"To Demonstrate It Was Safe": Politicians Putting Their Bodies On The Line

The Wholesome Show

Politicians get a bad rap, don’t they? Every mutterance and every action falls under intense scrutiny from the press and the public eye. If they make one wrong move, we’ll know about it and keep talking about it for ages too.

Maybe that’s why politicians go to such great lengths to win the people over. Like when Governor Carey of New York volunteered to drink a glass of PCBs (Polychlorinated biphenyls - highly carcinogenic chemical compounds) to prove a state building was safe.

It seems that drinking a cup of toxic liquid is the go-to political move. Punjab State Chief Minister, Bhagwant Mann, downed a glass of polluted water from a holy river in 2022 on the heels of a campaign to clean water bodies. He was hospitalised for 2 days. Then there’s the bizarre demonstration from Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who allegedly drank fracking fluid in a ritual-like manner around a table. Bit culty.

While you could argue that demonstrations like these showcase leadership and a willingness to share risks with the public, they could also just be downright reckless and stupid.

CHAPTERS:

• 00:00 Don’t put torpedos in your mouth
• 03:06 Mad Cow Disease: Putting beef to the test
• 05:47 President Obama drinks lead-lined Flint Water
• 08:35 East Palestine toxic chemical water
• 11:58 The Fracking fluid ritual
• 15:41 Proving that New York Midtown is safe
• 18:41 Nuclear bombs are perfectly fine
• 20:35 Dining Dangers: From COVID to Cholera
• 25:38 Product safety testing downfalls
• 32:03 What’s next on the Wholesome Show

SOURCES:

• Communications and Politics, in The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times by Joshua M Sharfstein
• Ex-N.Y. Gov. Hugh Carey dies at 92, Politico
• Factiva archive
• Food Irradiation by the CDC
• New York Times Archive
• Trove
• The cholera epidemic in Latin America, Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen
• What became of Cordelia Gummer, the Mad Cow girl?, Daily Express
• Vets dismiss fears of 'mad cat' disease, New Scientist

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.