Brazilian Samba Dancing Nurses with Incredible Moustaches (Charlatans week) - That Was Genius Episode 43

"Doctor Doctor, give me the news, I've got a bad case of loving you": Sounds serious, try rubbing this cream made out of seeds and good energy on it.

Yes, this week we're abandoning responsible medicine, not reading the label, and diving into the world of quacks, frauds and charlatans. Tom kicks us off with a look at the history of piss prophecy, or examining people's urine to determine what's wrong with them. In reality, it's more asking someone questions whilst looking at their wee and taking a wild stab, but hey, the ancient Greeks were into it so it must be good, right?

Next up, Sam heads to Brazil for the strange story of Dr Adolf Fritz, the German surgeon who died in WW1 and now (apparently) inhabits the bodies of completely unqualified Brazilian conmen, allowing them to perform miraculous surgery on thousands of sick people. It's one of Brazil's most believed - and bizarre - urban legends.

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Welcome to That Was Genius: Two blokes. A 12-hour time difference. An immature sense of humour. And 10,000 years of human civilisation. A weekly podcast looking at the weirder side of history.

Join Sam Datta-Paulin (he likes history and lives in Britain) and Tom Berry (he also likes history but lives in New Zealand), for a weekly reflection on the bold, the brilliant... And the downright strange.

From bizarre events and stories to equally odd inventions, barely a day goes by without something incredible (or incredibly stupid) happening around the world.

We upload new episodes every Wednesday night/Thursday morning (UK time).

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That Was Genius is produced by Glorious Republic Broadcasting.