TL;DR: There was a time when summer did not mean freedom. It meant polio season. Parents counted the days to June, knowing a swim at the public pool could change a child’s life forever. This episode tells the story of how an ancient virus became a modern nightmare, how iron lungs kept children alive, and how scientists like Salk and Sabin helped push polio to the edge of extinction. It is also a reminder that the better vaccines work, the more invisible the diseases become and the greater our false sense of security grows. Click to listen.

Hi everyone,

There was a time when summer didn’t feel carefree. It felt dangerous. In the early 1950s, parents counted the days to June knowing polio season was coming. A swim at the public pool or a visit to a friend could change a child’s life forever.

In 1952, nearly sixty thousand Americans got polio. Thousands were paralyzed. Thousands died. Newspapers showed rows of iron lungs, each one keeping a child alive because they could no longer breathe on their own.

Polio wasn’t some distant threat. It shut down swimming pools, emptied playgrounds, and turned ordinary summer days into a source of fear.

This week’s episode tells the story of how an ancient virus became a modern nightmare, how the iron lung kept children alive, and how a massive scientific effort pushed polio to the edge of extinction.

You’ll hear how Jonas Salk’s vaccine gave families their first real hope, how Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine helped protect entire cities, and how a global movement brought us within reach of eradication.

And there is a lesson for today. The better vaccines work, the more invisible the diseases become. When we stop seeing the illness, it is easy to forget the danger. But polio didn’t disappear on its own. People fought for that victory.

If you want to understand how close we came to disaster and how close we are to ending polio forever, this episode is for you.

The greatest discoveries are often the simplest. Listen to the full episode to hear the full story of scientific grit, political chaos, and moral triumph.

Share this with a friend who needs to hear the most consequential story in human history.