What Americans Ate When There Were No Food Laws | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and we're just stuff you should. knowing in it doing some stuff you. should know kind of stuff on the stuff. you should know podcast yeah uh yeah hey. can I make a couple of quick. announcements oh boy is it a correction. about me that's listener mail okay uh.

just a couple of quick things uh firstly. I have had my front tooth implant redone. mhm so the next uh roughly 80. episodes might be a little lispy here. and there can you say sibilance. sibilance uh it's actually more FS can. you say falance. fence yeah sometimes air just shoots out. of that a little tooth hole tooth the th.

at the end that's problematic so you. know here we are again everyone uh and. bear with it and I appreciate your. support uh you can't even tell Chuck. like had you not said something maybe. one person would have noticed I think. it's fine I appreciate that oh yeah but. you'll hear you some some words will. stand out uh the other uh quick one is. just uh for this episode massive uh COA.

trigger warning um any vegetarians or. vegans or really anybody uh who is just. grossed out by gross food stuff uh this. is chalk full yeah if you find the human. body and the stuff it can do odious to. you might want to just be prepared yeah. all right so I'm ready that's good good. COA buddy um yeah because we are talking. about what things were like. before America started regulating the.

meat that we bought and ate uh and it. turns out it was a total free-for-all. until then uh but it was really just. kind of nestled in a short period yeah. um you know where like the Second. Industrial Revolution happened and all. of a sudden everybody moves to the. cities and you can't buy your bacon from. the guy down the street anymore or make. your own milk or whatever you have to. buy it and so these companies sprung up. to supply that stuff and they started. cutting corners immediately yeah it's.

the American way time and time again. we've seen uh from the very beginning. corporate interest uh corporate Lobby. all in the name of profit and this isn't. just us railing this is the The History. of the United States yes for sure most. of them are advertisers on stuff you. should know too probably so so so people. needed this stuff and they filled a void. like it was a necessary thing that they. were doing but the problem is because. there's zero regulation I mean none yeah.

um like like there was an author named. um Deborah Blum and she wrote the poison. Squad colon one chemist single-minded. Crusade for safety at the turn of the. 20th century and um she said that there. was nothing that could be done to food. that was illegal because there were no. food safety laws it was there was. nothing you could do aside from kill. your customers and even then you might.

just get some bad pressing everybody's. like oh well it happens yeah I wonder if. it was because they just assumed that. these new corporations would just sort. of deliver food the right way or I just. wonder if it was naiv I mean eventually. it was obviously uh stuff started coming. out as we'll see in this episode right. and Congress you know bows down to the. donors as they still do today but uh I. just wonder what they thought at first. just like no this is great and you know.

they're supplying more food and I'm sure. they're doing it right my take on it is. because this is like set largely in the. Gilded Age that there was a a general. like hands-off approach like hey this. business is is zooming this economy into. the stratosphere and we don't want to. interfere with it and I'm sure they're. going to do the right thing anyway yeah. that's a good point so that's my take I. I think that it was a combination of not. really realizing that we needed regul CU.

we never needed them before and then not. wanting to medle with this this red hot. economic engine that was flaming just. with so many Flames yeah flames on the. side of your face yeah uh so I guess we. should start with milk huh yeah why not. because it was pretty bad stuff yeah it. was um pasteurization had been around. for a long time it was admitted in the. 1850s but they didn't get on the. widespread pasteurization of milk till. about the 80 or so years later.

uh so if you went and bought your milk. you know I think the the understanding. for a lot of people is like oh well back. then you would buy your milk from the. local Dairy right and it was that's way. better uh just to get it fresh from the. tee like that and that was not true. because uh this milk was nasty it was. killing babies uh. 400,000 babies a year from drinking bad. milk in America alone that's not a. global stat that's just in the United.

States yeah. unbelievable yeah it is it is it's nuts. that everybody's like yeah this just. happens but um I guess people just. thought that's what happened when you. drink milk sometimes or I don't know. what the thinking was yeah but a guy. named John Newell herie h rty y uh he. became the chief Health officer of. Indiana in. 1896 and we should say by this time just. kind of to give it some context the Pure. Food movement which was a progressive. movement in the 19 18 century along with.

like Temperance suffrage um abolition um. it it it had really kind of started to. gain steam so this guy wasn't laying the. groundwork but his work was very. noteworthy but he became the chief. Health officer of Indiana and he. immediately started investigating the um. State's dairy farms and found what they. were doing is what was killing you know. infants who were being fed cow's milk. yeah it was cuz it was cow's milk that. was watered down so they could stretch. profit but it was watered down it's not.

like they had some beautiful filtration. system from a a Poland Spring right. actually I don't even know what a Poland. Spring is it's a specific spring it is. ironically not in Poland I had a feeling. uh so they weren't using that of course. they were using like the Farm's pond. water which was disgusting it was. stagnant uh you at one point like he. literally held up a bottle of milk from. Indiana and saw actual worms inside of. it.

yeah isn't that awful live worms they. were moving yeah and that wasn't all he. found um he found insects hairs blood. pus cow manure he estimated that just. the residents of Indianapolis at. ingested about 2,000 lbs of cow manure. every year just from the milk they were. drinking yeah that's Collective not each. person of course but that's still a lot. of cow poop I think you had OD on cow. poop if you ate that much or maybe it. would make you into like a. superhero there was another really gross.

one that Dave turned up I think it was. originally in an Atlantic article about. the early days of milk but one of the. things that they would do so like if you. thinned milk with water yeah it was very. clearly thinned it was it didn't look. like milk it was bluish gray so they put. like chalk or flour or plaster of Paris. in not great but still it gets much. worse you also when you got a bottle of. milk expected the cream to still be. there on top the cream Rises to the top. as they say right mhm well if you've.

been watering down your milk there. probably isn't much cream left in it but. you need to put that cream back in there. something that looks like it so they. said aside from stagnant pond water what. else do I have on the farm that's. basically free that I'm not using that I. can use for this oh yeah these little. calves that I'm slaughtering and selling. as ve I could use their brains and puree. it because it has kind of a creamy. texture and that will stand in for the. cream that I'll put on top of the. watered down milk that I'm selling in. the bottle yeah so. that is a horrifying thing to hear yeah.

with with human ears uh we should point. out that wasn't it wasn't like everybody. was doing that this is like an example. uh of you know who knows it could have. been one Farm but what they did find out. what was being used widespread and just. sort of with regularity in the industry. was using form Malahide to preserve milk. uh pre pasteurization which is you know. we all know it's a embomb uh chemical. used for dead bodies to make them last.

longer mhm and this was literally. killing babies uh if you were a a kid in. Indianapolis in an orphanage or actually. anywhere in the United States they. didn't have baby formula back then you. can listen to our episode on uh was did. we do one just on baby formula yeah one. on formula and one on the breast I think. oh that's right I thought there was two. on the breast but it was too. total that wasn't trying to be funny. there well it was hilarious. uh they would you know you would get.

cow's milk as a as a little BB in an. orphanage so it would you know it would. it would kill a kid very quickly if. you're drinking form. alahh right yeah um it doesn't take much. for a little infant right and it's. apparently one of those things I read. that it it's it will just kill you like. almost immediately if you ingest the. right amount so it's not good and even. if it doesn't kill you right away it's. not a it's not a pleasant way to die and. again 400 ,000 babies a year were dying.

in the United States just from Bad milk. so it was definitely more than just one. one Dair Farm in Indiana it was a. widespread problem right oh absolutely. so you know that's hero number one uh. hero number two also comes to us from. Indiana wait wait before we move on you. got to tell him that great great quote. from um Dr herie Oh I thought it was. kind of smarmy sure uh I guess he had. the right to be smarmy a reporter asked. if for Malahide and milk was dangerous.

and he said well I guess it's all right. if you want to embalm the. baby I that didn't strike me as smarmy. that's pretty SM SMY for the 1920s or. whatever I guess but he's he's saying. like that's what the milk producers are. doing they're embalming babies yeah I. just I don't know I thought a man of. science would say it is extremely. dangerous I see I see I get you I get. you so still a hero a little smarm me. maybe but. nice of you to spare him uh the second.

hooer hero that's coming in is a. gentleman named Dr Harvey Washington Wy. uh in the 1880s he got a be in his. Bonnet about uh the problem with food he. was a boiler maker MH uh Professor there. at Purdue and then the USDA the the. fairly new USDA said all right we're. going to start a bureau of chemistry and. you're the guy that's going to run it. right he he was a he essentially.

dedicated his entire adult life and. career to fighting for um like making. the American food market um wholesome. essentially like that's what that guy. did and he he actually had a a bit of. the showman in him he had a huge ego. apparently most of the people who we're. talking about today had enormous Egos. and they rubbed up against one another. and even though they didn't like one. another most of them they still managed. to work together to affect real change. which is kind of a cool little hats off.

to everybody so one of the first things. that um Dr Wy did when the USDA hired. him to run the Bureau of chemistry which. apparently was a new department at the. time this is in the I think the 1880s or. the late 19th century at the very least. um he started testing um syrup and jam. and all sorts of stuff I'm not quite. sure if he was doing it to compare. because he was actually researching corn. syrup at the time to find out if this. was actually okay to use as a food.

because there was a that whole Pure Food. movement was like Hey I don't know what. we're putting into our food to preserve. it like we didn't used to do that 10. years ago before everybody moved to the. city I'm not sure how I feel about this. so Dr wy's job was to find out if these. things were actually harmful or if you. could use them one of the first things. he found out was that most of the maple. syrup and the Honey like 90% of the. honey was fake there wasn't a drop of. honey in it yeah it was corn syrup uh.

they would flavor it a little bit with. Maple for the syrup uh they would FL. flavor it like whatever fruit I guess. for Jam I'm not sure what they flavored. it with for. honey uh I don't know either like how. would you take a bite and be like this. is honey I guess I don't know but that. was just sort of a jumping off point. where he was like well wait a minute if. they're doing this to honey and maple. syrup uh we need to start looking into. other things and he started to learn. about for Malahide in Foods uh borax.

which is a uh it's a cleaner you know. like boric acid cleaner under the brand. I think it was a brand wasn't it borax I. think it was like 20 Mule Team. Borax oh that kind of thing was the name. that was the name of the brand uh but he. started realizing this stuff was in our. food he got obviously pretty upset about. it and goes to Congress and Congress is. not interested in passing anything uh. because as you will see uh just like you.

know the things that go on today the. food Lobby was strong and Rich and. powerful and Congress sat on their hands. yeah that um author Deborah Blum also. said that like there was no political. will not just because they were in the. pockets of like the the food producers. they a lot of them most certainly were. and basically all of them were getting. money from them at the very least but. that also if you introduced one of these. bills you were like a crackpot you were. a quack you were um you had no idea.

right you had no idea what it what it. meant to like be in the business world. you're were just a dummy that's how. that's how these things were reviewed. and I think something like a hundred or. or something I think like more than a. hundred bills were introduced and just. within a decade or so and only like. eight or nine of them managed to get. past yeah that's how that's how looked. down upon the idea of food regulation. was at the time yeah so Wy is uh pretty. smart guy like you said he's kind of had.

a little bit of showman quality to him. so he got together a u an experiment. also sort of a PR stunt in 1902 he took. 12 government clerks and uh put them in. housing in the basement of the. Agricultural Department building there. in DC MH and they were exposed to uh. what they called hygienic table trials. where half of these young men were. secretly fed uh for Malahide B. um sodium benzonate all kinds of nasty.

chemicals like the stuff that was going. in food and it was conveniently leaked. to the press and Dr Wy uh they were. called the poison Squad and Dr Wy was. dubbed old. borax yeah so he um he actually became a. national figure like people like just. the average American knew about him if. you read the newspaper you probably were. familiar with Dr Wy old borax old borax. um and we talked about him and the. poison Squad in the I think the does the.

FDA protect Americans episode yeah just. kind of briefly but I mean that whole. book that Deborah Blum wrote was about. Dr Wy and the poison Squad and the work. he did amazing and Wy um definitely. deserves a lot of credit he gets less. credit than he probably should get. because around that time people um. started to kind of look at Teddy. Roosevelt as we'll see is the person who. really got the legislation pushed. through but it probably would not have. happened it when it did without Dr Wy.

but in addition to Dr Wy there was also. Teddy Roosevelt and another guy a mck. ring journalist a socialist named Upton. Sinclair and those two are considered to. be uh some real driving forces behind. food regulation in America absolutely. you know what that. means uh it means that it's time for a. message break no it means I'm going to. go try and find find a tiny chicklet to.

shove into my tooth hole you should uh. just switch the colors once in a while. Aon Cooper has my. flipper oh yeah that's right man quite a. gift I don't think it would fit now. anyway okay so don't feel bad C just. keep keep uh praying to that thing every. night and it'll be okay it's so weird. all right we'll be right. [Music]. back.

[Music]. all right so we left off with quite a. teaser uh that a gentleman named Teddy. Rosevelt and a socialist writer named. Upton Sinclair would change the course. of America and boy did they uh a little. background on Teddy Roosevelt just. because it really applies here to how he. got sort of swept up in all this to. begin with uh but he was a soldier uh he.

led the Rough Riders uh and the invasion. of Spanish held Cuba and the reason that. is important to the story is because. that Invasion and that whole war was um. a lot of Americans died uh but not from. the battle itself I think about 400. Americans died in combat but about 5,500. died from disease from malaria and. dissenter and typhoid. so President McKinley after the war.

started just a big military commission. to investigate what it was like to be a. soldier and all these awful conditions. and that very key to this story included. the food that they ate yeah because. there was um at least among the the. people who had fought in the. Spanish-American War there was this. awareness that the the roast beef. especially the canned roast beef God. that have been delivered as rations yeah. uh yeah you're walking a fine line just. even attempting canned roast beef right.

it better be good this was so not good. it was it was like it would make you. immediately start vomiting according to. Teddy Roosevelt yeah um they called it. imal Meek because some of it was clearly. rotted but then they'd added faldy this. wasn't even like okay this is fresh meat. we're going to add faldy they would put. the faldy in after it was rotted to try. to counteract the rot you know to to. bring it back to life exactly to. Frankenstein it up and they found that. um that the yeah that when you ate this.

stuff it didn't matter what you did to. cook it or anything like that it would. just make you throw up or just start. pooping your pants like almost. immediately and um Teddy Roosevelt and. all the other Veterans of the Spanish. American war were pretty miffed about. this so when Roosevelt got the chance to. go testify before Congress he was the. governor of New York by this time about. that beef that tin beef he definitely. took the chance or took the opportunity. yeah he called that uh canned beef a. disc Grace to our country and also had a.

little uh testimonial description uh. when the cans were opened the top was. nothing more than a layer of slime it. was disagreeable looking that's putting. them oddly and nasty sometimes we stewed. it with potato and onions but I could. have eaten my hat stewed with potato and. onions rather than the beef nearly all. the men sickened after eating it yeah. isn't that gross yeah and you know like. you said by this time I he was already a. war hero but governor of New York he has. you know some clout all of a sudden for.

sure yeah he he he was fairly wellknown. well known enough that when McKinley. stood for reelection in 1900 he chose. Teddy Roosevelt as his running mate yeah. uh he was still young I think he was. 42 um less than a year into the second. McKinley Administration McKinley was. assassinated and died and so suddenly. Teddy Roosevelt the vice president is. President and he became the youngest. president in history JFK was 43.

Roosevelt was. 42 and I I it's really weird it's one of. those moments in history where the right. person happens to be in the right place. to really make things happen that seemed. intractable before and I don't know. enough about Teddy Roosevelt to fully. sing his Praises but from what I can. tell just the brief stuff I've read. about him researching this he was a. really interesting levelheaded dude at.

least as far as balancing the interests. of the United States. went dare I say that well he was uh he. he figured big in the foundation of our. national parks so that was a big part. but also like in this in in this. specifically he saw a very uh important. need that needed to be filled which was. the the meat producers but the food. producers in general the meat producers. in particular needed regulating they.

were doing some nasty stuff he found out. and he he he went to Congress and was. like make this happen if you don't make. it happen I'm going to basically expose. all of you who are in the pockets of. this beef trust as they call it the big. five beef producers which included armor. Swift and Libby who are all three still. around making meat in the United States. yeah uh but you know his hands were even. as president uh Tied by Congress in the. lobby uh until that is our final Hero of. the Day comes along a gentleman named.

Upton Sinclair like you said a uh. hardcore socialist and a writer who. wrote the very very uh famous book The. Jungle about well most people if they've. never read the jungle probably say yeah. it's about exposing the the meat packing. in Chicago right uh but 14 I'm sorry 15. pages really covered that meat packing. uh discuss that we are going to have to. talk about so just get ready uh the book.

was really about a uh an immigrant. worker who who comes to America and is. sort of just you know stomped on by. capitalism because again he was a. socialist and this was his cause right. yeah so in the end of the book The. Worker who's I think only identified as. Urus J rgis he he just keeps getting. like he loses his family he loses. essentially anything good to his life by. being ground through the the gears of. capitalism and and on the other side he. comes out and finds that socialism is.

the answer and starts dedicating himself. to to building a socialist Paradise or. whatever right so that was like you said. the point of the book but when America. read this book they did not pay any. attention to that socialist message at. all in fact plenty of them ignored the. fact that there was an overt socialist. message and still read the book and got. something out of it and what they got. was those 15 pages yeah of disgusting. descriptions of what was going on in. Chicago's meat packing um re District.

where essentially all of the beef and. pork and um I guess sheep mutton was. processed this one area and just just. where they kept the live livestock. before Slaughter just when they arrived. by train and put them into a pen just. that pen Chuck was a square mile big. yeah uh it was known as uh packing town.

and in order to get this information he. went undercover he spent 7 weeks uh. posing as a worker m in this meat. packing District uh which was uh like I. said it was called packing town but it. was in the the heart of the Union. Stockyards and like you said they would. bring in by train it was the most. efficient system on Earth for processing. animals uh 10,000 cattle 10,000 Hogs. 5,000 sheep. a day coming in and being processed they.

were doing uh I think they were going. through 18 million animals a year at. this point right because of a very. Innovative new system called uh assembly. line work which is you know we know what. it is now but back then it was kind of. revolutionary and that they would put. make uh one person do one job and one. job only all day long for 12 hours a day. and as fast as they could yeah and if. you screwed up the four men would be. like you had one job job yeah don't get.

your finger cut off and put into a. sausage yeah so that would happen right. um they would they would use everything. they could from the animal apparently. there was a um a widely known um phrase. that was used there that they used. everything about the hog except for the. squeal which is haunting yeah well I. want to point out though like not in the. way that like uh an ethical Master Chef. right wants to use or or a a hunter that. that you know provides meat for their. family tries to use every you know good.

edible part of the animal that's a. different deal we're talking about like. you know grinding up hooves for you know. filler exactly yeah I'm glad you pointed. that out right yeah so um when he wrote. The Jungle he interviewed first of all. he witnessed what he wrote about. firsthand but he said like I did not I. did not like exaggerate this stuff this. is not me embellishing like I witnessed. this firsthand and the stuff that I. didn't witness firsthand I interviewed.

people who witnessed it firsthand yeah. and so he's like the stuff in the book. is real people and we haven't even. really kind of cracked into what was in. those 15 pages I say we do that now. should we take a break into it I think. that's a fine idea chuck all right we'll. be right. [Music]. back. [Applause]. [Music].

okay Chuck so we're back it's time to. get into um the grizzly details of the. Jungle yeah um there's some pretty. famous stuff in there um just because it. it just it got out so far and wide it it. was a very widely read book and even. more widely discussed book um because of. the disuss that it generated but for. example when they um when they gener.

when they created sausage oh go up in. Sinclair told everybody how the sausage. is made and everybody's like we didn't. want to know but now we know and we. can't unknow it they would grind up. moldy sausage that had been rejected. from Europe so it was bad when it got to. Europe and then they shipped it back to. America and then they used it in the. sausage they fed. Americans um that stuff would also be. mixed in with scraps of meat that had. been shoveled off of the floor probably.

at the couple of times a day they would. shovel meat scraps and flesh and blood. off of the floor put it into the sausage. mixture that's bad enough that it was on. the floor but the workers frequently had. things like tuberculosis and they were. spitting bloody tuberculo spit onto the. floor so that would get mixed in with. the food scraps the meat scraps um that. would be put into the sausages there was. a rat problem there so they would put. out poison pieces of bread for the rats.

and then when the rats ate the bread and. died they put the rats in the sausage. and then for a good measure they put the. poison bread in the sausage too this was. just the sausage that they were making. yeah like I get the feeling that there. was if if there was a poster on the wall. of this workplace it was if it's on the. floor it's in the sausage yeah for sure. tobacco spit that's that's probably the. the best thing you could hope for to. yeah you be FL tobacco spit.

yeah uh if anyone's still listening um. you know obviously potted Meats um you. know mystery meat is kind of a funny. thing to say these days but back then it. was truly dangerous uh it was you know. organ Meats it was tripe uh this is a. quote and it's hard for me to even say. this word for because of my tooth and. because it's disgusting MH uh but the. hard C cardinus.

cyanogenus calenus caliginous yeah there. we go hard cartilagenous gullets of beef. after the tongues had been cut out was. in this potted meat as well yeah and the. Potted Chicken in particular um it. always appears in quotes because it was. later determined there was no chicken at. all in the Potted chicken it was just. like you said every piece of the animal. they could use not for ethical purposes. but because they could sell it as potted. chicken and tell everybody yeah it's. just ground up chicken just eat it and. shut up yeah so you know this is awful.

the workers themselves are working in. deplorable conditions uh 12 hours a day. in these disgusting rooms doing this. stuff the same job over and over and. over which was a new thing like people. weren't used to assembly line work much. less like if your job all day is to uh I. don't even know I can't even imagine. what they were doing skinning slicing. removing deboning yeah there you go um. they I made the joke about losing a. finger but they did they would lose.

digits they would lose limbs uh this. stuff would go into the food uh there. were even people that fell into lard. Vats and boiled alive and that went into. the food yeah there's a a well that went. into the lard there was a quote that U. well which event eventually went into. food you know exactly there was a quote. from Sinclair that said all but the. bones of them went out into the world as. Durham's pure beef lard I don't think. durhams is around.

anymore Durham couldn't survive that one. yeah um there's another quote from Upton. Sinclair um that he said I aimed at the. Public's heart and by accident I hid it. in the stomach which is him yeah him. recognizing that he wrote this book. about socialism and everybody just. focused in on the really gross food. stuff and that uh even still it affected. change it just wasn't the change he was. trying to affect but he wasn't one of. those guys who's like oh great I'm I'm a. celebrity either way I don't care how I.

got there he turned out to be like. really bitter um at everybody missing. this message like his book was widely. read and nobody got it at least they. didn't get it the way that he intended. them to get it yeah this is another good. quote uh he said that he he was uh made. to a celebrity not because the public. cared anything about the workers but. simply because the public did not want. to eat tubercular beef yeah man that. word you start messing with that word it. gets grosser and grosser yeah I think.

tubercular beef should open for diarrhea. Planet oh boy I think you've just come. up with a. tour so this is a very uh sort of a. bombshell book um it was released in uh. 1906 in January sold 25,000 copies right. out of the gate which was just a ton of. books back then uh it's a lot of books. now as we've learned um within about 5. months it was translated into 17. different languages and eventually. became a silent movie as well in 1914.

yeah it was and like you said it was a. bombshell um the basically that that. that Log Jam in Congress of you know. that that had kept any food regulation. bills essentially from passing this this. book like broke it open it it dislodged. all that stuff and the reason why was. was. multifaceted in addition to grossing out. the public and being like we're eating. this government do something about this.

somebody do something about this you had. that that public outcry which is kind of. in line with the progressive drum beat. right mhm you also had a developing drum. beat coming out of the business side. because that's where that's the whole um. the debate was divided between the. progressives who are cranks and crazy. and didn't understand business and the. business side who are like to shut up. and eat this stuff we're trying to make. a profit here and get the engine of the. United States R revving there was a a a. group in business that was like Hey.

we're already following like food safety. practices totally and it's really. expensive compared to our competitors. who are cutting every corner possible. and selling unsanitary products for way. lower than we can sell our Safe products. yeah so if these guys start getting. regulated they're we're going to even. the playing field and as a matter of. fact they'll be behind us because. they're going to have to play ketchup. expense wise to get to um the same level.

that we're operating at and have been. all all the all this time and I said. ketchup which is ironic because one of. those companies that was already doing. things safe was the hindes company yeah. hats off to the Hines company right yeah. not just Hines but also old Taylor. whiskey yeah so you know there were it. wasn't everyone and that's a really good. point I'm glad you made it uh because. hin probably since that has been saying. by the way you know we weren't a part of. all that right you know it should have.

been uh called the jungle colon except. for. hind so Roosevelt all of a sudden is. getting a 100 calls I'm sorry not calls. uh he was getting a hundred letters a. day calls he would have been like What's. Happening Here Yeah uh about food safety. uh he calls up Upton Sinclair these guys. should not be buddies and spoiler they. did not end up being buddies yeah it. wasn't like some crazy like uh you're. like this and I'm like this but you know.

we have a lot in common as it turns out. um the only thing they had in common it. seems like was that they wanted to clean. up the food situation in the United. States uh they didn't trust each other. of course they didn't really like each. other um of course Roosevelt did not. like a muck ring journalist and of. course Sinclair was like Hey the beef. trust is giving you uh. $200,000 for your presidential campaign.

which in the future in 2024 that would. be $7 million wow so you're in the. pocket of the beef trust which he denied. of course because he had to eat that. that beef in Cuba yeah he said Mr. sinclare I bear no love for those. gentlemen for I ate the meat they can. for the Army in Cuba yeah comma but. their checks cashed all the same well he. lived up to that quote he he took on the. beef trust um and he he got this this. legislation essentially passed through. as we'll see um and then just as a side.

note you mentioned mck rers apparently. Teddy Roosevelt was the one who. inadvertently coined that term he was. giving a speech about um I'm not sure. what the whole point of the speech was. about but he was basically railing. against journalists to go look and dig. up Scandal and um he allowed that. there's a role that they play in the. public forum that's a good role which is. if there's somebody doing something. Shady these guys are going to go find. out and tell everybody and that's a. public good what he was saying is even.

when given the chance to just write. legitimate journalism after that they. still go look for Scandal and like try. to cause problems that might not. necessarily need that aren't really. problems and he compared them to a. character from Pilgrim's Progress who. was the the muck rer and muck is poop by. the way um who had the chance to to. trade in his mck rake for um not a mck. rake and didn't even look up to didn't. even bother looking up just kept looking. down at the the muck he was was ringing. for not a mukre exactly so he doesn't.

like Sinclair like we said he certainly. doesn't trust him uh he thought that the. account in the jungle was he called it. hysterical so he was like I'm going to. look into this myself and by myself I. mean I'm going to have other people do. it for me MH uh Charles Neil who was a. commissioner of the Bureau of Labor at. the time and an attorney from New York. named James Reynolds uh would do the. same thing well they I don't think they. posed as workers but uh they did the. investigation in packing town in Chicago. uh it resulted in the um the Neil.

Reynolds report and basically I mean the. long story short of the Neil's Reynolds. report is by the way everything he said. was true yeah and it's even worse than. he put than he put it in his book that. was the thing you said they didn't pose. as packing workers the the packing. companies knew they were coming and they. that's they were yes and they were so. like the stuff they were doing was just. so bad and entrenched that they they. still were caught doing all this stuff. knowing that these guys were coming to.

investigate so now Teddy Roosevelt has. um like documentation from two people. that he trusts saying yes this is. actually going on this is a huge problem. and we need to do something about it. should we talk about the bathrooms yes. let's because we haven't been super. gross for a. minute so like we said they exposed uh. even worse things in in the book and. this is one of them uh the bathrooms. weren't really bathrooms uh sometimes it. would just be a a little cordoned off.

area of the same workroom floor where. they're scooping up um God knows what to. put into the sausage yeah uh there was. obviously no no sinks there were no open. toilets you would just pee in that. corner there was no soap no toilet paper. and that's when it was just sort of. cordoned off there were also places. where it was just nothing they would. just pee where they were uh so they. could keep working as fast as they could. um they said the fumes from the urine uh.

I'll just read the quote uh hints in. some cases the fumes from the urine. swell the sum of nauseating odors. arising from the dirty blood soaked. rotting wood floors fruitful yeah. fruitful is hard for me to say fruitful. culture beds for the disease germs of. men and animals yeah and don't forget. multiple times a day they scraped up the. the stuff that had dropped on the floor. and put it in the sausage and I saw a. description of those that really turned. my stomach they they called them.

spongy isn't that awful cuz they were. rotting from spit and blood and urine. and that's what the the meat was coming. into contact with so it held even more. spit it's so gross dude spongy wood is. bad enough as it is oh man so the other. thing they did was uh said and by the. way president Benjamin Harris former. president uh in 1890 you signed a very. weak uh Meat Inspection bill that. basically put um USDA inspectors at.

these meat packing plants but all they. were charged uh to do was say well this. cow was healthy before they slaughtered. it uh and I'm going back to sleep now. they had no authority to oversee what. happened after that point exactly so um. even the rejected animals at those USDA. inspectors would be like this one. doesn't pass mustard get rid of it they. would get rid of it and then when the. inspector left they would go back and. get it and process it anyway so there. was no no actual like um oversight yeah.

even the oversight that was there was. just completely undermined yeah so um. this this was like this was bad news for. the the beef trust and other um Packers. this something was now going to happen. because Teddy Roosevelt had this um. report and in addition to the Jungle. being out in public he said hey I've got. this report Congress I want these I want. some reforms to to be pushed through. make it happen or I'm going to release.

this this report that I've commissioned. that's really going to blow the lid off. of this stuff yeah and he got. cooperation from the Senate they passed. a bill passed a great Bill and then it. started to get blocked in the house and. it I think it came down to like two. senators or no two Congress people. congressmen um who were so in the beef. trust pocket that they they staged a. last ditch effort at stopping um these. Meat Inspection bills from going through. and uh that finally did it for Roosevelt.

and he released the Neil Reynolds um uh. report and it just made anybody sticking. up for the beef trust look so bad that. you just couldn't get in the way of it. any longer yeah and I think didn't um. someone leaked it beforehand too didn't. Upton Sinclair help leak it yeah. supposedly and I guess um Teddy. Roosevelt angrily wired um double day. the publisher the actual guy named. Double day and said like can you please. tell up up Sinclair to leave the. business of running the country to me.

for. once that was. smarmy you see smarm everywhere in all. the quotes I see smarmy people so uh. this resulted in two things the Meat. Inspection Act of 1906 and then. eventually the Pure Food and Drug Act uh. which outlawed the sale of any uh. altered uh adulterated mislabeled Foods. drug medicine or liquor uh became known. as Dr wy's law or the Wy act tribute to.

Dr Wy uh that was not the creation of. the FDA though uh that would come along. a little bit later and like you said we. have a great episode on the. FDA what year was that though 1927 1930. the Bureau of chemistry was part of the. USDA until. 1927 all right so then finally in 1930. we get our FDA and then finally in 1938. after FDR came into office office the. federal government was the agent the FDA. was finally given real teeth to actually.

regulate stuff it was kind of nominal. for a while until the the late 30s you. got to say real teeth right now sorry. man I'm sorry I didn't mean that as a as. a slam that's all right uh well uh if. you want to know more about this really. interesting period in history go. research um up in Sinclair Teddy. Roosevelt Dr Harvey Washington Wy um. read the jungle do all that stuff and uh. just see how gross out you can get.

before you. vomit and since Chuck laughed at vomit. that means it's time for listen her. mail yeah I read this it's a it's an. email about our live show in Seattle um. and I read this as sort of a hey here's. what you get at a stuff you should know. show because we've got uh we've got the. cities lined up uh we haven't announced. on sale dates or anything but I think we. can probably say what cities we're going. to right yeah yeah I think it's pretty. much in the bag all right so uh we're.

going to hit Chicago Indianapolis and. Minneapolis mhm all the aises and then. where are we going in the Northeast this. year in the Northeast we're doing DC mhm. we're going to do Boston yeah we're. going New York City which we haven't. been to in a while yeah it's been uh a. minute since we've been to New York and. then we're going to finish out the year. uh in Durham North Carolina and our. final show of the year in Atlanta like. we like to do yeah that's the that's the. schedule as it stands now and it's.

pretty close to baked close enough that. we're willing to say this in the hopes. that we don't have to edit out of town. that's right so um I read this because. this is a little taste of what you can. get here and this is from uh Mary. Benedict a a grandma to a grandson and. they went to the show together oh this. is a great email it was uh Hey guys been. listening for about 10 years I'm a huge. fan and retired teacher I introduced my. grandson to stuff you should know and he. too has become a devoted fan so for.

Christmas I gave him tickets to the live. event in Seattle he was thrilled uh we. went to the show Absolutely L the. experience the topic was fun you two are. as great as you sound in your episodes. uh as the questions move forward so we. do a little Q&A at the end uh surprise. surprise if you haven't been to a show. so as the questions move forward toward. the end uh you declared one final. question which would have left my. grandson at mic I was repeating to. myself please please see that he's a kid.

please see that he's a kid and Chuck did. exactly that uh you asked him how old he. was as well as the girl behind him both. were 14 you apologize to the other side. and let the two young people talk with. you uh please know what a remarkable. moment that was for my grandson a. euphoric life experience in memory so. thank you uh I also want to share my. appreciation for how kind you were to. all the people in Q&A uh you always. asked a question about them or. thoughtfully com commented on personal. things they shared with you that level. of compassion and kindness is. extraordinary and my regard for you both.

Rose even higher uh and lastly Josh. thank you for your vulnerability sharing. that you need to avoid the news right. now for your well-being uh you demon uh. demonstrated strength and emotional. intelligence to everyone present and. thank you for modeling great Life. Strategies uh are you familiar with. highly sensitive people you may not be. one but uh I am and my grandson is as. well it is a character trait not a. problem that would make a fantastic.

topic for a podcast for sure uh sorry. this ran long but in the world where. people are quick to point out what's. wrong Mary we love you I believe it's. important to tell people what they are. doing uh when they are doing great. things and you two are doing great. things that's awesome that is wonderful. that is Mary with an i Benedict and uh. Mary's grandson so thank you both for. coming yeah thanks a lot yeah for sure. uh um yeah the uh life strategy example. I'm setting is.

avoidance no avoiding the news is not. avoidance if you uh it's true if you. want to be like Mary and her grandson. and come to one of our shows uh we will. eventually put the information and links. and all that for tickets up and in the. meantime you can get in touch with us by. email at stuff podcast iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts ihart. radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple.

podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. [Music]. shows.