31: 1803 Timeline Twist & The Pandemic That Made America

On today’s episode, Valerie’s 1803 Timeline Twist presents the first practical steamboat (sans frivolity), the wild story of the first Parisian hack writer/theater critic/food critic who escaped execution during the French Revolution thanks to his dicklist contender parents, the details surrounding London’s Whitehall Balls, and a peek inside of the Lewis and Clark expedition’s medicine chest - Rush’s Thunderbolts anyone?!?! Next, Amy Jo tells the long and winding tale of Yellow-Jack, and how it shaped America, including a brief history of Yellow Fever, Benjamin Rush’s baffling theory on the disease (the remedy was NOT Rush’s Thunderbolts), a glimpse into the terrifying outbreak in New York City in the Summer of 1803, how the Haitian Revolutionaries’ knowledge of fending off Yellow Fever allowed them to defeat the French (mosquito warfare if you will) which thwarted Napoleon’s plans for America, leading to the Louisiana Purchase. It’s all connected!