Something You Should Know - How to Ask For and Get Anything You Want & How Medicine Has Changed in 100 Years

Episode Date: December 13, 2018

Do attractive people really get the best tables at a restaurant? Did you know menus are designed to steer you to particular dishes? These are just a few of the things I cover as we kick-off this episode. It turns out there are a lot of fascinating things going on behind-the-scenes at restaurants that are helpful for you to know. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2363861/The-restaurant-secrets-diners-know-Huge-mark-upswine-dishes-containing-chefs-saliva-blacklist-rude-customers.html My father used to tell me, “You have to ask for what you want.” While that is good advice, it is hard for many people to ask for what they want and even harder to negotiate to get it. With some very practical advice is Dr. Meg Myers Morgan, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma and author of the book, Everything is Negotiable The 5 Tactics to Get What You Want in Life, Love, and Work (https://amzn.to/2SFdnW3). Meg joins me with some unique and actionable steps that will help you get what you want.  If you want to appreciate how great medical care and knowledge is today, all you have to do is look back 100 years ago or so to see what medicine was like back then. Medical historian Thomas Morris author of the book The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine (https://amzn.to/2Lbjqiy) joins me to explore some of the curious oddities, treatments and miracles from 100 years ago that seem so strange today – just 100 year later. It makes you wonder what people will think of our medical practices 100 years from now! Choosing the right hospital is always important – but it also turns out that choosing the right day to check-in to the hospital also matters. Studies of hospitals all over the world conclude there are some days you might want to avoid. Listen and I’ll tell you which days those are. http://www.today.com/health/why-hospital-weekend-effect-dangerous-t30581 This Week's Sponsors -SimpliSafe. To save hundreds of dollars on home protection go to www.SimpliSafe.com/something -Quip. Get your first refill pack free when you get an electric toothbrush from www.GetQuip.com/something -Care/of Vitamins. For 25% off your first month of personalized care/of vitamins go to www.TakeCareOf.com and use the promo code SOMETHING   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, on Something You Should Know, a fascinating behind-the-scenes peek at what really goes on in restaurants. Then, how to ask and get anything you really want in life and feel good about doing it. Think of the good things that will come. Think of the good perceptions people could have of you for asking what you want. In the case of a salary, it might make you look very confident and competent and worth more to the company. So I think it's a little bit about reframing your concern over what other people are going to think. Plus, which days of the week should you not go to the hospital?

And a look at medicine from just 100 years ago. It'll make you glad you're alive today. One doctor recommended that you take a live pigeon and put its rump against the child who is having a seizure. And in some way, this is thought to draw the seizure away from the child. So after 20 minutes or so, the child would be better and the pigeon would have died. All this today on Something You Should Know. As a listener to Something You Should Know,

I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks. Well, you see, TED Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new TED Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu.

She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit, the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Something you should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers.

You know, I've often thought that if I hadn't gone into the podcasting and the broadcasting business that I went into, I would have gone into the podcasting and the broadcasting business that I went into, I would have gone into the food and restaurant business. I don't know how successful I would have been, but those businesses fascinate me. And so I came across this article about what goes on behind the scenes in restaurants I want to share with you. It's from the author of a book called Restaurant Babylon. Diners who book by phone are preferred by restaurants. Apparently, people who book by email are less likely to show up,

so restaurants prefer customers who call to reserve a table. Lunch takes longer, and that's because everybody eats lunch or wants to eat lunch at the same time, and so with that relatively small window in which people are available to eat lunch, it puts a strain on the restaurant. VIPs and pretty women get better seats. The more attractive or famous you are, the more likely you'll be seated towards the front of the restaurant. Cheaper wine has a bigger markup. The second cheapest wine often has the highest markup because it's what customers order in an attempt to not look cheap by opting for the

house selection. Wine in general is an expensive habit for restaurant diners. It's perfectly normal for restaurants to put a two to three hundred% markup on a bottle of wine. Your decisions are already made for you by the menu, because a lot of menus are designed to steer you to the dishes they want you to order. Examples of this are dishes that are boxed or placed in the top right-hand corner. Those are the ones that tend to catch your eye. Pasta dishes are very profitable. According to an article on restaurants.com,

pasta dishes can be marked up 10 times their cost because pasta is so cheap to start with. And being rude can get you blacklisted. It doesn't go unnoticed if you're impolite to the staff. Many restaurants keep a note of difficult customers and it could prevent you from getting a future reservation. And that is something you should know. I have always remembered some advice my father gave me when I was very young, and that is, if you want something, you have to ask for it.

Seems like simple and pretty obvious advice, but so much of the time, we don't ask for what we want. And often when we do, we don't ask in a confident way, as if we don't deserve it. Well, enough of that. Dr. Meg Myers-Morgan is here to help you discover how to ask and negotiate for the things you want in your life and do it in a way that gets people to want to give you what you want. Meg is an assistant

professor at the University of Oklahoma and she's author of the book, Everything is Negotiable, The Five Tactics to Get What You Want in Life, Love, and work. Hi Meg, thanks for being here. Hello Mike. So why do you suppose it is that people have such trouble asking for what they want and then negotiating to get it? I'd say there are three reasons why people don't negotiate or are bad at it. The first is they don't know if they can, when they can, where they can. The second is they're not even sure what the ask is. They're really kind of murky about what it is they want. And the third is they're worried about how they will come across if they negotiate. Maybe they think they'll seem greedy or ungrateful, especially when we think about salary negotiations.

So a lot of times it's having to figure out what it is you want and what it is that you're worth. And those two questions are just hard for people. Yeah, I think you're right. Especially it seems when the ask is big, if you're asking for something really important, like a raise or whatever it is, the bigger the ask, it seems the harder it is. And you're right. We don't want to appear greedy. We don't want to appear stingy. I wonder where that comes from. Yeah, I think there's some insecurity there. I think there's always a way. One, I think there's a fear that maybe the job offer will get revoked or what you're asking for you won't get. And we're just sort of conditioned

to maybe undersell our worth in a variety of ways, but also just confirmation bias. We just may not feel really strong in ourselves. And so when we're trying to put ourselves out there and ask for something, whatever it is, I think there's part of us that doesn't think we deserve it. So it's getting in your mindset what you deserve and then speaking up and asking for it. Yeah. Well, I think you've identified a big part of it is that insecurity, that nagging fear that maybe I don't deserve it, maybe I shouldn't ask for more. So what's the solution? What is your approach to ask and get what you want? So one of the things I tell people is think of the good things that will come. Think of the

good perceptions people could have of you for asking what you want. In the case of a salary, it might make you look very confident and competent and worth more to the company. If you're a wife negotiating with your spouse for more support and help at home, it looks like you're standing up for yourself. So I think it's a little bit about reframing your concern over what other people are going to think. Isn't it interesting that, you know, in my case, let's say, if somebody asks me for something, I don't necessarily think badly of them for asking. And yet, I sometimes worry when I ask for something, and I'm sure other people feel the same way,

that when I ask for something, I worry that they will think badly of me. Right. And with negotiation, we tie it to the outcome. And to some extent, that's good. We do want to get what we're going to ask for. But don't forget, there's a lot of value in the ask. And to some extent, that's good. We do want to get what we're going to ask for. But don't forget, there's a lot of value in the ask. And a great example was I had a student that got a job and she was a little upset that the pay wasn't bigger, but she didn't want to ask for more money. And so we talked about it. And then she decided, okay, she would ask. And they came back and they said, I'm sorry, we're just not going to, this is all we're going to offer you. But because she hadn't made that ask, she now realized she was worth what she was asking for and she turned the company down.

So I think sometimes the value is in saying aloud what it is that you want or asking for. And even if you don't get it, you've at least negotiated with yourself a new bottom line. I know you talk about deadlines and how deadlines can get in the way of what you want and setting arbitrary deadlines for things that you think you want can be a problem. I'm not sure why we do this. I see this a lot with the younger generation where they sort of line up their life by deadlines. So they need to have, you know, a master's degree by 30 or be married by 25 or kids by whenever. And the problem with that is you start to compartmentalize your life instead of letting it all happen at once. And when you're sort of waiting around for the right time we all know that doesn't exist and so

I just say you know you should have sort of a general timeline but not deadlines on things because that's added pressure and it's arbitrary and it makes you believe that you couldn't renegotiate terms later on if you chose a a career and you're in that career and you decide you don't like it, but it aligned with your timeline, now you feel kind of stuck there. So I think it should be a little bit more fluid in how your life comes at you. You offer a piece of advice that is contrary to what most people would think would be good advice. And that is you say that you shouldn't say you should give your all to any one thing, that giving your all puts you in a bad position. I think it's really detrimental to say things, to even say them, that you should give your all.

Because there's truly nothing we can give our all to. And that's a very high expectations for anyone. And I argue that you should do give your sum to a lot of things. And that doesn't mean that you don't do things well. But I do think that people that are really well rounded and have good careers are doing more than one thing. And all of those things they're doing inform the others. And I am a living example of that. I'm a college professor, but I'm also a writer. And I, and it helps me sort of spread out, um, career disappointments and achievements because sometimes you're up in one side of your career. And if all your eggs are in one basket, uh, you might, that might, you might have some highs and some lows,

but those lows will be tough if there's not something else tethering you. And so you say focus on the people in the room. Explain what you mean by that. Yeah, so when I got my position at the university, it was a dwindling graduate program, and they had the option to either shut the program down or hire someone to see if they could save it. And this wasn't wisdom on my part. This was survival. I had six students and there were all these ideas of ways I could save this program, but really I just had to commit to those six students in the room, to those, those people that were in front of me. And by working with those students and kind of shaping a program around what they wanted,

you know, the program grew and grew, and now it's quite big. And so I just think that a lot of times we're sort of searching for big goals and big plans, but I think it starts with small action. And I think it starts with working on what's right in front of you, the negotiation that's right in front of you. The people that are right in front of you are often the quickest way to make those big plans happen. Well, I think when people think about negotiation, you know, well, first they think, well, that's what you do when you buy a car, you know, or when you go get a job. But even then, I think people are reluctant to negotiate. They just take whatever is offered. And that's like you're trying to manipulate someone for more than you deserve. But the reality is it's just leveraging your worth for something that you value.

And maybe you value more time, more flexibility, more sanity. Maybe you do value more money or a better price on a car. But what I encourage people to do is to think about the pain point. And if you can find the pain point and name it, that's where you need to negotiate. And so if you're feeling, one of the common ones I get about around careers are boredom. I feel bored in my job. That's the pain point. And so I say, well, what can you negotiate to make it not so boring? And people are sort of always waiting for their boss or their company to sort of fix it for them. But you really kind of have to get clear and go in and say, I'm feeling bored and this is the challenge I'm demanding. And I think once you can find those pain points, it's pretty clear where the negotiation needs to happen. Yeah, I like that because we don't think of it necessarily in those terms, but understanding the pain point really helps you focus on what it is you want and then how to go get it, or at least gives you an idea of how to go get it.

Yeah, one of the great examples that I kind of always reference is, you know, my husband and I were married for a few years before we had kids. And when our first kid came, we suddenly had to like renegotiate the terms because there's suddenly just a third person and it was sort of chaotic. And so there was a strong pain point there where I was feeling overwhelmed and burdened and resentful and all kinds of things that I think are very common. And so I remember him coming home from work and saying, we have to renegotiate. And me being very clear about what I needed from him was kind because he then could do exactly what was needed versus him just coming home and me saying, this isn't working, I'm not

happy. And so I think getting clear on the pain point, getting clear on the ask, is the kindest thing you can do for all parties involved in the negotiation. In a moment, I want to ask you about why it is people don't ask for what they want. So Meg, I think one of the fears, one of the reasons people hesitate and don't ask for what they want is they fear the response. You know, what if they get rejected? What if the whole thing falls apart? What if the person says no?

And if you don't ask, then you'll never hear those things. Yeah. I mean, I think there are ways, you know, I, I'm a big fan of having a personal board of directors, having a mentor, having somebody that's not in your line of promotion that you can kind of talk to about this. So it doesn't seem as demanding. But I think again, that value in the ask, it's going to set up for you what you're willing to accept. People can say no to you. And then you may have to decide this isn't the right work environment for me, or this isn't the right relationship for me or friendship or whatever the case may be. But I think having your gut check

those pain points, but then being able to maybe bounce that off of somebody who's a little bit more objective. And that's honestly the role I serve for a lot of these students when they come in and they say, I'm really upset or I'm really bored. I'm going to ask for more. And I think I'm a great sounding board to say, yeah, this is a good area for you to negotiate. Well, I do like that idea because I think if some disinterested third party, if some other person tells you, yeah, you should ask for that, it gives you confidence that you're right and makes you feel less insecure about the ask that you're asking for and gives you that confidence to go ask for what you want.

But don't you think, too, though, that you have to keep in mind, like, what's in it for the other person? Why should they give you what you want? What do they get out of this? Yeah, I think, I think negotiation has to have, you know, counter offers, right? So if you think about when you're asking for something that you need, you're also having to define the value for someone else. And if you're not clear on what they're getting, then that's not necessarily going to be a great negotiation. Because a negotiation, again, is not going in and holding someone hostage for your demands. It's you going in and saying, I need this from you, and here's how it's going to benefit both of us. And I think if you keep in mind the other player's role and their

needs, the more likely you are to be successful. Yeah, I think that's so important because, I mean, how often has anybody asked for something and in the back of their mind thinking, you know, I'm taking from you, this is going to benefit me at your expense, and that's hard to sell. Right, right. And instead, you're just saying, I value something and I'm worth something. And in return, I'm going to give you something else. And no boss, no spouse, no friend wants you to be unhappy. But often when I work with students, they're the only person that knows their pain point and are sort of waiting for it to be fixed. And I think I always say, are you the only person that knows their pain point and are sort of waiting for

it to be fixed. And I think, I always say, are you the only person that knows you're bored? Are you the only person that knows you're unhappy? And oftentimes it is, and it's exactly what you said. They're afraid to say something. The alternative though is an unhappy employee or an unhappy spouse just sitting there resentful. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives and one I've started listening to called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet.

Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts

hi i'm jennifer a founder of the go kid go network at go kid go putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce that's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called the search for the silver lining a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, I think one of the things that keeps people from asking for what they want or negotiating for what they want is that whole idea of negotiation. There's tactics and there's, you know, you've got to ask for more

than you want and be willing to take less and counter offers and all that and all the tactical things that I think really put people off. Especially with salary. You're going to want to ask for more than you want and then you need to have your kind of bottom line that you're willing to accept. But what's interesting about that is at least when it comes to salary, there's other stuff that you can negotiate that isn't salary. And so it's always important to think about the other things that you value that are at play. So say they come back and they don't want to give you money. Is there a flexible work schedule that you'd like to negotiate for or more time off or anything that can kind of make you successful in whatever it is, your role as a worker or a student or a spouse or a friend, whatever it is that you need.

But I will say it's mostly with salary that you want to try to ask for more than you need. In life negotiations, I think the clearer you are and the more specific you are, it's pretty easy to agree to those terms because it really only feels like in money where people get the most squeamish about that. One of your strategies, your tactics is get out of your own way. And you talk about how often in asking for what you want and negotiating that we're really, we really get in our own way. It's not the other person that's the problem so much as, as we are. A big argument I have is that the, the negotiation, the hardest one you have is with yourself and And get out of your own way really does refer to this

idea of perfectionism and trying to be everything all the time and do it in a way that's not sustainable. And when you strive for perfectionism, even if you reached it, which you can't, how would you even sustain it? And so I just try to encourage students and of course myself, when I look in the mirror, that you don't have to like be perfect today. You have to give what you can, where you can, and to not be the person that's holding you back. Because a lot of times when it comes to our own happiness or our own ability to move up, we are the people holding ourselves back. It does seem too that our self talk, our self criticism really makes this worse. Self criticism is a big driver into why we don't value ourselves more. And I've certainly wrestled with that. And a big part of

the argument is just, if you aren't speaking and thinking highly of yourself, nobody else will either. So you sort of have to set the tone for how people are going to perceive you. And if you're worried that they think that you're not perfect or that you're failing, that's the only choice they'll have to think. Yeah. Well, and when it comes to asking for what you want, whether it's a raise or anything, it's hard to ask confidently for what you want when you're talking to yourself all the time about how you don't deserve it. And we tend to do that. Well, we do it out loud too. One of my big pet peeves that I see my peers do is get on social media and thank their husband for putting up with them. We say things out loud and if you just track for a day the way you talk about yourself, you start to see some kind of upsetting patterns about even if you do it in jest, oh, I'm so stressed out, I'm so harried, I'm so forgetful. And that kind of starts to lead the way other people think about

you and the way you carry yourself. And so you really, and a big part of the book is changing your narrative and changing the way that you talk about yourself and see yourself. And one of those is getting rid of that negative self-talk. Well, it's so true. What you say out loud about yourself and what you say internally to yourself, you say it enough and pretty soon other people start to believe it and you start to believe it. And pretty soon you become this person that you're talking about. Yeah, that was one of the personal negotiations I did was when I had my first kid, I thought it was very important that I looked very busy and stressed out. And at work, I needed to be talking about how much I missed my kids. And when I was with

my kids, I needed to be stressed about work. And I did this sort of on and off for a year, sort of glorifying busy. And then I just, I don't know what hit me, but I thought this isn't, this isn't who I am. I don't, I don't want to be like this. And I realized a lot of it was just, I don't know, fake narrative. And I didn't want to be that example for my students. And so I just stopped and I renegotiated and I thought, no, the way I want to be perceived is excited about all the stuff that's in my life and I am. And so why was I so quick to kind of write it off or act like it was a burden when it wasn't? Well, one of the things you've made really clear here is a big part of asking for what you want and getting what you want is internal,

is preparing yourself to do it, not just in who you ask and how you ask it. It's been really insightful. Dr. Meg Myers-Morgan has been my guest. She's an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, and her book is Everything is Negotiable, The Five Tactics to Get What You Want in Life, Love, and Work. You'll find the link to her book at Amazon in the show notes. Thanks, Meg.

Thanks, Mike. It's been a pleasure. You have to wonder what medicine will be like 100 years from now, simply because when you look back a hundred years at what doctors did and what they believed and what common medical practice was, it seems pretty primitive, often ridiculous, what people actually believed about medicine and how the body works. Through the lens of today, when you look at it, it's easy to dismiss a lot of medicine back then as just quackery. But that may not be fair. Like today, most doctors 100 years ago believed they were providing the

best care possible. And the care we get today evolved from the successes and failures of medicine from the past. Thomas Morris is a writer and medical historian who really brings this into focus. He's written a lot about the history of medicine, and his new book is called The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine. Hi, Thomas. Welcome. Hi. Thanks very much for having me. So you have taken a fascinating look back at some of the very strange medical oddities and injuries and miracles of medicine from the past. And as I look at some of the stories you tell, I mean, it just seems so crude compared to medicine today, which makes you wonder if people 100 or 200 years from now

look back at what we consider modern medicine today, will they think it's just as crude and ridiculous as we do when we look back 100 years? And one of the conclusions I draw from reading some of your stories is really just how resilient and forgiving the human body is. Yes, and in fact, one of the conclusions I would definitely reach is the ability of the human body to repair itself. And so that was one of them. I mean, the sheer scale of some of which are absolutely ridiculous to the modern eye. You mustn't forget that doctors two or three hundred years ago were no less intelligent than doctors are today, and a lot of these cases actually display incredible resourcefulness and intelligence in dealing with a problem that maybe they hadn't encountered before. There's one in particular I can think of, which is a young man who had, for a bet, he had decided to eat part of the wine glass that he'd been drinking from.

And he ended up with these fragments of glass inside his stomach, and he was in terrible pain. And the doctor realized that this is an awful dilemma for him, because if you have a patient with a lot of broken glass in their stomach, there are only two ways it can come out. Either it goes through the intestines and perhaps cuts them to shreds in the process, or you have a patient with a lot of broken glass in their stomach there are only two ways it can come out either it goes through the intestines and perhaps cuts them to shreds in the process or you have to make the patient vomit and that poses exactly the same difficulty only with the the upper gastroenteritis the tract the um the esophagus and so on and so the solution he hit upon was to get the patient to swallow a large amount of cabbage it's actually a really clever idea because what happens is that the fragments of glass then got embedded in the cabbage and then the doctor could

make the patient sick. And so the cabbage containing its kind of glass fragments is ejected without causing any further harm to the body. So that's just one example of just how resourceful these doctors could be when they had minimal equipment and, you know, very little of the current understanding of the human body. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most.

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in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you love Disney? Then you are going to love our hit podcast, Disney Countdown. I'm Megan, the Magical Millennial. And I'm the Dapper Danielle. On every episode of our fun and family-friendly show, we count down our top 10 lists of all things Disney. There is nothing we don't cover. We are famous for rabbit holes, Disney-themed games,

and fun facts you didn't know you needed, but you definitely need in your life. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts. So we have to talk about it since it's in the title, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth. Sure. Well, this is one of those cases, which is a category of case I particularly like because they are just so strange

and they really make you scratch your head and think about them. It was reported in a journal, in fact, the first American journal dedicated to dentistry, a publication called Dental Cosmos, which came out in the 1850s. And it was a dentist from Pennsylvania who encountered three of these cases separated by some years. The first of them was a priest who one day in the summer of 1817 got an excruciating toothache and nothing would ease this pain. There's a wonderful description of him running up and down outside his house howling like a beast. He did everything. He put his head under cold water to see if that would ease the pain but nothing worked until the following morning when suddenly his tooth just exploded. He describes it as it was

had there was an audible report as if a pistol shot and he then turned around to his wife and said my pain is all gone. Now that's kind of an odd little story but actually there were there were several other of these cases. This one dentist W.H. Atkinson encountered three and in one of them the tooth exploded with such a loud noise that his patient was deafened for some considerable time afterwards. And there's another description from another dentist of a patient whose tooth had exploded with such a loud explosion that it well nigh knocked her over. So there's this odd little rash of these explosions taking place over some years actually in the 19th century but the mystery is what on earth caused them and i've talked to dentists

about this who said there's no plausible physiological mechanism for a tooth just going bang inside your head like that um and in fact about 50 years ago a british dental journal reopened this subject and lots of dentists wrote in to suggest ways in which this might possibly have happened. The possible explanation I like the most is the idea that in the 19th century when fillings weren't very well developed it's just possible that if a patient had two different fillings made from two different chemicals in different parts of their jaw maybe the chemicals have reacted. And it's just conceivable, it's pretty unlikely, but it's just conceivable that you might have

some sort of chemical reaction provoking an explosion inside the patient's head. Talk about some of your favorite examples of people who have been hurt, either, you know, shot or stabbed or fell down or whatever. And the amazing stories about that, because I think those are particularly interesting to me. Yeah, they give you a kind of strange, vicarious pleasure. You do feel guilty afterwards for having laughed at some of these people, because some of these stories are fairly ghastly. One of my favourites actually is there's this remarkable story from the 17th century in Holland of a man who became known in the English language literature as the Prussian Swallow Knife. And this was a young man who, in fact, the story starts with

him going out and drinking too much one night and woke up the next morning. And he had a terrible hangover and he didn't know what to do to make himself better. But he decided that probably the best thing would be if he were to throw up. And he stuck a finger down his throat and that didn't seem to do the trick. So he then decided to try the same thing, but using a knife instead. So he dangled this knife down the back of his throat, hoping to make himself sick. And all that happened was he managed to lose his grip on the knife and drop it and it fell into his mouth and he swallowed it and this wasn't some sort of folding pocket knife it was a proper uh the sort of implement you might cut meat with and this is uh early 17th century and there's not very much

that you'd think a doctor could do for a patient at that early date but remarkably and it's possibly i think probably there's only the second time in surgical history um the local surgeons actually decided to extract it surgically which they did without anesthetic by opening up this guy's abdomen making an incision in the stomach wall and then pulling it out. So, I mean, that's a fairly extreme example of a self-inflicted injury, but with a rather spectacular outcome because he made a full recovery. You have a really interesting story about a soldier from the United States Civil War. So talk about him.

This amazing American Civil War veteran called Jack Rolinger. His story starts really with him going to visit a panel that was going to adjudicate on whether he was going to be allowed an army pension. He'd already served in the Civil War. During his time in the Civil War, he had been injured so many times that the list went on for 24 separate injuries. And at his pension hearing, he had to go through them for the doctor who was going to certify him and he'd had every sort of injury you can think of he'd been shot multiple times he'd been stabbed he'd been shot with arrows he had on one occasion been shot stabbed and then he had he'd played dead for a bit and then when the enemy retreated he shot back at them which is a really silly thing to do because then they came and had another go at him

he had sword wounds he had every sort of wound you could think of um and the kind of sting in this tale having survived all these amazing broken limbs and everything else um when he was asked what he intended to do with his pension money, he said he was going to go off to Italy and volunteer for Garibaldi's forces. So having served in one civil war, he went off to serve in another. Talk about the boy who vomited his own twin. Now, this is actually one of the more mysterious cases I've come across, because I can't explain it. I don't know what had happened here but um it happened in a fairly remote part of Greece and there was a French

doctor serving as the local doctor on this on this island and he reported that um a local boy had been sick and had vomited a strange object which which on closer inspection appeared to be a human fetus. And this caused quite a lot of surprise. It was reported to the leading Academy of Medicine in Paris, and a sort of committee was convened to examine this object, and they concluded that, yes, indeed, it was a human fetus. There is a small and intriguing possibility that what had happened here was a thing called fetus in Fetoo, where one in the womb, twins are formed, one twin inside the other,

which is a very strange and rare condition, but it is known to have happened. And in the 20th century and 21st century as well, incidentally. So, again, this is a bit of a medical mystery. We don't quite know what was going on here, but it is a pretty extraordinary story. One of the more interesting and seemingly primitive things about medicine from 100-plus years ago are the medications, some of the things that were given

and some of the procedures that were done to treat conditions. You just have to wonder where this stuff comes from. So talk about some of the procedures that were done to treat conditions that you just have to wonder where this stuff comes from. So talk about some of those. Well, I mean, the first thing to say is that if you were to go into an apothecary shop in London in the 17th century, or even the 18th century, this is where you buy your medicines, you would have come across some really strange things there were lots of animal remedies uh the body parts of every every kind of animal you can imagine they stopped things like dead cats because they were believed to um be cures for various things and they kept all sorts of bodily fluids

of animals as well so uh the sort of urine and blood and all this sort of thing um egyptian mummy um mummified you, the mummified remains of Egyptian kings, was used as a remedy for all sorts of conditions. And in fact, there was quite a thriving trade in these human body parts right up until the 18th century. But you do see these very strange remedies of one sort or another persisting right into the 19th century there was for instance of brief vogue for using cigarette smoke as a way of delivering drugs to the patient so there in a series of articles written in the 1860s and 1870s their recommendations for putting substances like mercury and arsenic inside tobacco and then rolling it into a cigarette.

And if you do this with the recipe that they suggest for a mercury cigarette, this would actually have formed mercury vapour and metallic mercury would have actually been deposited in the lungs of the patient, which is an absolutely terrible idea it's really toxic another one i really like is one that was used for childhood seizures in infants and babies in germany this was a really odd remedy one doctor recommended that you take a live pigeon and put its rump against the child who is having the seizure and in some way this is thought to draw the seizure away from the child and into the dove. So after 20 minutes or so, the child would be better, and the pigeon would have died. And this is obviously a folk remedy, which must have been around for at least 100 years, maybe more before then. And the doctor just decided to put

it in a textbook in 1844. and it persisted for years afterwards. It's a slightly strange survival of what was evidently old folk medicine. What's interesting to me about these remedies, these medicines that doctors used, just seem like they're just made up. I mean, they're not the result of any kind of trial or anything. They just, like, let's take a pigeon and rub it against the child and see if that does the trick. But then you wonder, well, but how did it keep perpetuating? How many times can coincidentally rubbing a pigeon against a child cure his seizures

that people would say, yeah, well, this seems to work. It just seems so random. Yes. And a lot of these remedies and medicines were known as empirics. They're sort of trial and error medicines. In fact, if you talk to some doctors, they suggest that from a point of view of pharmacology, they didn't really have much to offer a patient at all before about 1890. And so it was more or less chance and tradition that determined which drugs were most commonly used. There are a few drugs which are still used today. One of them is digitalis, which is derived from the foxglove. It was a very useful drug in particularly congestive heart disease. And that was discovered in the late 18th century. There are one or two others. I mean, aspirin was discovered, was in use quite a long time ago.

But yes, a lot of the drugs that were common in the 18th and 19th centuries were, as you say, they're based on old tradition. Sometimes you see that the action of a drug as written about is the understanding of it was basically derived from very ancient medicine, in particular, the writings of Galen, who was a great Greek doctor active in Rome 2000 years ago. And Galen's system of medicine was so influential that it really wasn't until the 16th century that it began to go out of fashion. And as late as the 19th century, you see doctors writing about the theory of things like the four humours, which was a Galenic theory that had been written about extensively 2,000 years earlier. So it really is only in the last, certainly, I'd say century, maybe 130 years, that what we would now understand as modern medicine began to supplant all these very old traditions. Yeah. It's really fascinating to hear these stories. And it's just like we said at the beginning, it's just amazing what the human body can do, what it can endure and how it can repair itself.

Yes, it's really extraordinary. And in fact, time and time again, you see these stories of, there's one amazing story from the 19th century about a soldier who had a musket ball, which went from one side of his brain to the other through both temples. And his doctors despaired of his life. And he made, again, a full recovery with only some, I think, a slight twitching of one eyelid is referred to. And there's another with a patient who was shot by a shotgun front to back, you know, in another direction. It is remarkable the reserves that the human body has if left to its own devices sometimes.

Well, and talking to you is kind of like taking a trip through the museum of medical oddities, and it's really interesting. My guest has been Thomas Morris. He's author of the book The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, and you will find a link to that book at Amazon in the show notes. Thanks, Thomas. Thanks for coming on. When you have to go to the hospital, you have to go to the hospital. But it may not just be which hospital you go to, but also when you go that really matters. A study found that people checking into the hospital over the weekend were more likely to die within 30 days compared to those people who were admitted during the week.

It's been dubbed the weekend effect, and it's been documented in other studies over the years. But this new study looked at a large number of admissions, and it was international in scope. Researchers looked at data from almost 3 million hospital admissions between 2009 and 2012 from 28 metropolitan teaching hospitals in England, Australia, the U.S., and the Netherlands, and they found that the risk of dying within 30 days was higher for emergency room admissions on weekends in three out of the four countries. 8% higher in England, 13% higher in the U.S., and 20% higher in six Dutch hospitals.

There was no big difference in Australia. No one's exactly sure why this is, but staffing levels seem to be at least partly to blame, not just the number of people working, but the experience level of the people working on weekends versus the weekdays. Whatever the reason, it may be best to avoid checking into the hospital until Monday, if you can. And that is something you should know. If you like this podcast, please share it with a friend, or two or three.

I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law,

her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Podcasts. truth that ours is not a loving God and we are not its favored children. The heresies of Randolph Bantwine, wherever podcasts are available.