Podbit · Stuff You Should Know
Because birthmarks have no known cause, cultures worldwide invented explanations blaming the pregnant mother. Being startled and touching her face, eating too many strawberries, drinking port wine, gazing at fire — all were supposedly capable of marking the unborn child. The X-ray version persisted into the modern era.
Where this was said
At 40:10 · chapter starts 38:35
Josh and Chuck step back from the medical details to make a broader social point: people with facial differences — whether from birthmarks, vitiligo, or other causes — face unnecessary stigma because the rest of society hasn't caught up. Josh plugs changingfaces.org, which takes the position that people with facial differences are not cognitively or physically impaired in any way; the burden of adjustment is on the public. He and Chuck both note personal connections to vitiligo, flagging it as a future episode. The segment has the feel of two people who've thought about this a lot and genuinely want to move the needle.
The UK organization changingfaces.org advocates for people with facial differences by pushing back on society rather than the individuals. Their message: people with birthmarks or other facial differences aren't cognitively or physically impaired. The rest of society needs to adjust its reaction.
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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