NEW – Coffee Stunts Your Growth: Where Old Wives Tales Actually Come From
The phrase old wives tale goes back to a play written in 1595. By 1611 the King James Bible was using it to dismiss the knowledge of older women. The irony is hard to miss, because the women being dismissed were often the ones carrying the most practical knowledge about health, childbirth, and community care.
Tonight runs through the greatest hits: junk food and appendicitis, gum stuck in your stomach for seven years, sitting too close to the TV, carrots fixing your eyesight. Most are false. Almost all of them are built on fear, which is what made them spread and what kept them alive long after anyone could remember where they started.
The conversation also separates old wives tales from superstitions, two categories that get lumped together but operate on completely different logic. One gives advice. The other issues a transaction: do this, and that happens to you.
Topics: old wives tales origin, folk health myths, superstitions, fear and misinformation, health advice history
Originally aired on2026-06-17
