It’s a little complicated to weigh a dying person on a hospital bed, but that didn’t deter Duncan MacDougall. In the early 20th century, MacDougall’s unique bed-scale detected that 21 grams left the human body at the moment of death.

He had finally discovered it: the weigh of the human soul … or so he thought.

Read more about the cultural legacy of MacDougall’s flawed but influential experiment:

If you lived in the 1920s, you might have found a pamphlet advertising “the greatest therapeutic force known to mankind.” Radithor was a tiny bottle of clear, colorless water that claimed to cure acne, anemia, heart disease, poison ivy, impotence, asthma, and any other malady you could imagine.

There was only one side effect: DEATH.

So, why did 1920s Americans go gaga for radioactive water? Well, it’s complicated.

Host: Annie Colbert
Reported by: April White
Editing and graphics by Avital Oehler
Written and produced by Matt Silverman

In a remote area of the Siberian tundra, there’s a place that locals call ‘The Gateway to Hell.’ In the summer, its peaceful waterfall sounds are interrupted by the booms and crashes of falling earth.

And while it‘s not actually a portal to another dimension, the Batagay Crater (technically a “megaslump”) is an unsettling mark of our changing world.

Read more about the crater here:

Hosted by Annie Colbert
Reported by Lauren Leffer
Editing and Graphics by Avital Oehler
Written and Produced by Matt Silverman