THE VIDEO SHELF · leaded gasoline history
The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History
Veritasium tells the story of Thomas Midgley Jr., who introduced leaded gasoline and CFCs, and covers the science behind lead exposure and ozone damage. It also touches on isotope geochemistry used to uncover the history.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN commenters recommend it whenever leaded fuel, toxic chemicals or corporate profit motives come up, praising its storytelling and accessible science.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Veritasium
- Topic
- leaded gasoline history
- Format
- explainer
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 6
- HN mentions in dataset
- 12
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2022–2026
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
If you want a fascinating story telling video with a lot of sciency stuff for the relative layman, here's an excellent one by Veritasium on how it happened. "The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History" [VIDEO]
belltaco on Hacker News · 2023-10
In EPA moves towards banning leaded aviation gasI don't like how "toxic forever chemicals in the bloodstream" is a normal thing Veritasium has a great YouTube video about this: "The Man Who Accidentally Killed The Most People In History"[0] [0] - [VIDEO]
wirelesspotat on Hacker News · 2022-04
In Regular blood donations can reduce “forever chemicals” in the bloodstream: study(2021) Veritasium covers the story behind lead in gasoline in [VIDEO] , it's a really interesting albeit sad video. If I recall correctly, he mentions this study in the video.
jeffxtreme on Hacker News · 2022-05
In The impact of childhood lead exposure on adult personality (2021)
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.