Trickle Down Episode 2: Bad Seed (Part 2)
Added 2022-04-23 01:35:49 +0000 UTCHenry Herbert Goddard’s work studying the supposedly degenerate “Kallikak” family made him world famous. In the words of a teacher at the Vineland Training Center, it also made Emma Wolverton, aka Deborah Kallikak, the “World’s Best Known Moron.” But the acclaim Goddard achieved for his work faded as psychologists discovered fatal flaws with his research. However, before Goddard’s work was dismissed as worthless by the scientific community is was cited as justification for eugenic programs both at home and in Nazi Germany.
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Written by Travis View. Theme by Nick Sena (https://nicksenamusic.com). Additional music by Pontus Berghe and Nick Sena. Editing by Corey Klotz.
REFERENCES:
Carlson, Axel Elof ( 2001) The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea
Cohen, Adam (2016) Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck
Smith, David J. and Wehmeyer, Michael L. (2012) Good Blood, Bad Blood. Science, Nature, and the Myth of the Kallikaks.
Smith, David J. and Wehmeyer, Michael L. (2012) Who Was Deborah Kallikak?
https://meridian.allenpress.com/idd/article/50/2/169/14846/Who-Was-Deborah-Kallikak
Smith, David J. (1985) Minds Made Feeble: The Myth and the Legacy of the Kallikaks
Zenderland, L. (1998). Measuring minds: Henry Herbert Goddard and the origins of American intelligence testing.
Zimmer, Carl (2018) She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
Comments
Phenomenal. I teach about eugenics in my history classes and it always shocks people!
Heather B
2023-03-15 03:59:03 +0000 UTCReally well done. Thank you for this. I would be very interested to see what today’s psychiatrists would think of Emma.
2022-05-19 01:24:40 +0000 UTCcame back to listen to the last like 3 minutes of this episode... Shivers everytime
Nev
2022-05-12 22:01:06 +0000 UTCI recall this family being mentioned in an episode of some podcast when they were discussing Free Britney and how she was forced to be on birth control. Not that things was better here in Sweden during that time and even longer if I remember correctly.
Arvid Haglund
2022-05-03 10:34:34 +0000 UTCThe language that was used at the time to talk about this shit is endlessly infuriating
Brad Plumb
2022-05-02 13:06:22 +0000 UTCWe that got me crying. Could have been me or many of the people I've known and cared about were we unlucky to have been born earlier
Kest93
2022-05-01 19:05:59 +0000 UTCThis is all much more horrible than I ever could have wished to imagine. That being said, thank you for this episode. It is important to learn about things that are uncomfortable in order to understand how we got where we are today.
2022-05-01 01:41:38 +0000 UTCFound this two part story really interesting. Particularly b/c recently there was a general interest about when law is based on straight up wrong info, and when SCOTUS decisions include absolutely incorrect foundational arguments. I'm looking forward to more Trickle Down!
2022-04-30 14:25:30 +0000 UTCOver the last few years it felt like I was losing my mind. Early-onset dementia was considered. After almost 15 years building a career in environmental science and project management I found every step became exponentially more difficult. After 2 burnouts I was diagnosed with autism and advised that it would be better for my health to leave the career I worked so hard for. I've since retrained and now work in cybersecurity with an employer that actively sought autistic personnel, valuing a different thought-process. The point of saying this is had I been born decades earlier I may well have been labelled as feeble-minded. I feel so fortunate to firstly receive the correct diagnosis, and have been provided the support to change career in my 40s. Emma's life and the stigma associated with her family and genetics is a poignant example of how cruel and devastating misunderstood labelling can be. This podcast episode left me feeling both incredibly sad, but extremely fortunate. Thanks to everyone for putting it together, it's a must-hear episode that I'll listen to again and highly recommend.
I come from a land down under, where the beer does flow and men chunder
2022-04-30 05:35:55 +0000 UTC
