Albert Einstein's Stolen Brain: T...
AI

Albert Einstein's Stolen Brain: The Unauthorized Autopsy That Haunted Science

AI

pplpod by pplpod

Episode notes

Albert Einstein explicitly requested cremation — he wanted no monuments, no shrines, no relics. But during his autopsy, pathologist Thomas Harvey quietly removed Einstein's brain, placed it in a jar, and disappeared with it for decades. What followed was one of the strangest episodes in the history of science: a stolen organ, a ruined career, and a quest to find genius in gray matter.

This episode traces the bizarre journey of Einstein's brain from a Princeton hospital to mason jars in a cider box, through decades of dubious research, cross-country road trips, and the ethical questions that still surround the theft of a dead man's most famous organ.

  • How pathologist Thomas Harvey stole Einstein's brain against the physicist's explicit wishes
  • The decades-long odyssey of brain samples stored in jars, basements, and car trunk ... 
Read more