Hidden Med uncovers the forgotten, disturbing, and surprising stories buried in medical history. From dangerous “miracle cures” and unethical experiments to medical scandals, forgotten patients, and the women who changed healthcare, each episode explores the science, people, and systems behind the medicine we know today. Because sometimes the most important medical stories are the ones history tried to hide.
This podcast was inspired by one of the best classes I’ve ever taken in college: The Birds and the Bees. Shoutout to Dr. Jacqueline Antonowich.
For centuries, the pursuit of medical knowledge has come at a disturbing cost. From the resurrection men who stole bodies from Boston graveyards to the modern-day trafficking of donated human remains at Harvard Medical School, this episode uncovers a dark history of medicine built on the exploitation of the dead. What was once a secret trade in stolen corpses resurfaced in a place where families believed their loved ones were safe. Through the history of anatomical education and the shocking case of Cedric Lodge, we explore the evolution of body donation, the ethics of medical research, and what happens when the final gift a person makes to medicine is met with betrayal.
25 Oct 2026
The Children Who Were Starved in the Name of Science
Between 1942 and 1952, Canadian researchers conducted nutrition experiments on Indigenous communities and children in residential schools—sometimes maintaining inadequate diets to establish scientific baselines. This episode explores the medical questions, colonial policies, and ethical failures behind a disturbing chapter in Canada's history
3 Oct 2026
The Women Behind the Father of Modern Gynecology
J. Marion Sims is remembered as the “father of modern gynecology,” but his breakthroughs came through years of experimentation on enslaved women. This episode centers Anarcha, Lucy, Betsey, and the other women whose pain, endurance, and bodies became part of the foundation of modern gynecology.
26 Sept 2026
Bloodlines: The Genetics of Inbreeding
From royal dynasties to isolated mountain communities, this episode explores what happens when family trees begin folding back in on themselves. Through Charles II of Spain, Tutankhamun, and Kentucky’s Blue Fugates, we uncover the genetics of inbreeding, why it was once politically and socially useful, and how hidden recessive traits can surface generations later.
19 Sept 2026
Mercury: Medicine's Strange Obsession
For centuries, mercury was treated as both a medical marvel and a cure-all. From syphilis treatments and calomel pills to teething powders and household antiseptics, this episode of Hidden Med follows how one of the strangest elements on Earth became deeply embedded in medicine—and why it took so long to recognize when the cure was doing more harm than the disease.
12 Sept 2026
The Human Subjects of World War II
They were doctors, researchers, and scientists—but during World War II, they treated human beings as experiments. From Auschwitz to Japan’s Unit 731, this episode of Hidden Med tells the stories behind some of the war’s most disturbing medical experiments, the people who were subjected to them, and the legacy they left on the ethics of medicine today.
5 Sept 2026
When Psychiatry Turned to Surgery
Once hailed as a breakthrough in psychiatry, the lobotomy promised to treat severe mental illness by changing the brain itself. This episode of Hidden Med traces how the procedure rose to medical fame, the patients whose lives were permanently altered, and what its history reveals about the risks of treating the brain before fully understanding it.
30 Aug 2026
The Girls Who Glowed & The Beauty Products That Poisoned
They were told it was safe. Some were even told it was beautiful. From the young factory workers who went home glowing with radium dust to beauty products that promised perfect skin with arsenic, this episode uncovers the dangerous side of the era’s obsession with beauty and innovation—and the women who paid the price.
22 Aug 2026
The Germ Killer: Lysol, the Comstock Laws, and the Women Who Paid the Price
You know those purple wipes in your cabinet? Those Lysol wipes? Well, did you know that Lysol was once advertised as a feminine hygiene product? Listen in as I take you through the hidden medical history of Lysol.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
1 ratings
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