In 1994 the story of a woman who spilled coffee on herself and became a millionaire turned into a national punchline, sitcom parody, and political talking point. Her name was Stella Liebeck, and the documented reality is entirely different from the joke. In this episode we look past the caricature to the court records and medical facts of a 79-year-old woman nearly killed by a 49-cent cup of coffee, and the corporate response that pushed the case into court.

We reconstruct the morning of February 27, 1992 in Albuquerque: the parked 1989 Ford Probe with no cup holders, the styrofoam cup wedged between her knees, and the cotton sweatpants that trapped near-boiling liquid against her skin. We cover the third-degree burns over six percent of her body, eight days in the hospital, skin grafts, and a weight loss that brought her to 83 pounds. Then ...