The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean
Charles Lindbergh, Lab Rat
April 7, 202619 min · 3,716 words
Show notes
When Charles Lindbergh's sister-in-law developed heart trouble, he teamed up with a Nobel-Prize-winning doctor to save her. He had no idea the dark paths his work would lead him down, including Nazi politics and eugenics. Advertising Inquiries: Privacy & Opt-Out:
Highlighted moments
That's why six other pilots died trying to cross the Atlantic before Lindbergh succeeded. They had had crude flying contraptions. Lindbergh engineered a real airplane.
“Carell believed in physiognomy, the fake science of divining people's characters based on their looks, like palm reading for your face.”
“They equated Western Civ with the white race, and they worried that Asian and Russian and African people would overwhelm the world and destroy European culture. That's why the perfusion pump excited them. They could keep elite white people alive longer and combat other cultures.”
“One U.S. senator said that he was not surprised to learn that Lindbergh did research on replacing human organs with machines. He said that Lindbergh seemed not to have a real heart himself.”
Transcript
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