TERRA: The Nature of Our World

TERRA EPISODE 234: FORBIDDEN FRUIT - The Absinthe Drinker

Dec 5, 2006 Episode Archive
About this series: Going into its 7th sea­son, TERRA: The Nature of Our World is proud to bring you sto­ries from around our planet – vignettes of peo­ple, places, and all sizes and shapes of crit­ters. Through these sto­ries, we form con­nec­tions with nature, ani­mals, and our Earth, as well as other human beings. These con­nec­tions are what truly makes life on our Earth worth living. The TERRA staff remain com­mit­ted to bring­ing you the best in inde­pen­dently pro­duced sci­ence and nature pro­gram­ming from around the globe. We are proud of our archive of more than 200 unique films that high­light sto­ries and expe­ri­ences that are the heart and soul of our nat­ural world. We invite you to join us and to dis­cover the sci­ence, nature, tech­nol­ogy, and cul­ture in these sto­ries as we explore what truly con­sti­tutes life on Earth. These shows are meant for broad dis­tri­b­u­tion. We pack­age them for your iPod, iPad, and smart phone. You can email them, down­load them, and even embed them. We want these sto­ries to be heard — each month we total over 100,000 views. We encour­age you to sift through our archive and we hope you look for­ward to our upcom­ing shows. These films are the visual records of six years on our planet, and these sto­ries help to cre­ate a por­trait of our world, which at times appears very frag­ile. We live in a time where deci­sions about ever-dwindling resources, chang­ing cli­mates, and energy inse­cu­rity are shap­ing the liveli­hoods and futures of the next gen­er­a­tions. This is a time to lis­ten to sci­ence, to shun pol­i­tics, and to become engaged in cre­at­ing a sus­tain­able society. TERRA is run by grad­u­ate stu­dents in the MFA in Sci­ence and Nat­ural His­tory Film­mak­ing Pro­gram at Mon­tana State Uni­ver­sity. We are ded­i­cat­ing our time and energy to bring you this unique pro­gram­ming. We wel­come your feed­back, and we will con­tinue in our hum­ble pur­suit to deliver fresh and inspir­ing con­tent. We appre­ci­ate the hun­dreds of pro­duc­ers that have con­tributed their films for TERRA. With­out the gen­eros­ity of these film­mak­ers, none of this would be pos­si­ble. And most of all, we thank you for watch­ing. Know­ing you are out there is what keeps us going!
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About this episode
Absinthe was banned in the U.S. and many other parts of the world in the early 20th century after a faulty scientific study determined it was likely...
Absinthe was banned in the U.S. and many other parts of the world in the early 20th century after a faulty scientific study determined it was likely to provoke hallucinations, seizures, and violence. Ninety years later, absinthe has re-emerged on the international marketplace because it has been determined, by all accounts, to be safe for consumption. Why was it banned in the first place? David Cook, a retired Neurosurgeon and occasional absinthe drinker, helps unlock the neurological mysteries of ?the green fairy? and testifies about how science, ritual, and history often converge in unusual ways. The ultimate cause of the absinthe ban was political, due to the influence of winemakers and temperance advocates, not scientific. This case reveals yet another example of how ?bad science? is oftentimes utilized to manipulate public opinion. Unfortunately, this is just as true today as it was 100 years ago. Though peer-reviewed sources consistently acknowledge the problems of climate change, strategic misinformation still often wins the day with the press, the public, and our legislators. Copryright 2006, Henry Harrison Less
07:26 Learning
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