The Deadly Dose

Latest Episodes:

(Encore ) Ep 81 - Terrifyingly Toxic Glow Jul 27, 2022

Show notes

We're back with another re-record! In this episode, Harini illuminates (see what we did there?) the once deadly fad of Radium-226. This enchanting, glowing isotope became a worldwide obsession and was literally the most fashionable commodity in the 1920s. It was used in food, makeup, clothes, decor, medicine, you name it! Even having a paid occupation in Radium-226 manufacturing was extremely coveted (eg. Radium Girls). Tune in to find out how this naive obsession bred painful, and sometimes deadly, results.

In this episode:

'Radioactive' (film) on Amazon Prime
'The Radium Girls' (film) starring Joey King

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Episode Sources:

Radium Girls from the Wired written by Deborah Blum
CNN article titled "Girls: the dark times of luminous watches" by Jacopo Prisco
NPR article titled May Keane, One of the last ‘Radium Girls’ Died at 107 by Rebecca Hersher
How We Realized Putting Radium in Everything Was Not the Answer from the Atlantic by Taylor Orci
Mentalfloss
Wikipedia
https://www.mskcc.org/news/hot-times-radium-hospital-history-radium-therapy-msk

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(Encore) Ep 80 - Sweet Dorothea Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

In this episode, Megan pays homage to her home city of Sacramento, CA by detailing the life and crimes of the serial poisoner, Dorothea Puente. Puente came to notoriety in the late 1980s when a welfare check-up on a missing tenant led to the discovery of seven bodies in her yard, thus christening her home as the infamous Murder House in Sacramento. How did this “feeble old woman” (as the media would have you believe) commit such sinister misdeeds? Tune in to find out!

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Episode Sources:

Image 1: Left: Puente’s police booking photo from Nov. 17, 1988 (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives) Right: The shovel that she lent to law officers to dig her backyard on Nov. 11, 1988 (Photo by Jeremy Sykes)
Image 2: Nov. 12, 1988: Homicide detective John Cabrera (right) ushers Puente out of her home to a nearby hotel. She would flee the city that morning. (Courtesy of The Sacramento Bee/Genaro Molina)
Image 3: A vial of flurazepam found in Puente’s home (Courtesy of The Sacramento Archives)
Image 4: Police escort Puente after apprehending her in L.A.; Cabrera walks behind her. (AP Photo/Walt Zeboski)
https://www.morbidtourism.com/locations/id/6125911ef267a10017299553
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/serial-killers/dorothea-puente/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/dorothea-puente
http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Puente,%20Dorothea%20-%202005.pdf
https://www.rxlist.com/dalmane-drug.htm
https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/flurazepam-oral-route/side-effects/drg-20072260?p=1#:~:text=Flurazepam%20is%20used%20to%20treat,slow%20down%20the%20nervous%20system.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flurazepam

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Ep 79 - Don't Drink the Kool-Aid! Jul 13, 2022

Show notes

REWIND: in honor of our new chapter as The Deadly Dose, we are re-recording some of our old, but gold episodes starting with our original Ep. 2. Harini takes you back in time with her and to Jonestown, Guyana to share the infamous tale of Reverend Jim Jones and The People's Temple cult. You can listen, but whatever you do, just don't drink the Kool-Aid!

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In this episode:

The Secret (book)
The Unexplained (Netflix series)

Episode Sources:

Kansas City Public Library
Britannica article by Alison Eldridge
Wikipedia
The Legacy of Jonestown by Eric Banks from the Wall Street Journal
PBS article the American Experience
FBI.gov on Jonestown
The Unexplained show on Netflix

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Ep 78 - Devil's Snare Jul 06, 2022

Show notes

Spoilers for the Sinner Season 2 ahead!

In this episode, Megan debunks the portrayal of jimson weed in The Sinner Season 2. Though a small feature in the season, it leaves a lasting impression, violently incapacitating and killing two grown adults within minutes in the first episode. While the reality of this nightshade’s toxicity is a lot less frightening than the show would like you to believe, it remains an incredibly compelling plant. Tune in to find out more about this prolific, gorgeous weed that can simultaneously cure and intoxicate.

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In this episode:

The Sinner, Season 2 Episode 1
Phantom Thread (Movie)
Power of the Dog (Movie)

Episode Sources:

· https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ointment

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Ep 77 - Drops of Knowledge Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

In the late summer of 1976, a mysterious disease swept through the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hundreds of members of the American Legion, which was holding its annual convention within the Bellevue-Stratford, and several unaffiliated civilians fell ill. The disease took 29 lives. The outbreak was an epidemiological mystery that stumped the CDC for months. What was causing these illnesses and where in the hotel was it coming from? Join us in Epidemiology 101 as Harini details the discovery of Legionnaire’s Disease.

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Episode Sources:

Image 1: From left to right - The Bellvue Stratford Hotel, Legionella bacteria, CDC toxicology team investigating the outbreak (via PhillyMag)
Image 2: A Chest X-Ray of a patient with Legionnaire’s Disease with lungs like a “brillo pad” (via Special Pathogens Lab)
Image 3: A veteran in the hospital with a mysterious disease (via The Washington Post)
Forensic Files Season 1 Episode 7
https://www.osha.gov/legionnaires-disease
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7619/
Medical Microbiology 4th Edition - Chapter 40 on Legionella

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Ep. 76 – Go to Sleep, Count Some Sheep… Jun 22, 2022

Show notes

Melatonin has become an increasingly popular supplement used by both adults and children. For some children, the ingestion of melatonin is completely accidental. And according to a recent report published by the CDC, accidental pediatric ingestions of melatonin have increased by over 500% in the last decade. In this episode, Megan provides an overview of the CDC’s concerns and the US’s relationship with the extremely popular endogenous hormone/ sleep aid, melatonin.

In this episode:

Pediatric Melatonin Ingestions – United States 2012-2021

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Email us your homegrown poison stories at deadlydosepod@gmail.com

Episode Sources:

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ep 75 - Dropping like Flies Jun 15, 2022

Show notes

Amid the latest technology and scientific innovations in the modern world that allow us to swiftly catch and convict criminals - there is one seemingly archaic methodology that clearly still remains supreme. With only about a dozen specialists in the United States, forensic entomology is still a relatively new field of forensic science, but it is damn useful. Dropping like flies is an ironic phrase when in reality, flies are bringing new life to cold cases & solving what both machines & humans couldn’t.

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Ep 74 - Glamping Gone Wrong Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

POV: the sun is radiating down on you, warming your skin while you trek through a large expanse of meadow. To your right is the majestic monolith of El Capitan and overhead you hear the birds singing their morning songs to one another. At the end of the evening, you come home to the luxury of your glamping site and snuggle into bed with the warmth of blankets around you and a soft pillow to rest your head. But, little do you know that something sinister lurks beneath the wooden floorboards of your glamping tent, ready to feast on its new prey...

In this episode:

Ted Lasso (Apple TV)
Better Call Saul (Netflix Series)

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Ep 73 - The Afrin Affair May 25, 2022

Show notes

You're getting double the dose of Harini this week. This story is the infamous Afrin Affair of 1991. An esteemed scientist, Dr. Barry Van Winkle, is on the verge of skyrocketing his career when he gets mysteriously targeted, but by who and why? The stakes are so high in the science world, and The University of Houston is no exception. This story is a real whodunnit and nothing is off the lab table.

In this episode:

Texas Monthly article written by the illustrious Skip Hollingsworth

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Ep 72 - Jim v. Rattlesnake May 18, 2022

Show notes

With summer on the horizon, all of us are coming out of the woodwork to bask in the sun, including rattlesnakes. In this episode, Harini retells an episode of "I Survived" where a man in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains is picking blueberries under a warm spring sun when he encounters an unwanted surprise... Keep your wits about you when listening to this episode!

In this episode: