"War is 99 parts diarrhea and one part glory." Walt Whitman had a point when he wrote this. Diseases like dysentery, typhus, and malaria were responsible for 2/3 of the deaths in the Civil War. So, how did illness kill more soldiers on the battlefield than cannons and bayonets? It helps to look at the living conditions and atrocious medical practices in field hospitals during the deadliest war in American history. And it didn't help that sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis were rampant among soldiers. GUEST: Kathryn Olivarius, Associate Professor of History at Stanford University. Check out her book: Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton KingdomSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
No persons identified in this episode.
This episode hasn't been transcribed yet
Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.
Popular episodes get transcribed faster
Other recent transcribed episodes
Transcribed and ready to explore now
#2425 - Ethan Hawke
11 Dec 2025
The Joe Rogan Experience
SpaceX Said to Pursue 2026 IPO
10 Dec 2025
Bloomberg Tech
Don’t Call It a Comeback
10 Dec 2025
Motley Fool Money
Japan Claims AGI, Pentagon Adopts Gemini, and MIT Designs New Medicines
10 Dec 2025
The Daily AI Show
Eric Larsen on the emergence and potential of AI in healthcare
10 Dec 2025
McKinsey on Healthcare
What it will take for AI to scale (energy, compute, talent)
10 Dec 2025
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View