
American Poison
A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice
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Narrated by:
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Daniel Stone
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By:
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Daniel Stone
About this listen
From the national bestselling author of The Food Explorer comes the untold story of Alice Hamilton, a trailblazing doctor and public health activist who took on the booming auto industry—and the deadly invention of leaded gasoline, which would poison millions of people across America.
At noon on October 27, 1924, a factory worker was admitted to a hospital in New York City, suffering from hallucinations and convulsions. Before breakfast the next day, he was dead. Alice Hamilton was determined to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
By the time of the accident, Hamilton had pioneered the field of industrial medicine in the United States. She specialized in workplace safety years before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was created. She was the first female professor at Harvard. She spent decades inspecting factories and mines. But this time, she was up against a formidable new foe: America’s relentless push for progress, regardless of the cost.
The 1920s were an exciting decade. Industry was booming. Labor was flourishing. Automobiles were changing roads, cities, and nearly all parts of American life. And one day, an ambitious scientist named Thomas Midgley Jr. triumphantly found just the right chemical to ensure that this boom would continue. His discovery—tetraethyl leaded gasoline—set him up for great wealth and the sort of fame that would land his name in history books.
Soon, Hamilton would be on a collision course with Midgley, fighting full force against his invention, which poisoned the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the basic structure of our brains.
American Poison is the gripping story of Hamilton’s unsung battle for a healthy planet—and the ramifications that continue to echo today.
©2025 Daniel Stone (P)2025 Penguin AudioCritic reviews
“An enthralling biography of Alice Hamilton... captivating... Readers will be riveted.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Stone’s informative history, populated with corporate shills, lazy investigators, and upstanding scientists, serves as a cautionary—and somewhat optimistic—tale... Entertaining and eye-opening.”
—Kirkus
"American Poison is an absolutely first-rate book, in which Daniel Stone displays his impressive research and storytelling prowess to craft a compelling, accessible narrative that I didn't want to end. With haunting parallels to the story of the radium girls, this book exposes sinister corporate machinations, shocking scientific history and a horrifying lack of ethics—but also inspiring activism and individual courage, in particular by one of the radium girls' own champions, the indefatigable Alice Hamilton. I found myself quoting it out loud to anyone who would listen. Fascinating, gripping and essential reading for all."
—Kate Moore, New York Times bestselling author of The Radium Girls and The Woman They Could Not Silence
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Story
Eliot Stein has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. In Custodians of Wonder, Stein introduces listeners to a man saving the secret ingredient in Japan's 700-year-old original soy sauce recipe. In Italy, he learns how to make the world's rarest pasta from one of the only women alive who knows how to make it. And in India, he discovers a family rumored to make a mysterious metal mirror believed to reveal your truest self.
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What stood out the most to me were things I didn't realize and take for granted.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-27-25
By: Eliot Stein
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Beverly Hills Noir
- Crime, Sin, & Scandal in 90210
- By: Scott Huver
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Beverly Hills Noir chronicles an assortment of jaw-dropping true crime stories spanning the legendary city’s history, each with oh-so-90210 twists—including a high-profile murder mystery in the city’s most extravagant mansion, the daring exploits of a handsome cat burglar with movie star looks, a toxic Tinseltown love triangle that ended in gunplay, a brazen Rodeo Drive jewelry store holdup with tragically stunning finale, an Oscar nominated actress on shoplifting spree and more—complete with major roles and countless cameos by Hollywood idols and cultural icons.
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Digs deep. Maybe too deep.
- By Jenny Atkinson on 02-24-25
By: Scott Huver
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The Edge of Sentience
- Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI
- By: Jonathan Birch
- Narrated by: Graham Mack
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Can octopuses feel pain and pleasure? What about crabs, shrimps, insects, or spiders? How do we tell whether a person unresponsive after severe brain injury might be suffering? When does a fetus in the womb start to have conscious experiences? Could there even be rudimentary feelings in miniature models of the human brain, grown from human stem cells? And what about AI? These are questions about the edge of sentience, and they are subject to enormous, disorienting uncertainty. We desperately want certainty, but it is out of reach.
By: Jonathan Birch
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Storylife
- On Epic, Narrative, and Living Things
- By: Joel P. Christensen
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Combining ancient epic and myth with analogies from biology and the natural world, Joel P. Christensen explores the creative process and how narratives develop. This bold work urges listeners to treat narratives as living things with their own agency in the world.
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Scandalous Women
- The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
- By: Elizabeth Kerri Mahon
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history women have caused wars, defied the rules, and brought men to their knees. Scandalous Women tells the stories of the risk takers who have flouted convention, beaten the odds, and determined the course of world events.
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Under the Skin
- Tattoos, Scalps, and the Contested Language of Bodies in Early America (Early American Studies)
- By: Mairin Odle
- Narrated by: Lee Ann Howlett
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Under the Skin investigates the role of cross-cultural body modification in seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century North America, revealing that the practices of tattooing and scalping were crucial to interactions between Natives and newcomers. These permanent and painful marks could act as signs of alliance or signs of conflict, producing a complex bodily archive of cross-cultural entanglement. Indigenous body modification practices were adopted and transformed by colonial powers, making tattooing and scalping key forms of cultural and political contestation in early America.
By: Mairin Odle
What listeners say about American Poison
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-07-25
Entertaining and empowering
I was nervous to start American Poison because I was worried it would be very depressing. However (and thankfully), I found myself feeling empowered, informed, and entertained. Daniel Stone crafts a compelling story that primarily follows the lives of two seemingly opposite characters, Alice Hamilton and Thomas Midgley. Their lives and careers become entangled and juxtaposed, and their legacies impact every person’s life today. Highly recommend!
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- Tyler
- 03-28-25
Fascinating and exceptionally written
A friend recommended this book, and I’m so glad they did. My understanding of key facts shaping current American life feels broader now, with a journalistic storytelling that kept me hooked. I highly recommend
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