This Podcast Will Kill You

Special Episode: Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal & Dead Ends!

October 28, 2025

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  • Failure is an essential and fundamental part of the scientific and medical process, leading to eventual progress and marvels. 
  • The book *Dead Ends!: Flukes, Flops & Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels* aims to teach younger audiences that failure is okay by showcasing historical medical mishaps. 
  • Medical history is crucial for doctors to contextualize current knowledge, as today's cutting-edge science will likely be laughed at a century from now. 

Segments

Introduction to Dead Ends
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(00:02:25)
  • Key Takeaway: The This Podcast Will Kill You Book Club series features authors discussing their latest works, with this episode focusing on medical failures.
  • Summary: Erin Welsh introduces the Book Club series, which interviews authors of popular science and medicine books. She directs listeners to the website for book lists and affiliate links. The episode sets the stage by noting that failure is a fundamental, unavoidable part of scientific progress.
Guests and Book Overview
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(00:05:21)
  • Key Takeaway: Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Thiel discuss their book Dead Ends: Flukes, Flops, and Failures That Sparked Medical Marvels, which uses humor and illustrations to teach that failure is essential to science.
  • Summary: The guests’ book, geared toward middle-schoolers, covers strange medical mishaps like cow milk transfusions and terrifying amputation saws. The core message is that failure is an essential part of the scientific method, contrasting with the common perception of science as a perfect forward march. The hosts express admiration for Fitzharris’s previous adult works, The Butchering Art and The Facemaker.
Origin of the Book Idea
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(00:09:36)
  • Key Takeaway: The concept for Dead Ends originated from the failure of the clockwork saw, an unwieldy circular amputation device invented in the 19th century.
  • Summary: The idea sparked from a YouTube series segment on the clockwork saw, a massive failure that injured an assistant and never progressed past the prototype stage. The guests emphasize that changing advice, like during the COVID pandemic, is a sign of the scientific process working correctly. They aim to show that failure is essential to progress, especially when presenting a perfect version of history is common.
Collaboration and Illustration Process
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(00:12:17)
  • Key Takeaway: The collaboration between Fitzharris (history/text) and Thiel (caricature/art) leverages their distinct skills to make complex, often gruesome, historical concepts accessible and memorable for young readers.
  • Summary: Thiel’s background in caricature, stemming from learning to sculpt puppets for Spitting Image as a child, helps bring historical figures to life with personality. The illustrations are selective, sometimes omitted when the written description is vivid enough, and the publisher often pushes back on overly gruesome concepts, such as the initial cover idea involving a listening doctor and a severed head.
Historical Context and Medical Evolution
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(00:16:21)
  • Key Takeaway: Medical advancement is an iterative process often involving long time lags between discovery and acceptance, exemplified by the slow adoption of germ theory and the persistence of outdated practices like bloodletting.
  • Summary: The story of Robert Liston’s operation with a 300% mortality rate highlights the dangers of surgery before germ theory, despite Liston being the fastest surgeon of his time. Physicians in the past did the best they could with available science, which leads to the realization that current treatments like chemotherapy might be viewed as failures in the future. Patient expectations, such as requesting antibiotics or expecting doctors in white coats, also slow down paradigm shifts.
Combating Misinformation
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(00:53:08)
  • Key Takeaway: Inoculating against medical misinformation requires promoting scientific literacy and valuing deep dives, such as books, over short-form content that often misrepresents the iterative nature of scientific discovery.
  • Summary: The guests distinguish between misinformation (unintentional error) and disinformation (purposefully spread falsehoods), noting the danger of high-profile figures spreading untrue medical advice. They stress that when advice changes (like during COVID), it reflects learning, not error, which is a key concept for scientific literacy. The value of books lies in providing the necessary space for complex arguments and deep understanding.