>> Dr. Terry Simpson: Mhm.

Today on 4Q, why medicine isn't

and never has been a quick fix. Why

hucksters never seem to go away. And how

a city famous for kilts, castles and very

questionable dinner parties, Edinburgh

dragged American surgery out of the Wild west

and into the modern age. We'll talk goat

testicles, carbolic acid, chloroform,

experiments in living rooms. And why the President of the

United States once died not from a bullet,

but from doctors who couldn't be bothered to

wash their hands.

I am your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terri Simpson,

and this is Fork U Fork

University, where we bust myths, make sense of the

badness, and teach you a little bit about medicine.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Edinburgh was the

world's medical capital. Its anatomical

training, surgical rigor and clinical

innovations drew students from everywhere,

including the American colonies. Physicians

like Benjamin Rush, who also signed the Declaration of

Independence. John Morgan, William Shippen

Jr. Studied here in Edinburgh and then went

home to found America's first medical school

at the University of Pennsylvania and ultimately

shape Harvard's medical program. But here's

the thing. While these elite schools

planted the seeds of evidence based medicine in

America, most of America

remained medical chaos.

Patentonics, unlicensed

practitioners and magnetic healers peddling

miracles. It was the Wild west, and

louder claims, not better science, won the

crowd. But Edinburgh didn't just

export talent, it created

breakthroughs. Enter James Young Simpson.

Yes, a relative of mine, the man who

gave the world chloroform anesthesia.

When ether was first used In Boston in

1846, the idea sailed across the

Atlantic. By the time the next ship docked in

Edinburgh, Scottish surgeons were already refining ether

masks. And within weeks, Simpson and his

colleagues had moved chloroform, a more potent and

practical anesthetic. The famous story,

a dinner party. Simpson and his friends inhale

chloroform, collapse on the parlor floor, wake up

amazed, and realize they ended surgical

agony. Yes, when you go to a dinner party

in Edinburgh, you never know what's going to happen. And it's not just

the beer or the Scotch. Quick

breakthrough, sure, but only because of years of study

and preparation made him ready for that moment.

If Simpson solved pain, Lister

solved infection. Lister

spent years at the microscope, studying

inflammation, devouring Pasteur's germ

theory and connecting the dots no one else saw.

His weapon was carbolic acid. He sprayed it

on wounds, tools, bandages, even

the air. Colleagues scoffed. Invisible

germs offended Victorian pride.

But death rates plummeted.

Dogma was outdone

by data, and antisepsis evolved into

asepsis, sterilizing everything from instruments to

gowns to hands. Modern surgery was

born. Well, it Edinburgh, at

least. America, of course, was busy ignoring

this progress. In 1881, President

James Garfield was shot. The bullet

wasn't fatal. He should have lived. But his

physician, Willard Bliss, dismissed

Lister's ideas, probing Garfield's

wounds again and again and again

with unsterilized instruments and unwashed

hands, and invited a parade of other doctors to

do the same. 79 days later,

100 pounds lighter, Garfield died at his

summer home in Long Beach, New Jersey. Not from

a bullet, but from the infection Bliss

introduced. And Bliss? He billed the

government $25,000 for his trouble.

About three quarters of a million today. Thankfully, Congress

only paid $6,500. What a bargain.

Proof that sometimes the worst thing that can happen to

you isn't being shot. It's being treated

by a doctor who puts money and grift

over reading. By 1910, the

Flexner Report finally dragged American medicine

towards science. Diploma mills closed.

Laboratory training became mandatory. Schools

like University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins,

modeled on Edinburgh, set the new

standard. But if you think this killed quackery, think again.

While Edinburgh gave us modern medical science,

America gave Edinburgh. Chiropractors.

Sorry, friends, Meet John

R. Brinkley, the goat gland doctor.

He didn't have a formal medical education.

He got his degree from a diploma mill. And in the

1920s and the 1930s, he made millions

of dollars implanting goat testicles

into men to restore virility. Let

me put this to you another way. You take a goat, you

whack off a testicle, you implant it in the scrotum, and. And

you say, look, you're restoring virility. Did it

work? No. But people

thought it did. Testimonials poured

in, but data was nowhere to be found.

Brinkley pioneered medical marketing, using radio,

the social media of the day, to broadcast

his miracle in quotes to millions. He ran

for governor twice. He built an empire on

goat glands. And only when the AMA's Morris

Fishbein hounded him in did it finally

collapse. America shut down his

radio station. But lessons were

learned. Hucksters have evolved.

They never go extinct.

Let's fast forward to now. Goat testicles are gone, but the

grift. The grift is thriving

today. Snake oil wears lab coats and call

itself functional medicine or root cause Wellness.

They pedal expensive stool tests. It's invent

conditions like leaky gut and sell you supplements that

allegedly fix what only they can diagnose.

They use enough medical jargon to make it sound

Real. And then there's the carnivore crowd,

the influencers telling you to eat nothing but steaks. Ignore 70

years of data on the Mediterranean diet, dismiss the science

of cholesterol and instead admire their abs.

Sign up for their life coaching, buy their overpriced special

salt for rehydration. News flash. Salt to

salt and Pedialyte, used in 92

million rehydrations around the world, doesn't need

their branding. Sometimes people ask me, if these

hucksters turned their genius for making money toward

actual science, could they help medicine? The answer

is no. First,

most don't have the scientific foundation to begin

with. And those who do, self select out of the

grind, out of the painful erudition that real

medicine requires. They leap straight to the

shortcut. The miracle, the grift.

Second, even those with training have chosen the

con. Their drive isn't discovery, it's

dollars. Progress is slow,

ungrammarous work. Selling dehydrated

beef liver is easier.

Which is why we're standing here at the Surgeon's

Hall Museum. Why this place

matters. This isn't just scalpels

and skeletons.

It's a cautionary tale. Breakthroughs in

butchery, science and snake oil side by

side. Progress is fragile.

And the line between huckster and healer

isn't thin. It is a line of thick

evidence. But it appears thin to the general

public. Because while they don't have that

long foundational ability to understand the

difference between quackery and. And real science,

we have to keep bringing it up.

Edinburgh, uh, gave the world more than anesthesia and

antisepsis. It gave us a model.

Evidence over ego, humility

over hype. America eventually followed,

but the hucksters never disappeared. They just

rebranded. Goat Gland Radio became the

wellness Podcast. Patent tonics became the

$70 detox supplements. The promises

are the same, only the fonts and ring

lights are fancier. The cure for

quackery isn't charisma. It's science.

And that's the real lesson behind these glass

cases. If you're ever in

Edinburgh, while you might go and buy yourself

a kilt and some great scotch, please see this

museum. It is truly a testament

to the modern wonders of how we got here today.

And finally, I want to give a huge thanks to the following

people. Kushina, Thomas, Jordana,

Shanti, and Kat, everyone at the

Edinburgh Museum who welcomed us so warmly

and shared their work. And a special thanks to

producer girl who made these

episodes possible. And, ah, future episodes.

This has been Fork University with me, Dr. Terri Simpson, your

chief medical explanationist. And, and here's the thing.

While I am a doctor, I am not

your doctor. And if you're seeking or hear about some

miracle cure, please see a board certified

physician. Not a chiropractor, not an

eastern trained shaman, but a real doctor

who can sit down and explain to you why uh, that miracle

detox won't help you. Why that worm

dewormer that they're trying to sell you for some

parasite cleanse will not help you.

But instead we have some real medicine that

is often cheaper than the fake one that

won't even cure you. Thanks to our distributing

partners, Simpler Media Productions and the pod

God himself, Mr. Evo Terra. Have

a good week everybody.

Hey Evo. You know the

scotch here was pretty good. I'm pretty sure

this might be a cure for something. I just don't know

what.

Yes, sorry, I'm still thinking about

testicle testimonials. Yeah,

I went there.