Special Episode: Dr. Olivia Weisser & The Dreaded Pox
About this episode
Dr. Olivia Weisser discusses her book on the history of syphilis in early modern London.
In a time when smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and typhus ran rampant through the streets of London, there was another disease that instilled even more fear than these other killers: syphilis. So feared and so stigmatized was syphilis that it was sometimes called “the secret disease.” A diagnosis would not only sentence you to a drawn-out and painful illness possibly resulting in death, it also labeled you as an outcast and not fit for polite company. Skyrocketing infection rates drove a corresponding rise in syphilis “cures” and an increasingly desperate public. In this TPWKY book club episode, Dr. Olivia Weisser , associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Boston joins me to discuss her recent book The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London . She transports readers to the hidden shops and stalls that promised a remedy to this feared disease, to the courthouses where a syphilis infection was an important piece of evidence, and to the country houses that held recipe books for those who could not purchase a cure. Tune in for a fascinating glimpse into a time and place where morality, sex, and disease were so…
People in this episode
Host: unknown
Guest: Dr. Olivia Weisser
Topics covered
- syphilis
- disease
- history
- London
- public health
- morality
- sex
Keywords
- syphilis
- smallpox
- tuberculosis
- measles
- typhus
- disease history
- public health
- London
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: University of Massachusetts, Boston
Books & works: The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London
More episodes of This Podcast Will Kill You
- Special Episode: Alexandra Sifferlin & The Elusive Body
- Ep 211 Motion Sickness: It comes in waves
- Ep 210 Histoplasmosis: Bats, birds, and budding yeast
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