Animal trials have always been part of society, but we are not talking about the ones with lab mice. In medieval times dozens of animals were tried in human courts for committing human crimes. It sounds silly, but the practice raises an uncomfortable question that we are still grappling with today: if we hold animals accountable in court, doesn’t that mean that they deserve some sort of legal protection? We kill them for food and skin them for leather after all. What about medical and product trials that sacrifice thousands of animals despite the fact that they have had diminishing returns throughout the years?
CreditsHost: Sam Kean
Senior Producer: Mariel Carr
Producer: Rigoberto Hernandez
Audio Engineer: Jonathan Pfeffer
Exploring 'Health Equity Tourism'
The Mothers of Gynecology
Correcting Race
"That Rotten Spot"
Black Pills
Bad Blood, Bad Science
The African Burial Ground
Return, Rebury, Repatriate
The Vampire Project
Keepers of the Flame
Calamity in Philadelphia
BONUS EPISODE: Cheddar Man
Origin Stories
New Season Trailer! Innate: How Science Invented the Myth of Race
Mechanochemistry
Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code
The Sinister Angel Singers of Rome
Disappearing Spoon: The Murderous Origins of the American Medical Association
The Big ‘What If’ of Cancer
Disappearing Spoon: The Harvard Medical School Janitor Who Solved a Murder
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It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History
Lore