You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
camdehart 's review for:
An enjoyable and edifying listen. The story focuses on Dr. James Brinkley, a fake medical doctor in Kansas who pioneered quacky treatments in the 1920s and 1930s, notably goat testicle transplants. Dr. Brinkley was a complete fraud and killed several dozen patients, but he thrived in the Wild West of American medicine. The AMA prohibited its members from advertising, so legitimate medical doctors were unable to fight against Brinkley innovative radio and direct mail campaign to reach customers. Some interesting takeaways:
- Jacksonians deregulated medical standards in the 1820s-50s. Early American states were in the process of regulating medicine for the first few decades, but anti-elitist sentiments torn down those regimes. The result was nearly a century of quacks and unregulated peddlers of drugs, snake oil, surgery, training, etc. The Food and Drug Act in early 1900s was largely targeting these bullshit "pills" that didn't do anything at best and killed their patients at worst. We still feel the legacy of this "Wild West" mentality with the under-regulation of supplements and alternative medicine today. This include all the naturopaths, osteopaths, "straight" chiropractors, acupuncture, etc, etc.
- When Prohibition took hold, a substantial % of the alcohol was moved into under-regulated "tonics" which doctors could prescribe.
- In 1900, 50% of newspaper revenue was derived from advertisements for (fraudulent) medicine and doctors. Hearst and other journalists had an incentive NOT to call out quackery.
- Dr. Brinkeley was one of the first doctors and businessmen to use radio for advertising. At that point the radio was mostly for hillbilly music and dramas.
- Jacksonians deregulated medical standards in the 1820s-50s. Early American states were in the process of regulating medicine for the first few decades, but anti-elitist sentiments torn down those regimes. The result was nearly a century of quacks and unregulated peddlers of drugs, snake oil, surgery, training, etc. The Food and Drug Act in early 1900s was largely targeting these bullshit "pills" that didn't do anything at best and killed their patients at worst. We still feel the legacy of this "Wild West" mentality with the under-regulation of supplements and alternative medicine today. This include all the naturopaths, osteopaths, "straight" chiropractors, acupuncture, etc, etc.
- When Prohibition took hold, a substantial % of the alcohol was moved into under-regulated "tonics" which doctors could prescribe.
- In 1900, 50% of newspaper revenue was derived from advertisements for (fraudulent) medicine and doctors. Hearst and other journalists had an incentive NOT to call out quackery.
- Dr. Brinkeley was one of the first doctors and businessmen to use radio for advertising. At that point the radio was mostly for hillbilly music and dramas.