John Oliver

The cowboy hat? Yeah, there was a guy named John B. Stetson who was living as a hat maker in New Jersey who got TB and was told by his doctor the only way to survive is to go west, which lots of people heard.

The cowboy hat? Yeah, there was a guy named John B. Stetson who was living as a hat maker in New Jersey who got TB and was told by his doctor the only way to survive is to go west, which lots of people heard.

He went west, and as he recovered from his tuberculosis, for reasons we don't understand, some people just recover, and he was one of the lucky few, he also noticed that the hats out west kinda sucked, right? Like, they had the coonskin cap that was all bug-infested.

He went west, and as he recovered from his tuberculosis, for reasons we don't understand, some people just recover, and he was one of the lucky few, he also noticed that the hats out west kinda sucked, right? Like, they had the coonskin cap that was all bug-infested.

They had these straw hats that folks from Mexico and Texas had brought up, but there was no hat for the American West, and he invented the Stetson. Isn't that crazy?

They had these straw hats that folks from Mexico and Texas had brought up, but there was no hat for the American West, and he invented the Stetson. Isn't that crazy?

Everything is tuberculosis.

Everything is tuberculosis.

Can I? Give me a second.

Can I? Give me a second.

Yes. So if I'm not mistaken, I heard you say, I believe, that that aircraft carrier is the Harry Truman.

Yes. So if I'm not mistaken, I heard you say, I believe, that that aircraft carrier is the Harry Truman.

Does that sound right?

Does that sound right?

We'll go with it.

We'll go with it.

Harry Truman, this was in a different age in American history. Harry Truman sent a budget ask to the federal government for $200,000 to fund the development of the most critical or one of the most critical TB drugs, isoniazid. So if it weren't for Harry Truman sending federal money, federal government taxpayer money to fund the treatment of tuberculosis, we wouldn't have that amazing drug.

Harry Truman, this was in a different age in American history. Harry Truman sent a budget ask to the federal government for $200,000 to fund the development of the most critical or one of the most critical TB drugs, isoniazid. So if it weren't for Harry Truman sending federal money, federal government taxpayer money to fund the treatment of tuberculosis, we wouldn't have that amazing drug.

Absolutely. Not even a challenge. It's trying to shrink your body. It's trying to make you smaller. And that is a result partly of this tubercular beauty standard. When we romanticize tuberculosis, I know. When we romanticize tuberculosis in the 18th and 19th centuries, we began to associate beauty with very frail, small bodies.

Absolutely. Not even a challenge. It's trying to shrink your body. It's trying to make you smaller. And that is a result partly of this tubercular beauty standard. When we romanticize tuberculosis, I know. When we romanticize tuberculosis in the 18th and 19th centuries, we began to associate beauty with very frail, small bodies.