0:00

Hey, this is Justine from 2 Black Girls, 1

0:02

Rose, and I'm here to tell you about Zola.

0:05

How weird does it feel to be

0:07

called someone's fiance? The first

0:09

time you hear it, you do a double

0:11

take. From there, it's let's enjoy this moment,

0:14

turns into we're planning a fall wedding,

0:16

and I am right there right now.

0:18

That's where Zola comes in. From a

0:20

venue and vendor discovery tool that matches

0:23

you with your dream team to save

0:25

the dates, website, and an easy to

0:27

use registry, Zola has everything you need

0:29

to plan your wedding in one place.

0:31

Start planning at zola.com. That's z-o-l-a.com.

0:37

To get people excited about Boost Mobile's new

0:40

nationwide 5G network, we're offering unlimited talk,

0:42

text and data for $25 a month.

0:44

Forever. Even if you have a baby. Even if your

0:47

baby has a baby. Even if you grow old and

0:49

wrinkly and you start repeating yourself. Even if you start

0:51

repeating yourself. Even if you're on your deathbed and you

0:53

need to make one last call. Or text. Right. Or

0:55

text. The long lost son you abandoned at birth. You'll

0:57

still get unlimited talk, text and data for just $25 a month

0:59

with Boost Mobile. Forever. After

1:02

30 gigabytes, customers may experience slower speeds. Customers will

1:04

pay $25 a month as long as they remain

1:06

active on the Boost Unlimited plan. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds.

1:08

Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if

1:10

big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices

1:13

due to inflation. They said yes. And then

1:15

when I asked if raising prices technically violates

1:17

those onerous two-year contracts, they said, what the

1:19

f*** are you talking about, you insane Hollywood

1:22

a*****e? So to recap, we're cutting the price

1:24

of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to

1:26

just $15 a month. a month to just $15 Give

1:30

it a try at mintmobile.com/switch.

1:32

$45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees. Promote it

1:34

for new customers for a limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes

1:36

per month. Full terms at mintmobile.com. It's

1:49

the summer of 1527 in the large market town

1:51

of Basel, Switzerland, complete with newly built town hall.

1:53

It's been 10 years since Martin Luther next year.

2:00

nailed his demands to the church

2:02

door at Wittenberg, thereby kickstarting the

2:04

Reformation. But the

2:06

whiff of public melodrama and

2:08

radical, even outlandish thinking, has

2:10

hung in the air ever since, seeping

2:13

into the minds of those who live

2:15

close by. Now, in

2:18

our market square in Basel, another

2:20

equally shocking scene is about to

2:22

unfold. A famous

2:25

Swiss physician is drawing

2:27

a crowd. His

2:29

full name is Philippus Aurelius

2:31

the O Frastus Bombastus von

2:33

Hohenheim, but he goes by

2:36

Paracelsus for short. In

2:38

his hands is a huge book, an

2:41

ancient text by the great Roman

2:43

medical authority Gallon. Beside

2:45

him, a bonfire is catching

2:47

light. The crowd can

2:50

guess where this is heading. After

2:52

all, Paracelsus is well known for his

2:54

big mouth, claiming that his shoe buckle

2:57

knows more about medicine than the ancients

2:59

ever did. He

3:01

throws the great book revered by

3:03

physicians across Europe for centuries into

3:06

the fire. He

3:08

tells the crowd that he has a

3:11

new doctrine of medicine far superior

3:13

to the groundless cant of Greece

3:15

and Rome. The crowd

3:17

lean in while the charred pages

3:19

of Gallon's book float up into

3:21

the air around them. It's

3:24

simple, Paracelsus explains. We

3:27

all need to start eating more

3:29

corpses. Mummified

3:31

remains, drinking urine snot, that

3:34

sort of thing. And

3:36

as the flames reach higher and the

3:39

intrigued inhabitants of Basel draw closer, a

3:42

brave new world has begun. That

4:00

is the most unhinged opening to After Dark.

4:14

By the way, this is After Dark. I'm Anthony and she's Manny, but we'll

4:16

come back to all of that in a second. This

4:19

is Mr. Bumbastic or whoever

4:21

the hell is in there. There's big

4:23

mouths. There is

4:25

urine and eating corpses. I

4:30

even can't... We're skipping the introduction

4:32

today. We know what this is. We know who we

4:34

are. If you don't, go back and watch some of

4:36

the other episodes. Mr.

4:39

Bumbastic. I know that's not his name, by the way,

4:41

but I'm not even attempting what his actual name is.

4:44

That is iconic. But today, helping us navigate some

4:46

of this more grisly

4:49

eating corpse type thing is

4:51

the brilliant Dr. Hannah Slages.

4:54

Hannah is somebody who listens to After

4:56

Dark, so thank you for that, Hannah.

4:59

But she also did her PhD at

5:01

the University of Exeter in the History

5:03

of Medicine, where she looked at human

5:06

ingredients in 17th century remedies. Hannah, what

5:08

have you given us to talk about? And thank you for being

5:10

here, first of all. Yeah, sure.

5:13

No, I'm really excited to be

5:15

here. Yeah, so Paracelsus, insane

5:18

but wonderful, basically

5:20

said, forget Galen, forget the

5:22

Greeks, forget all these humoral

5:24

remedies that people were basically

5:26

accepting at the time and

5:28

said, nope, it's not about

5:30

that. It's about something

5:32

else. And the best way to get

5:34

those remedies for those medicinal

5:36

qualities was through eating bits

5:39

of dead people. This is all I want

5:42

to talk about for the rest of my life now. Okay,

5:44

is this some kind of theory?

5:47

Or is this actually happening now? So tell

5:49

us how real this is. It's

5:51

both. So that was part

5:54

of my PhD was we have the

5:56

theory. It's very big and splashy.

6:00

We know there's lots of stuff that happens in theory,

6:02

but then in practice it does not. So

6:05

I looked at comparing the

6:07

actual theory by, you know,

6:09

professional practicing physicians and people

6:11

who studied this to

6:13

try to also then ascertain what

6:16

can we say about use. So I looked at

6:18

publications for lay practitioners, household remedies,

6:21

that kind of a thing, and

6:23

then also manuscript collections. And I

6:26

can say about 2% of

6:28

remedies listed in these

6:30

recipe collections contain at

6:33

least one human ingredient.

6:36

So 2%, roughly,

6:39

which sounds not

6:42

that big, but then

6:44

if you actually think about it, 2% is

6:47

a big deal. You

6:49

can break, that 2% down

6:52

to each type of different human

6:54

ingredient. We have everything from

6:56

the ingredients you need to get from

6:59

a deceased person, which is the mummy.

7:01

You have skull, you

7:03

can use other bones, fat, then

7:05

all the ingredients that also could

7:08

come from a living donor. So

7:10

whether that's fluids like breast milk,

7:12

urine, kind of things that

7:15

are maybe not so nice

7:17

sounding like the snot, spittle,

7:20

feces. You

7:23

have different bloods, which could be venous

7:25

blood, it could be menstrual blood, cord

7:27

from the umbilical cord. It's a delight,

7:30

is what you're saying. Yeah, really anything.

7:32

I think it's a, you know, waste

7:35

not want not kind of approach to the human

7:37

body. So it's all

7:40

based in theory and also was

7:42

practiced. So we can see lots

7:45

of examples. And I

7:48

found myself getting quite defensive of

7:50

some of the theories and remedies during my

7:52

time, because if

7:55

you get so caught up into it, you're

7:57

like, that actually makes sense based on how

7:59

they understood the body. It makes sense. So

8:02

it's not as far

8:04

fetched as you might think just

8:06

hearing, well, people were eating mummies. But

8:09

also, yeah, people were

8:11

eating mummies and that's a bit shocking.

8:14

So let's put a bit of historical

8:16

context into this then. This is a

8:18

history that is focused mainly on the

8:21

16th and 17th centuries, right? We've got

8:23

the Renaissance happening in Europe. But

8:26

can you just flesh out a

8:28

little bit, pun intended, that world

8:30

for us and why these ideas

8:32

in particular were coming to the

8:34

fore? Yeah. So up till

8:36

now, again, medicine in the

8:39

Western world, Europe was mostly,

8:41

again, based on works of

8:43

Galen, these kind of ancient

8:45

medical practitioners, very much humoral

8:47

based and with

8:50

the Renaissance and kind

8:53

of then enlightenment, we get a bit

8:55

more travel, we get a

8:57

bit more exchange of ideas. We see

8:59

more influence of alchemy

9:01

and that sort of process, which

9:03

plays a big part in this

9:06

sort of chemical medicine, which is

9:08

part of Paracelsus

9:10

and his kind of arguments for

9:13

getting away from the humor. So

9:15

if we think about this

9:18

shift towards or away rather from

9:20

humors, that's kind of where we

9:23

get these new introduction of ideas,

9:25

focusing on something a little bit different.

9:28

And we also have, again, thinking

9:30

about the context of the printing press, along

9:33

with the Reformation, we have increased

9:36

interest in publishing and vernacular languages.

9:40

So these all contribute to kind

9:42

of the rise and spread of these ideas.

9:45

I now want to talk about Paracelsus. But

9:47

before we do, I think it's only fair

9:49

that Maddie had to cobble

9:52

together that name. So I think we should all take

9:54

a go. So I'll go first. See, Hannah,

9:57

you're going to be really good at this, but

9:59

I'm going to try it to start with. Okay,

10:01

so his name Paracelsus' real name was Philipus

10:04

Aurelius Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim.

10:06

How did I do, Hannah?

10:08

I think that's pretty good.

10:12

I think Philipus Aurelius. See,

10:17

I get it all mixed up too if I don't have it in front

10:19

of me. We do have it in front of

10:22

us, I have to say. We do have it in front of

10:24

us. Anyway, we'll call

10:26

him Paracelsus for ease. His chosen

10:28

name. There you go. So tell us

10:30

about, I can see why he

10:32

chose it. Tell us about him, what he's

10:35

doing, why he's so important in

10:37

this movement. He was

10:39

born in the 1490s

10:42

Switzerland. His parents were German.

10:46

His father, we think, was a

10:48

practicing kind of medical provider, although

10:50

hadn't necessarily been to medical school

10:53

formally. Paracelsus traveled

10:55

quite a bit. We're not

10:57

sure if he received a

10:59

bachelor's degree, but

11:01

he was working as a surgeon for the military

11:03

for quite a while. And then

11:06

we know he at least attended a

11:08

medical school somewhere in Italy.

11:11

So again, not necessarily sure if

11:13

he finished those degrees, if he

11:15

had any official award or

11:18

certification, but he was practicing

11:21

both as a surgeon and as a

11:23

physician, which was unusual at the time

11:25

because surgeons were generally considered

11:28

more of a trade or even a

11:30

craftsman, less theoretically

11:33

motivated and really

11:36

just sort of worked with their hands. But

11:38

because of this sort of

11:41

crossover, he began

11:43

to reject just this sort of

11:45

theory side of things and said,

11:47

what actual evidence

11:49

or results do we

11:52

have that anything works? Which

11:54

is fair, especially if you're working as

11:56

a surgeon, you're not going to do it unless

11:58

you have some idea. that

12:00

it will work. Norwood, I

12:03

think a patient, want you to. So

12:05

because of this and because of

12:07

his travels, he claims

12:10

then later in his writings, he was

12:12

exposed to all this sort of local

12:14

medical tradition, different ideas,

12:16

seeing the wise women and

12:18

the folk healers and their

12:21

success rates. And

12:23

he says he takes all this information from his

12:25

travels and aligns

12:29

it with his ideas and then we

12:31

get his sort of new

12:34

interpretation of medicine. So

12:36

again, with traditional Galenic

12:40

ideas, it's all about the four humors and

12:42

keeping those in balance. There's

12:44

not a real distinction between

12:46

disease and symptoms and

12:50

all sort of ailments or maladies can

12:52

be essentially

12:55

attributed to imbalance of the four humors.

12:58

So you're talking about these four humors.

13:00

What are they and how do they

13:02

dictate somebody's health? Yeah,

13:04

so we have your blood, your

13:07

black bile, your yellow bile and

13:09

your collar. They all have different

13:11

properties based in heat or coolness,

13:14

dry or moist. And everybody hates

13:16

that word, but that's how

13:18

you have to think about it. So everybody's

13:21

in balance or balance is ideal. Men tend

13:23

to be hotter and drier than women. Children

13:26

tend to be

13:28

just very, very squishy and

13:30

wet. So everybody has their

13:32

own kind of humoral balance and their

13:34

task as a human to stay in

13:37

good health is to ensure balance. So

13:40

that can be a lot of diet,

13:42

exercise, this idea of kind of moderation

13:44

overall. But

13:46

with Paracelsus, he's saying it's

13:48

not about the humors, it's

13:50

about spirits, which is

13:53

one of the key differences here.

13:55

So although spirits existed

13:57

in humoral medicine, the idea was

13:59

that if you balance the humours,

14:01

the spirits would be able to circulate throughout

14:03

the body. Paracelsus rejected

14:05

the humour side and just said,

14:08

think about the spirits. Jess. So

14:10

spirits, just to be absolutely

14:13

clear here, are we talking about

14:15

ghosts and ghouls running amok

14:18

around people's bodies? What

14:20

are they? What's going on? Yeah.

14:23

So a spirit is essentially

14:25

the link between the body

14:27

and the soul. So

14:29

there are this kind of

14:31

essence or vitality that circulates

14:33

the body, usually within

14:36

the blood. Vital spirits

14:38

are the type

14:40

of spirit that Paracelsus

14:42

most focuses on and these are produced

14:44

in the heart. So if

14:46

you think about, again, what is

14:48

a life force circulating or this

14:51

connection between the body and

14:54

the bigger universe or kind of divine

14:56

connection, that's what the spirits are. And

15:00

these are the kind of big

15:03

point in the thing, going

15:05

back to eating dead people, what

15:09

actually could cause you to improve

15:12

health or restore your vitality.

15:15

So how do we go from the

15:18

idea of humours and Paracelsus challenging that

15:20

by focusing on spirits all

15:22

the way to eating people who are deceased? What

15:24

is going on there? I mean, when

15:26

we heard in the introduction there, the scene

15:28

where he puts the books of Roman and

15:31

Greek authorities on the fire, he's

15:33

actively rejecting them and he's saying all

15:35

those centuries of knowledge, let's burn them.

15:37

I've got an idea, guys. We're going

15:39

to go and eat dead people. Surely

15:43

nobody's going to take that person

15:45

seriously. I mean, it's weird and

15:48

slightly terrifying. So how do we

15:50

get to a point where this

15:53

is creeping into actual

15:55

medical practice? So

16:00

because God made everything,

16:03

everything has some amount

16:05

of vital spirit within.

16:08

Spirits can be

16:10

transferred from thing

16:12

to thing. So if you eat

16:15

food, you're taking on the spirit and

16:18

vitality of that food. And

16:20

obviously that gives you nourishment and it can have

16:22

an effect on the body. You

16:24

might be picking vegetables, picking

16:27

fruit, even curing meat.

16:29

You can do things to

16:31

those foods to preserve

16:33

their edibility, keep them good,

16:36

especially considering things had to

16:38

be seasonal. You had to

16:40

kind of plan ahead. You

16:43

could almost do the same with a deceased

16:46

body. So much like

16:48

if you pick a tomato and your garden is

16:50

going to be, you know, so

16:52

many days or however long, depending

16:55

on how you store it, it

16:57

will stay good for a

16:59

time after you pick it from your

17:01

garden. Same with a body. So there's

17:03

a window afterwards where you can treat

17:06

the body. You can perform the

17:08

right technique or the right kind

17:10

of procedures, harness and

17:12

capture the spirits that are

17:14

left in that body. And

17:16

then you can apply them

17:19

or restore vitality in somebody

17:21

who is unwell

17:23

or injured. All that

17:25

this is proving to me is that

17:27

Hocus Pocus is factually correct because

17:30

Bette Midler is consuming

17:32

children and she wants to be

17:34

youthful. So you have now given

17:36

me the historical context for Hocus

17:39

Pocus being real. But in the

17:41

actual context of this theory,

17:44

give us an idea of how some

17:46

of these ingredients, these human ingredients, I

17:48

guess, are used. Are they ground up?

17:50

Are they mixed in with a little

17:52

bit of butter? What's the practical element

17:55

here? So Mummy

17:57

itself could be used in a number of

17:59

ways. often it's actually

18:02

applied topically. So it's kind of mashed

18:04

up with a bunch of other ingredients

18:06

that could be animal,

18:08

it could be mineral, it could be

18:10

vegetable or you know herbal as we'd

18:12

say, mixed up

18:15

and applied to you know

18:17

the skin or a wound

18:20

often. Sometimes it can also

18:22

be ingested. So depending on

18:25

again the type of mummy and how it's

18:27

prepared it might be used slightly differently. Certain

18:30

ingredients like skull

18:33

are often powdered and

18:35

again put into some sort of

18:37

liquid to drink. Certain

18:40

ingredients could be either or.

18:43

Sometimes you would just need to hold

18:46

something like skull moss or iznia

18:49

and it could you know have

18:51

the effect you would want. So

18:53

depending on the ingredient and the

18:55

type of disease or ailment you

18:57

are treating, it's going to have

18:59

different kind of directions for use.

19:02

Wait, what is skull moss? Yeah

19:05

skull moss is the moss that grows on

19:07

a skull. So I

19:10

see the clue is in the title. It

19:12

has a specific name iznia

19:15

and again this is generally

19:18

thought to be good to stop bleeding. To

19:21

be fair to them anything you kind of apply

19:23

pressure to a wound is probably going to stop

19:26

bleeding. But essentially

19:29

the moss would grow in

19:31

the right climate. Ireland was known

19:34

for providing skulls and

19:36

moss. And because

19:38

it was growing on the skull it kind of

19:41

became infused with both the properties of the

19:43

skull itself as well as the kind of

19:46

cosmological goodness

19:49

with the rays coming

19:51

down. And it was this

19:53

nice little blending of skull

19:56

and moon beams. So

19:59

yeah. This

27:19

summer Instacart presents famous summer flavors

27:21

come into your front door or

27:24

pool or hotel Your

27:26

grocery delivery has arrived sir. That was faster

27:29

than room service. No violence

27:31

in the lobby. Oh, seriously Anyway,

27:34

sit back relax and get delivery in as fast

27:36

as 30 minutes Starring your favorite

27:38

snacks drinks and more download Instacart for free

27:40

delivery on your first three orders rated H

27:42

for hungry audiences Offer valid for a

27:44

limited time minimum $10 per order excludes restaurants additional

27:46

terms and fee supply Ryan

27:49

Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the price

27:51

of just about everything going up during inflation

27:53

we thought we'd bring our prices down. So

27:56

to help us we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which

27:58

is apparently a thing... ...Mint Mobile unlimited. Premium Wireless. Get

28:00

30, 30, bitty, bitty. Get 30, bitty. Get 20, 20,

28:02

bitty. Get 20, 20, inh leave shards

28:17

out!