The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society · Ghoulish Delights

Episode 411: Poison

April 7, 2026·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

Dr. Ganderby tells Woody the serum he just injected into Harry Pope is 'the finest known to medical science — and it is worthless.'

1. The Mysterious Old Radio Listening Society's Episode 411 features 'Poison,' a July 28, 1950 broadcast of CBS Radio's Escape, based on Roald Dahl's short story published in Collier's magazine the same month. 2. Hosts Eric, Tim, and Joshua discuss the episode, which was requested by Patreon supporter James; the show's regular format involves playing golden-age radio drama and then analyzing whether it holds up. 3. The episode asks whether a story built on the shock of a racist character's failure to change retains moral force across three historical contexts: colonial India, 1950 America, and the present. 4. Narrator Woody introduces Harry Pope as a man who calls anyone non-American a 'gook' regardless of nationality — French, Italian, Hindu, Muslim — and explains the krait as the most venomous snake in the world, rarely more than four inches long. 5. Harry is found sweating and motionless in bed, telling Woody in a near-whisper that a krait has been lying on his stomach under the sheet for hours; he instructs Woody to remove his shoes so as not to wake it. 6. Woody attempts to cauterize a hypothetical bite with a bundle of kitchen matches, which Harry dismisses as insane, then calls Dr. Forsythe — found passed out at the country club — and must ask Harry's permission to call the Indian Dr. Ganderby instead. 7. Dr. Ganderby arrives within five minutes, described by Woody as resembling Mahatma Gandhi, and begins an elaborate, wordless protocol: removing the bed netting, administering a serum injection via tourniquet with extraordinary care. 8. On the porch, Ganderby tells Woody that the serum is 'the finest known to medical science and it is worthless,' and proposes sliding a rubber tube under the sheet to deliver chloroform to anesthetize the snake in place. 9. The chloroform delivery sequence is extended and near-silent: Ganderby inches the tube past Harry's jacket buttons and pajama cord over several minutes, pours the anesthetic drop by drop, and at one point presses a knuckle to Harry's upper lip to abort a near-sneeze. 10. When the sheet is finally raised, no snake is found anywhere on Harry's body, his legs, or under the bed; Ganderby asks whether Harry is certain he saw a snake. 11. Harry erupts, calling Ganderby a 'lousy little quack,' a 'witch doctor,' and 'foreign trash,' and threatens to beat him; Ganderby exits with 'Good night, Mr. Woods.' 12. The coda reveals Harry later died in Chicago, struck by a taxi whose driver was 'third-generation Irish — a real 100% white American'; Woody notes he doesn't know what that means. 13. Host Eric confesses near-pathological snake phobia, saying he removed his headphones and paced his room halfway through the episode and would still find the ending unsatisfying because the snake was never found. 14. Eric, Tim, and Joshua lay out three interpretive contexts: the in-story colonial Bombay setting likely predating Indian independence in 1947; 1950 American xenophobia contemporaneous with the Korean War's start; and the present. 15. Eric reveals that Roald Dahl gave mainstream media interviews explicitly stating his antisemitism — including that Jews 'often bring it on themselves' and that 'even Hitler had reasons' — something Joshua says he did not know. 16. The hosts note that James Poe's 1950 radio adaptation made Harry's racism far more explicit and front-loaded than Dahl's original story, which the hosts interpret as a deliberate moral amplification. 17. Tim argues the suspense mechanics and the racism theme are structurally inseparable: the audience's desire to save Harry is entirely mediated through sympathy for Ganderby and Woody, not Harry himself. 18. Eric adds that the rhythm of escalating failure — matches won't work, serum is useless, the snake vanishes — is 'agonizingly brilliant,' with each apparent solution raising stakes rather than relieving them. 19. The format is the podcast's standard panel discussion: hosts play the full episode before commentary; the tone is conversational, frequently funny, and willing to sit with moral complexity without resolving it. 20. Best for listeners interested in the intersection of golden-age radio craft and the social history of race in mid-century American media; not suited for those who want either pure nostalgia or fully resolved moral arguments.

As heard by us

A sharp Roald Dahl adaptation discussed with wit, unease, and period-radio grit.

Roald Dahl's dark short fiction gives the episode a hard edge, and the hosts stay close to it with curiosity and a fair amount of skepticism. They set up the story's radio roots, then let the performance carry the weight: the argument tightens, the insults get meaner, and the…

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Why you'd press play

Press play for Roald Dahl's dark 1950 Escape story, adapted for radio by James Poe and discussed as a golden-age suspense piece.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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