The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean · Sam Kean, Bleav
The Nobel Disease
October 6, 2025·18 min·1 clip
The 'Nobel disease' is the tendency of laureates to believe in ghosts, ESP, eugenics, and even credit discoveries to acid trips.
As heard by us
A brisk, skeptical look at how a Nobel can become a very expensive confidence problem.
It opens with Walter Brattain at Bell Labs, one of three scientists honored in 1956 for the first transistor, and with his uneasy fear that a Nobel Prize might damage his research life.
Why you'd press play
You want a cautionary tale about fame, prestige, and bad ideas.
Listen to the show on