1 00:00:01,880 --> 00:00:07,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: Lauren bollebam here. When absinthe was banned in France, Switzerland, 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,200 Speaker 1: the United States, and many other countries in the early 4 00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, this Anni's flavored liquor had become associated with 5 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:24,200 Speaker 1: illicit behavior who was accused of turning children into criminals, 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 1: encouraging loose morals, and even inspiring murders. The fact that 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: regular old alcohol received similar treatment during the temperance and 8 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:37,720 Speaker 1: prohibition periods in the United States turns out to be 9 00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: pretty apropos We now know that properly made absinthe is 10 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:47,159 Speaker 1: no more dangerous than any other properly prepared liquor. But okay, 11 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:51,040 Speaker 1: what about all the tales of hallucinations being visited by 12 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,400 Speaker 1: the grain fairy of Oscar Wilde and his tulips, of 13 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:59,600 Speaker 1: family massacres and certain death. Absinthe does have a very 14 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: high alcohol content, anywhere between fifty five and seventy five percent. 15 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:06,640 Speaker 1: Alcohol by volume is sometimes referred to in the industry 16 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:08,919 Speaker 1: as one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifty proof. 17 00:01:10,080 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: A standard liquors like the whiskeys, vodkas, RUMs, and tequilas 18 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: are usually only about forty percent alcohol by volume or 19 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:20,880 Speaker 1: eighty proof, with a high end. At absinthe's low end, 20 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: people who have experienced strange effects while drinking absinthe have 21 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:29,120 Speaker 1: generally just been drunk, which brings us to an important 22 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: note here, drink responsibly. How absinthe got this dangerous and 23 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: almost otherworldly reputation is the result of the international temperance movement, 24 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: the French wine blight, and the perhaps overactive imaginations and 25 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:49,800 Speaker 1: drinking habits of a generation of artists. But let's back 26 00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: up a bit. Absinthe is traditionally made by first making 27 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: a high proof neutral spirit, that is, fermenting something like grapes, grains, 28 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,560 Speaker 1: sugar beets, or sugar cane, and then distilling out or 29 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: concentrating the ethanol in that ferment. You then redistill the 30 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: spirit while adding botanical elements like wormwood, annis phenyl, and 31 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: various other herbs and flowers by either mastrating them in 32 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: the spirit or steaming the spirit through them. During that distillation, 33 00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: some of the botanical oils and the alcohol will evaporate 34 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,680 Speaker 1: faster than the water, so you can separate them. Ount 35 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:27,960 Speaker 1: You might also steep some botanicals in the spirit after 36 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:32,359 Speaker 1: distillation and strain the solids out prior to bottling. These 37 00:02:32,400 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: different methods pick up different flavor molecules from those botanicals, 38 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: and the final steep will give you the classic green 39 00:02:39,160 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: color from chlorophyll from the herb's leaves. Absinthe is not 40 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: a hallucinogen. The chemical that's long been blamed for its 41 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: alleged hallucinogenic effects is thujone, which is a molecule that 42 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:57,800 Speaker 1: naturally occurs in wormwood. In very high doses, thu jone 43 00:02:57,919 --> 00:03:02,120 Speaker 1: can be toxic bitter of one of the main neurotransmitters 44 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:05,920 Speaker 1: in the brains of adult mammals, called gamma amino butyic acid, 45 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:11,760 Speaker 1: or GABBA. Very basically, under normal circumstances, GABBA helps regulate 46 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:16,079 Speaker 1: activity across our entire nervous system, so when you ingest 47 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: too much of a GABBA inhibitor like thujone, it can 48 00:03:19,480 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: cause muscle spasms and convulsions. A thu jone occurs naturally 49 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:27,920 Speaker 1: in many things that we consume, but you'd have to 50 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,040 Speaker 1: take in a lot of it to experience negative effects. 51 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,320 Speaker 1: In the US, fu jone levels and absinth are capped 52 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: at ten milligrams per liter. Some laws in Europe allow 53 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: for up to thirty five milligrams per liter. Either way, 54 00:03:41,080 --> 00:03:44,720 Speaker 1: someone drinking absinthe would pass out and possibly die from 55 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:48,400 Speaker 1: alcohol poisoning long before they were affected by the thu jone, 56 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:51,960 Speaker 1: and there's no evidence at all that thujone can cause 57 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: hallucinations even in those high doses. Modern science tells us 58 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: that any absence related deaths can most likely be attributed 59 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: to alcoholism, alcohol poisoning, or poisoning from subpar distillation practices. 60 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,800 Speaker 1: Absinth started out as a mostly medicinal preparation of alcohol 61 00:04:12,800 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: and wormwood along with other plants, somewhere in what's now 62 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: the French to Swiss Alps sometime in the sixteen hundred's. Fish, 63 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:25,160 Speaker 1: both spirits, and wormwood had been used medicinally for basically 64 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:28,719 Speaker 1: as long as humans knew about them. Absinth started to 65 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 1: become a fun times drink around the turn of the 66 00:04:30,760 --> 00:04:35,520 Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds in France especially, and then absolutely boomed throughout 67 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: that century, partially due to its association with good health. 68 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,080 Speaker 1: People turned even more towards it after a mysterious blight 69 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: hit Europe's and especially France's vineyards, wiping out millions of 70 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: hectares of wine grapes. From the eighteen sixties through the 71 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: eighteen nineties, no one had any idea what to do. 72 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: Winemakers were burning entire fields to attempt to contain the disease, 73 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:03,320 Speaker 1: but to no avail. People blamed everything from the laying 74 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 1: of iron railways in the soil to the sins of 75 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,080 Speaker 1: mankind and tried everything from volcanic ash from Pompeii to 76 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:14,880 Speaker 1: mixtures of whale oil and gasoline. For decades nothing worked. 77 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,760 Speaker 1: Upwards of seventy percent of French vineyards were destroyed and 78 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:24,720 Speaker 1: the price of wine skyrocketed, and the people turned to absinthe. 79 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,400 Speaker 1: Researchers eventually figured out a tiny bug, a type of 80 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:31,479 Speaker 1: aphid from America, was causing the damage by sucking the 81 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:35,039 Speaker 1: vines dry through their roots, and that American grape roots 82 00:05:35,040 --> 00:05:38,560 Speaker 1: were immune, so the fields could be replanted. But all 83 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:43,560 Speaker 1: of that is a different episode. Meanwhile, artists from Degas 84 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:47,120 Speaker 1: and Manet to both There and Oscar Wilde featured the 85 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:51,040 Speaker 1: drink in their works. The market had everything from high 86 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,920 Speaker 1: end brand names to cheap knockoffs made of questionable home brews. 87 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:57,960 Speaker 1: By the turn of the nineteen hundreds, absinthe was the 88 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:02,200 Speaker 1: drink of comoner's gutter escapist of the poor but decadent 89 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:09,279 Speaker 1: bohemian and of the wealthies showy extravagance. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the 90 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: public mood in France was shifting. With the Industrial Revolution 91 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: came the economic and cultural movements that allowed for all 92 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: of this art and opulence. But there were also more 93 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,599 Speaker 1: poor working class folks struggling in cities and lower birth 94 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,320 Speaker 1: rates because of the higher employment and education of women, 95 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:30,600 Speaker 1: plus all those convention defying artistic types, and there was 96 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,160 Speaker 1: a boost in diagnosis of insanity, probably because of a 97 00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:39,360 Speaker 1: shift in diagnostics, But public officials were concerned. In France, 98 00:06:39,400 --> 00:06:42,360 Speaker 1: there was a nationalistic concept that the population was in 99 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:48,600 Speaker 1: decline or even degenerating, and people wanted reasons. The temperance 100 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: movement was gaining traction at the time, and alongside that 101 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 1: a few pseudoscientific texts were written decrying absinthe is specifically 102 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:03,720 Speaker 1: worse than other alcohols. Then there came a high profile tragedy, 103 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: the murder of a woman and two small girls by 104 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:09,159 Speaker 1: their own head of the family in a small village 105 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,840 Speaker 1: in Switzerland in nineteen oh five. The man claimed to 106 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:17,160 Speaker 1: not remember the crime, and it's no wonder because it 107 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:19,840 Speaker 1: turned out he had started drinking before dawn and gone 108 00:07:19,880 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: on to have another dozen or so drinks by the 109 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:23,920 Speaker 1: time he and his wife got in a fight that evening, 110 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,480 Speaker 1: all of which was apparently habitual, but a few of 111 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:31,520 Speaker 1: those drinks were absent, and the town mayor and the 112 00:07:31,560 --> 00:07:35,960 Speaker 1: newspapers and basically everyone latched onto that as the cause 113 00:07:36,120 --> 00:07:41,280 Speaker 1: of the murders. All of that is why countrywide bands 114 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: started going into effect in nineteen oh five and lasted 115 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: about a century. However, finally scientific research prevailed and absinthe 116 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,480 Speaker 1: is now perfectly legal in every country in which alcohol 117 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:56,440 Speaker 1: is legal. To begin with two, drink absente in the 118 00:07:56,520 --> 00:07:59,080 Speaker 1: traditional style, pour about an ounce of it into a 119 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:02,920 Speaker 1: small glass. Place a perforated absence spoon or fork if 120 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: you do not possess such a thing over top of 121 00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: the glass, and place a cube of sugar on top 122 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: of it. Then slowly pour about three to five ounces 123 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:14,320 Speaker 1: of cold water over the sugar cube. It should crumble 124 00:08:14,360 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: into the drink. A stir with a spoon or fork 125 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:19,880 Speaker 1: to dissolve. The liquid in the glass will go from 126 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: clear bright green to almost opaque pastel green. This cloudiness 127 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:29,640 Speaker 1: happens because absinthe contains anis, which itself contains an oily 128 00:08:29,720 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: compound called anathol. Anathol is soluble in alcohol but not 129 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:37,280 Speaker 1: in water, so when water is mixed into the absinthe 130 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:40,800 Speaker 1: it beads up, and those beads disperse themselves evenly throughout 131 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:46,520 Speaker 1: the alcohol, making it appear cloudy. Furthermore, it stays beaded 132 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:50,000 Speaker 1: and dispersed in a way that essentially confounds modern physics. 133 00:08:50,880 --> 00:08:53,480 Speaker 1: This is called the Uzo effect due to the Greek 134 00:08:53,520 --> 00:08:58,400 Speaker 1: liquor uzos. Similar anis based properties. Researchers are looking into 135 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:00,959 Speaker 1: ways that this reaction could be applied to all sorts 136 00:09:00,960 --> 00:09:06,080 Speaker 1: of industries, from food science to cosmetics to nanotechnology. It's 137 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,679 Speaker 1: not quite a green fairy, but it's possibly more fascinating. 138 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article does add someth 139 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: really cause Hallucinations? On how stuffworks dot com? Written by 140 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:22,800 Speaker 1: Julia Layton. For even more about the history and science 141 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:24,920 Speaker 1: of absinth, check out our episode about it on my 142 00:09:24,960 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: other podcast saver available wherever you get your podcasts. Brain 143 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks 144 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,319 Speaker 1: dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang. For more 145 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,920 Speaker 1: podcasts from My Heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, 146 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,160 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.