:22,800 --> 00:46:26,360 Speaker 3: may not be one, but I am and my grandson. 874 00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:26,439 Speaker 1: Is as well. 875 00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:29,239 Speaker 3: It is a character trait, not a problem, and that 876 00:46:29,280 --> 00:46:32,360 Speaker 3: would make a fantastic topic for a podcast for sure. 877 00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:34,919 Speaker 3: Sorry this ran long, but in the world where people 878 00:46:34,920 --> 00:46:38,640 Speaker 3: are quick to point out what's wrong, Mary, we love you. 879 00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:41,359 Speaker 3: I believe it's important to tell people what they are 880 00:46:41,360 --> 00:46:44,080 Speaker 3: doing when they are doing great things. And you two 881 00:46:44,200 --> 00:46:45,400 Speaker 3: are doing great things. 882 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:47,520 Speaker 1: That's awesome, That is wonderful. 883 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:51,560 Speaker 3: That is Mary with an I Benedict and Mary's grandson. 884 00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:52,920 Speaker 1: So thank you both for coming. 885 00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:55,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks a lot, a lot, Yeah, for sure. 886 00:46:56,200 --> 00:46:56,439 Speaker 1: Yeah. 887 00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:59,560 Speaker 2: The life strategy example I'm setting is avoidance. 888 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,440 Speaker 1: Now, avoiding the news is not avoidance. 889 00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:06,920 Speaker 2: If it's true. If you want to be like Mary 890 00:47:07,080 --> 00:47:09,440 Speaker 2: and her grandson and come to one of our shows, 891 00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:13,480 Speaker 2: we will eventually put the information and links and all 892 00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:16,560 Speaker 2: that for tickets up and in the meantime you can 893 00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:19,400 Speaker 2: get in touch with us by email at stuff podcast 894 00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:24,640 Speaker 2: at iHeartRadio dot com. 895 00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:27,719 Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For 896 00:47:27,800 --> 00:47:32,000 Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 897 00:47:32,080 --> 00:47:33,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.