Jack Kevorkian built a machine to allow patients to self-administer lethal drugs, filmed their decisions, informed police, and was tried for murder multiple times before being convicted and imprisoned. His public advocacy — controversial and confrontational — planted the seed for a movement that took decades to gain legal footing.
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At 10:43 · chapter starts 9:40
This chapter provides the historical scaffolding for the rest of the episode. Dubner notes that 12 US states plus D.C. now permit some form of assisted dying, with Oregon the pioneer in 1997 [1] — Stephen Dubner "Assisted dying has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, and now 12 US states plus D.C. have followed. The American movement was slow and c…" 09:31 . The modern movement traces back to Switzerland, where it has been legal since 1942, and which is where Kahneman traveled to die. Roth then recounts the American origins: the Hemlock Society, which published a frank how-to guide called 'Let Me Die Before I Wake,' and the problem it exposed — people who stockpiled pills but couldn't swallow them when gravely ill. Enter Jack Kevorkian, 'Dr. Death,' who built machines allowing patients to self-administer lethal drugs, filmed their consent, and deliberately informed police to challenge the law. He was tried for murder multiple times before being convicted on the one case where he administered the drug himself rather than letting the patient do it. Roth notes the movement stalled after Kevorkian: the caution around distinguishing 'help in stopping living' from 'aid in dying' has made progress slow.
There are now 12 US states plus the District of Columbia where some form of assisted dying is legal, with Oregon being the first in 1997.
Assisted dying has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, making it the longest-running legal framework for the practice in the modern world.
New York's MAID law, effective August 2025, requires a terminal prognosis of 6 months or less, a mandatory mental health evaluation, an in-person physician visit, a 5-day waiting period, and a video or audio recording of the patient's request. Hochul insisted on these guardrails as the price of her signature.
Kierkegaard lost five of six siblings and his mother before adulthood, grew up under a shame-ridden father, fell in love, proposed, then mailed back the ring and fled to Berlin. His inability to live up to his own most important commitment became the engine of his entire philosophical project.
Casanova escaped from Venice's inquisition prison, met Voltaire, Catherine the Great, Benjamin Franklin, and Mozart — then died completely alone in a Slovak castle, broke, telling stories to children who thought he was a crazy old man. His 2,000-page memoir sat unread for decades. A life full of fireworks that meant nothing.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
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