Short Suck #24 - The Improbable Survival of Phineas Gage

Timesuck with Dan Cummins - A podcast by Dan Cummins - Mondays

On September 13th, 1848, a dynamite blast rocketed a 43-inch long, 13-pound iron bar completely through the skull of 25-year-old railway worker Phineas Gage. It landed some eighty feet away, covered in Phineas' blood and brains. And after a few minutes, Phineas got up, started talking, walked over to an oxcart, rode it to the hotel where he was staying, sat on the porch and waited to speak with a doctor. Not long after the doctor arrived, he vomited and more of his brain fell out of his head. And he just... kept... talking...