Podcast appearances and mentions of alexander gettler

The battle of scientific wits comes to a head, as government chemists continue to up the ante on their formulas, with Alexander Gettler hot on their trail.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the beginning of the 1900s, New York City was in turmoil. Prohibition loomed, outbreaks of typhoid and an influenza pandemic had people on edge, and the city was steeped in corruption. One of the many consequences of that corruption was a completely inept coroners office. Instead of having trained medical examiners work out the causes of sudden and suspicious deaths, New York City coroners were politically appointed. And they didn't have the slightest idea of how to do a thorough autopsy. They were sign painters and milkmen and funeral home operators and people who had done favors for the party. They bungled the cause of death so consistently and so dramatically that the police and the district attorney's office told coroners to stay away from their crime scenes. This was a horrific situation, unless you were a poisoner. In January, 1915, New York City's government released a report saying that murderers were easily escaping justice and that “skillful poisoning can be carried on almost with impunity.”In this episode of Tiny Matters, Sam and Deboki chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum, the author of The Poisoner's Handbook, about the rise of forensic toxicology in the United States. Listeners will be taken on a journey through some of the disturbing poisoning cases of the time that helped lay the groundwork for the field — with a focus on arsenic, radium and cyanide — and the pivot role medical examiner Charles Norris and chemist Alexander Gettler played in restoring public safety and finally stopping poisoners in their tracks. We have a YouTube channel! Full-length audio episodes can be found here. And to see video of Sam, Deboki, and episode guests, check out Tiny Matters YouTube shorts here!We love our listeners and we want to bring you more of what you like! Head to bit.ly/tinypodsurvey to give us feedback and help us make Tiny Matters even better. The survey should take no more than 5-10 minutes to fill out. Your motivation? Filling out the survey will enter you into a Tiny Matters mug raffle! Links to the Tiny Show & Tell stories are here and here. Pick up a Tiny Matters mug here! All Tiny Matters transcripts are available here.

CSI tells us only part of the story.  After an unexplained death, what happens back at the morgue?  Who is in charge of making sure clues are recorded so crimes can be prosecuted?  New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) is currently one of the best in the world, but that hasn't always been the case.  It was not so long ago that New York City was saddled with a corrupt and ineffective system, with coroners accepting bribes to change death certificates or ignore inconvenient homicides.  Listen as Kate and Kathleen tell you all about some truly reprehensible coroners from the past, and the struggle to implement our current medical examiner system.Kate was horrified to discover, in the course of her research, that Murderpedia is a thing.Blood On The Table by Colin Evans is really interesting. It's the whole reason Kathleen made Kate do this topic.A coroner would get paid $27.75 per body in 1868, so they were very motivated to grab all the bodies they could find.  That's approximately $477.00 in today's money, according to MeasuringWorth.  And that scant $11,000 annual salary?  That's $189,000 today. Um, yes, please.OCME had a close relationship with Bellevue Hospital early in its existence.  Learn more about this beautiful and storied institution thanks to Untapped Cities!Learn more about the Jake Walk that afflicted drinkers of Jamaican rum extract during Prohibition.  Because it was poisoned. On purpose. No joke.PBS American Experience bring you an interactive comic book.  Follow forensic chemist Alexander Gettler and chief medical examiner Dr. Charles Norris through 1920s New York City as they help solve crimes with groundbreaking forensic science.Former CME Micheal Baden loves the spotlight.  He investigated the deaths of the lost Tsar Nicholas, John Belushi, the president of Poland, Nicole Brown Simpson, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner.A bit more detail about the Murder at The Met.And don't forget to check our Facebook page for lots of great images, including gorgeous photos of Bellevue!  (Nothing gory, we promise.  Some bones, that's all.)

Host: John J. Russell, MD Dr. John Russell welcomes author Deborah Blum to talk about her book, The Poisoner's Handbook. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice.

Host: John J. Russell, MD Dr. John Russell welcomes author Deborah Blum to talk about her book, The Poisoner's Handbook. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice.

As a writer, Deborah Blum says she has a "love of evil chemistry." It seems that audiences do too: Her latest book, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, was not only a bestseller, but was just turned into a film by PBS.The book tells the story of Charles Norris, New York City's first medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, his toxicologist and forensic chemist. They were a scientific and medical duo who brought real evidence and reliable forensic techniques to the pressing task of apprehending poisoners, who were running rampant at the time because there was no science capable of catching them.On the show this week we talk to Blum about this “golden age for poisoners” and the science that goes along with it.This episode also features an interview with Quartz meteorology writer Eric Holthaus about whether global warming may be producing more extreme cold weather in the mid-latitudes, just like what much of America experienced this week.Subscribe:itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-minds

For many of us, chemistry is something we remember with groans from high school. Periodic Table of the Elements—what a pain to memorize, and what was the point, anyway? So how do you take a subject like chemistry and make it exciting, intriguing, and compelling? With her new book The Poisoner’s Handbook, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Deb Blum has done just that. Blum takes a page from the "CSI" franchise, and moves that familiar narrative of crime, intrigue, and high tech bad-guy catching back into the early days of the 20th century. There, in jazz age New York, she chronicles the birth of forensic chemistry at the hands of two scientific and public health pioneers—the city’s chief medical examiner Charles Norris, and his chemistry whiz side-kick Alexander Gettler. And while chronicling their poison-sleuthing careers, Blum also teaches quite a bit of science. Her book is a case study in science popularization, and one we should all be paying close attention to. Deborah Blum is a Pulitzer-prize winning science writer and has been a professor of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1997. Prior to that, she spent over a decade working as a science writer for the Sacramento Bee, where her series on ethical issues in primate research, “The Monkey Wars,” won the 1992 Pulitzer. The Monkey Wars also became a book, and since then Blum has written numerous others: A Field Guide for Science Writers, Sex on the Brain, Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection, and Ghost Hunters: William James and the Scientific Search for Life After Death. Blum has also written for numerous publications including The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times. She was president of the National Association of Science Writers from 2002-2004, and currently serves on advisory boards to the Council for Advancement of Science Writing and the World Federation of Science Journalists.