WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.719 Imagine it's the winter of 1924. Right. And there's 00:00:05.719 --> 00:00:08.460 this group of engineers, politicians, and prison 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:11.279 officials in Nevada. And they are trying to figure 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.380 out how to humanely execute a man named Gee John. 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:16.719 Right. They wanted to move away from the traditional 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:18.579 methods. Exactly. They want to get away from 00:00:18.579 --> 00:00:20.820 the firing squad and the gallows. So they come 00:00:20.820 --> 00:00:23.940 up with what they honestly believe is this brilliant, 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.949 highly civilized solution. They decide they're 00:00:26.949 --> 00:00:29.969 just gonna wait until he falls asleep and literally 00:00:29.969 --> 00:00:33.770 pump lethal poison gas under the door of his 00:00:33.770 --> 00:00:36.590 drafty, standard -issue prison cell. Which is 00:00:36.590 --> 00:00:38.390 just, I mean, it's mind -boggling. It really 00:00:38.390 --> 00:00:40.329 is. I mean, spoiler alert, for anyone who knows 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:42.549 literally anything about how air works, it was 00:00:42.549 --> 00:00:44.570 a complete disaster. It was essentially this 00:00:44.570 --> 00:00:47.049 grim, terribly thought -out plumbing experiment 00:00:47.049 --> 00:00:50.880 that just failed completely. Yeah. bizarre, deeply 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:53.520 misguided attempt birthed a piece of technology 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.880 that would go on to define some of the darkest 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:59.219 chapters of human history. It really is the ultimate 00:00:59.219 --> 00:01:02.380 paradox of human engineering because we naturally 00:01:02.380 --> 00:01:06.599 associate technological advancement with... the 00:01:06.599 --> 00:01:09.219 betterment of humanity. But when you look at 00:01:09.219 --> 00:01:11.359 the evolution of the gas chamber, you see how 00:01:11.359 --> 00:01:15.959 the very desire to be humane and civilized can 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:18.340 seamlessly pave the way for the most industrialized 00:01:18.340 --> 00:01:20.959 forms of cruelty. And that is exactly our mission 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:23.060 for this Deep Dives. Today, we are looking at 00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:25.599 a really extensive stack of historical and technical 00:01:25.599 --> 00:01:28.180 sources detailing the complete evolution of the 00:01:28.180 --> 00:01:30.900 gas chamber. We're going to trace this apparatus 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:34.040 from that botched 1920s criminal justice experiment 00:01:34.040 --> 00:01:37.319 in the United States. follow its horrific weaponization 00:01:37.319 --> 00:01:39.879 into an instrument of mass murder in Nazi Germany, 00:01:40.260 --> 00:01:42.739 and then track its incredibly heavily debated 00:01:42.739 --> 00:01:45.019 applications right up to today. Yeah, both in 00:01:45.019 --> 00:01:48.260 modern human executions and, surprisingly, in 00:01:48.260 --> 00:01:50.599 everyday industrial agriculture. Right. I think 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:52.120 we have to acknowledge right up front that this 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:54.700 is an undeniably heavy topic for you to dive 00:01:54.700 --> 00:01:57.200 into with us today, but it's an essential one. 00:01:57.340 --> 00:01:59.780 Because if we want to understand how our modern 00:01:59.780 --> 00:02:02.760 society operates, we really have to look at how 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:05.579 we attempt to ingenuity solutions to the grim 00:02:05.579 --> 00:02:08.699 realities of death. We have to look at the mechanics 00:02:08.699 --> 00:02:11.139 of these machines to understand how easily those 00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:14.520 technologies can be profoundly corrupted. OK, 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:16.319 let's unpack this by going back to that first 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:19.060 attempt in Nevada, because the origins really 00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:21.500 are almost absurd. They really are. The first 00:02:21.500 --> 00:02:24.599 proposal for a gas chamber in America came from 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:27.840 a toxicologist named Alan McLean Hamilton. and 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:30.800 the overarching goal was to sanitize the execution 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:33.080 process. Right, they wanted a method that didn't 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:35.219 physically mangle the body. Yeah, and didn't 00:02:35.219 --> 00:02:38.620 traumatize the witnesses. So February 8th, 1924, 00:02:39.020 --> 00:02:41.879 they attempt this execution on Gijon. But like 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:43.379 I mentioned, they didn't even build a chamber 00:02:43.379 --> 00:02:45.099 at first. They just tried to pump it into his 00:02:45.099 --> 00:02:47.599 regular cell. Which, from a purely scientific 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:49.900 standpoint, shows a profound misunderstanding 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:53.080 of fluted dynamics and, well, just how gases 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:55.680 behave in an unsealed environment. Right. I mean, 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:57.539 it's like trying to fill a colander with water. 00:02:58.099 --> 00:03:00.919 You cannot just pump a lethal, lighter -than 00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:04.560 -air gas into a standard room with drafty windows, 00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:07.280 brick walls, gaps under the door, and expect 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:10.330 it to, you know... stay contained to lethal levels. 00:03:10.610 --> 00:03:12.930 No, of course not. The gas just dissipated right 00:03:12.930 --> 00:03:15.870 into the Nevada night air. And when that inevitably 00:03:15.870 --> 00:03:18.889 failed, the officials were forced to scramble 00:03:18.889 --> 00:03:23.009 and build a specifically sealed makeshift chamber 00:03:23.009 --> 00:03:26.009 just to carry out that single sentence. What's 00:03:26.009 --> 00:03:28.550 fascinating here is the psychological shift that 00:03:28.550 --> 00:03:31.069 was taking place. The state wasn't necessarily 00:03:31.069 --> 00:03:33.189 trying to make the death physically painless 00:03:33.189 --> 00:03:35.210 for the condemned man. Okay, so what were they 00:03:35.210 --> 00:03:37.310 trying to do? What they were desperately seeking 00:03:37.310 --> 00:03:39.610 was a method that felt clinical. They wanted 00:03:39.610 --> 00:03:41.789 to separate the executioner from the visceral, 00:03:41.949 --> 00:03:45.030 bloody reality of taking a life. By using a gas, 00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:47.030 the executioner just throws a switch or turns 00:03:47.030 --> 00:03:49.250 a valve from a completely different room. Wow, 00:03:49.250 --> 00:03:51.110 so it's about distancing themselves. Exactly. 00:03:51.189 --> 00:03:53.810 The chemical reaction does the actual killing. 00:03:53.949 --> 00:03:56.430 It totally rem - moves the human agency from 00:03:56.430 --> 00:03:58.610 the act of violence. And reading through these 00:03:58.610 --> 00:04:01.030 historical accounts, it wasn't just an American 00:04:01.030 --> 00:04:05.509 fixation either. Like in 1937, Lithuania adopted 00:04:05.509 --> 00:04:08.490 the gas chamber at the Kaunas fortress. Oh, right. 00:04:08.889 --> 00:04:10.969 Yeah, they explicitly moved away from hanging 00:04:10.969 --> 00:04:13.469 and shooting because gas was viewed by their 00:04:13.469 --> 00:04:17.550 politicians as more civilized. Now their engineering 00:04:17.550 --> 00:04:19.970 was slightly different. They built a dedicated 00:04:19.970 --> 00:04:22.889 brick chamber and pumped in compressed lethal 00:04:22.889 --> 00:04:25.610 gas from an external storage cylinder, unlike 00:04:25.610 --> 00:04:28.189 the chemical reaction the Americans used. But 00:04:28.189 --> 00:04:30.870 the core mindset was identical. It was this. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:33.920 desperate desire for clinical detachment. And 00:04:33.920 --> 00:04:36.079 if we connect this to the bigger picture, that 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:38.399 specific desire for detachment is exactly what 00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:40.360 paved the way for the apparatus to be staled 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:43.019 up. How so? Well, when a government successfully 00:04:43.019 --> 00:04:45.060 removes the human element from the act of killing, 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:47.800 when they manage to turn execution into a mere 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:50.000 logistical process of containment, airflow and 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:52.420 ventilation, they completely open the door to 00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:55.040 mass atrocities. Which brings us to the darkest 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.300 chapter. And I really want to understand the 00:04:57.300 --> 00:05:00.199 mechanics of this escalation, because how does 00:05:00.199 --> 00:05:04.300 a state justify moving from the execution of 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:07.089 individual convicted criminals. as misguided 00:05:07.089 --> 00:05:10.050 as it was, to the kind of massive industrialized 00:05:10.050 --> 00:05:12.329 engineering we saw during the Holocaust. Like, 00:05:12.329 --> 00:05:14.430 how does that leap actually happen on a logistical 00:05:14.430 --> 00:05:16.930 level? It happens through the cold, calculated 00:05:16.930 --> 00:05:19.829 logic of engineering problem solving, completely 00:05:19.829 --> 00:05:22.730 divorced from morality. Under totalitarian regimes, 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:25.470 the goal shifts from justice to efficiency. Right. 00:05:25.610 --> 00:05:28.410 In Nazi Germany, the shift began in 1939 with 00:05:28.410 --> 00:05:32.089 a program called Action T4. This was an involuntary 00:05:32.089 --> 00:05:34.230 euthanasia program where they murdered people 00:05:34.230 --> 00:05:36.410 with physical and intellectual... actual disabilities, 00:05:36.970 --> 00:05:38.930 people the state just deemed a burden. And they 00:05:38.930 --> 00:05:40.910 started with carbon monoxide, right? Yes. They 00:05:40.910 --> 00:05:43.310 started by simply piping bottled pure carbon 00:05:43.310 --> 00:05:46.230 monoxide into improvised sealed rooms. But bottling 00:05:46.230 --> 00:05:49.970 pure carbon monoxide is expensive and really 00:05:49.970 --> 00:05:51.750 difficult to transport in massive quantities. 00:05:52.449 --> 00:05:54.029 So the concept goes mobile. I was reading about 00:05:54.029 --> 00:05:57.230 the Soviet NKVD in the late 1930s who faced a 00:05:57.230 --> 00:06:00.279 similar, quote unquote, logistical problem. Exactly. 00:06:01.060 --> 00:06:03.819 Under a Soviet officer named Izai Berg at Bitov, 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:06.300 they were executing so many political prisoners 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:09.060 by firing squad that the traditional methods 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:11.300 were becoming logistically impossible. They just 00:06:11.300 --> 00:06:13.040 couldn't keep up. Right. They were running out 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:15.620 of time and ammunition. So Berg's team modified 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:18.220 bread trucks. They rerouted the exhaust pipe 00:06:18.220 --> 00:06:20.459 directly into the sealed back compartment where 00:06:20.459 --> 00:06:22.740 the prisoners were held, basically utilizing 00:06:22.740 --> 00:06:25.300 the carbon monoxide from the engine. They called 00:06:25.300 --> 00:06:28.800 them Dushyagubki or soul takers. The justification 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:33.220 is just staggering to me. He claimed there was 00:06:33.220 --> 00:06:36.279 no other way to execute so many people, and that 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:38.439 it was a precautionary method to prevent the 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:40.519 prisoners from rioting on the way to the execution 00:06:40.519 --> 00:06:43.720 site. Yeah, totally. They'd create this entirely 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:46.199 fabricated quota of death, and then complain 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:48.060 about the logistics of meeting it. Precisely. 00:06:48.180 --> 00:06:51.680 And that exact same mobile gas van concept was 00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:54.319 mirrored later by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen during 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:57.329 the invasion of the Soviet Union. But the vans 00:06:57.329 --> 00:07:00.329 had major engineering flaws from the perspective 00:07:00.329 --> 00:07:02.709 of the architects of the Holocaust. What kind 00:07:02.709 --> 00:07:05.069 of flaws? Well, they broke down frequently. The 00:07:05.069 --> 00:07:07.050 exhaust output varied based on the weather and 00:07:07.050 --> 00:07:09.689 the engine. And the process of unloading them 00:07:09.689 --> 00:07:12.529 was deeply traumatic for the soldiers. The mobile 00:07:12.529 --> 00:07:15.089 vans just weren't efficient enough for them. 00:07:15.170 --> 00:07:18.649 So they iterate. They moved to stationary extermination 00:07:18.649 --> 00:07:22.149 camps, the Operation Reinhardt camps. Belgec, 00:07:22.389 --> 00:07:24.990 Spobabor, and Treblinka. Right. And to solve 00:07:24.990 --> 00:07:27.709 the unreliability of the trucks, they used massive 00:07:27.709 --> 00:07:30.189 stationary diesel engines ripped from captured 00:07:30.189 --> 00:07:32.990 tanks or submarines, piping the exhaust fumes 00:07:32.990 --> 00:07:35.410 into large brick chambers. But even that was 00:07:35.410 --> 00:07:38.029 eventually deemed too cumbersome. The massive 00:07:38.029 --> 00:07:40.709 engines required fuel. They required constant 00:07:40.709 --> 00:07:43.250 maintenance. The chilling culmination of this 00:07:43.250 --> 00:07:45.269 engineering process happened at Auschwitz and 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:48.160 Majdanek. They abandoned carbon monoxide entirely 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.759 in favor of a commercial fumigant called Zyklon 00:07:50.759 --> 00:07:53.879 B. Explain how Zyklon B actually changed the 00:07:53.879 --> 00:07:55.579 mechanics of this, because it wasn't an engine 00:07:55.579 --> 00:07:58.180 exhaust at all, was it? No, not at all. Zyklon 00:07:58.180 --> 00:08:01.060 B is a hydrogen cyanide -based pesticide. It 00:08:01.060 --> 00:08:03.600 came in these small, highly transportable canisters 00:08:03.600 --> 00:08:06.379 filled with porous pellets. The horrific genius 00:08:06.379 --> 00:08:08.399 of it, from a purely engineering standpoint, 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:11.800 is that hydrogen cyanide vaporizes into a lethal 00:08:11.800 --> 00:08:14.259 gas at just about 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Which 00:08:14.259 --> 00:08:16.639 is roughly room temperature. Exactly. So they 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:18.860 didn't need heavy engines, exhaust pipes, or 00:08:18.860 --> 00:08:22.339 complex plumbing. simply drop the pellets through 00:08:22.339 --> 00:08:24.839 vents in the roof of the chamber, and the body 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:27.300 heat of the terrified victims packed inside would 00:08:27.300 --> 00:08:29.819 raise the ambient temperature enough to vaporize 00:08:29.819 --> 00:08:32.759 the poison? Just to pause here for a second, 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:34.700 because the scale we're talking about now is 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:37.639 almost impossible to comprehend. By streamlining 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:40.200 the technology down to a simple pellet drop from 00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.279 the roof, they were able to murder up to 6 ,000 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:45.860 victims in a single day. Yeah. It completely 00:08:45.860 --> 00:08:48.379 strips away the initial humane intent of the 00:08:48.379 --> 00:08:51.620 1920s and shows how quickly clinical detachment 00:08:51.620 --> 00:08:54.399 becomes a weapon of mass extermination. The scale 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:56.860 is horrific. And you would hope that after 1945, 00:08:57.100 --> 00:08:59.399 the world universally agreed to dismantle this 00:08:59.399 --> 00:09:01.879 kind of technology. But the historical records 00:09:01.879 --> 00:09:05.059 point to chilling modern allegations that the 00:09:05.059 --> 00:09:07.320 twisted science of the gas chamber didn't end 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:09.460 with the fall of the Third Reich. You're talking 00:09:09.460 --> 00:09:10.919 about the reports coming out of North Korea. 00:09:11.159 --> 00:09:14.279 Yes. We have very disturbing allegations from 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:17.220 North Korean escapees, including a man named 00:09:17.220 --> 00:09:19.679 Kwon Hyuk, who was a former head of security 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:22.340 at Camp 22. What did he describe? He described 00:09:22.340 --> 00:09:24.720 underground laboratories equipped with glass 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:27.559 -observed gas chambers. He alleged that whole 00:09:27.559 --> 00:09:30.379 families, parents, and children were placed inside 00:09:30.379 --> 00:09:33.740 and used as subjects for suffocation gas experiments. 00:09:34.059 --> 00:09:36.879 Oh, my God. Scientists literally observed from 00:09:36.879 --> 00:09:40.059 above, taking clinical notes while parents desperately 00:09:40.059 --> 00:09:42.470 tried to give their children to mouth resuscitation 00:09:42.470 --> 00:09:45.190 as the gas filled the room. It's the ultimate 00:09:45.190 --> 00:09:47.929 corruption of science. To use the very tools 00:09:47.929 --> 00:09:51.090 of observation and chemistry to inflict and study 00:09:51.090 --> 00:09:53.230 maximum cruelty. It really is. But I want to 00:09:53.230 --> 00:09:55.409 pivot back to the American justice system. To 00:09:55.409 --> 00:09:57.509 understand the actual mechanics of this machine 00:09:57.509 --> 00:10:00.590 in a modern legal context. Because for decades, 00:10:00.730 --> 00:10:02.730 the US maintained this persistent illusion that 00:10:02.730 --> 00:10:05.450 the gas chamber was a clean, peaceful, and highly 00:10:05.450 --> 00:10:08.110 controlled way to execute someone. Right. But 00:10:08.110 --> 00:10:10.559 looking at the actual procedure, the reality 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:13.259 was incredibly dangerous and messy. Without a 00:10:13.259 --> 00:10:16.059 doubt, the hydrogen cyanide gas chamber is widely 00:10:16.059 --> 00:10:18.759 considered by penal experts to be the most dangerous, 00:10:19.059 --> 00:10:22.019 most complicated, and most expensive method of 00:10:22.019 --> 00:10:24.379 administering the death penalty ever devised. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:26.700 I'm looking at these schematics for the mid -century 00:10:26.700 --> 00:10:29.980 American chambers, and it looks insanely complicated 00:10:29.980 --> 00:10:33.730 compared to, like, a simple firing squad, or 00:10:33.730 --> 00:10:36.429 even the electric chair. I don't understand how 00:10:36.429 --> 00:10:39.250 they actually trigger the lethal reaction without 00:10:39.250 --> 00:10:42.190 exposing the executioner or the witnesses. Walk 00:10:42.190 --> 00:10:44.090 us through the actual plumbing. How does it work? 00:10:44.490 --> 00:10:47.149 It relies on a very precise isolated chemical 00:10:47.149 --> 00:10:49.570 reaction. The condemned person is strapped into 00:10:49.570 --> 00:10:52.370 a specialized chair inside a heavy airtight steel 00:10:52.370 --> 00:10:54.879 and glass chamber. Directly beneath that chair 00:10:54.879 --> 00:10:57.379 is a specialized receptacle filled with a bath 00:10:57.379 --> 00:10:59.759 of distilled water and sulfuric acid. OK, so 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:02.200 acid under the chair. Right. Now, the executioner 00:11:02.200 --> 00:11:04.779 is stationed in a completely separate room. They 00:11:04.779 --> 00:11:07.399 activate a mechanical lever or a pulley system, 00:11:07.559 --> 00:11:10.120 which drops a cheesecloth bag containing pellets 00:11:10.120 --> 00:11:12.700 of either potassium cyanide or sodium cyanide 00:11:12.700 --> 00:11:14.899 directly into that acid bath below the chair. 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.879 That causes the gas. Exactly. The instant the 00:11:17.879 --> 00:11:20.879 cyanide hits the sulfuric acid, a violent chemical 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:23.629 reaction generates lethal hydrogen in cyanide 00:11:23.629 --> 00:11:26.549 gas, or HCN, which rises up into the chamber. 00:11:27.129 --> 00:11:29.529 Here's where it gets really interesting, structurally 00:11:29.529 --> 00:11:31.990 speaking. It's like turning over an hourglass. 00:11:32.009 --> 00:11:35.049 Yes. Once those pellets drop into the acid, gravity 00:11:35.049 --> 00:11:37.590 takes over, and the physics are locked in. Yes. 00:11:37.610 --> 00:11:40.129 You cannot unmix the chemicals. There's no pause 00:11:40.129 --> 00:11:42.029 button, no antidote. You can pump in quickly. 00:11:42.460 --> 00:11:45.440 Which had tragic legal consequences, right? Absolutely. 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:47.860 Because the chemical reaction is impossible to 00:11:47.860 --> 00:11:50.259 halt once the lever is pulled, last -minute stays 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:52.740 of execution became literally impossible to carry 00:11:52.740 --> 00:11:55.259 out. That actually happened, didn't it? It did. 00:11:55.639 --> 00:11:57.600 This happened tragically in the executions of 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:00.620 Burton Abbott in California in 1957 and Carol 00:12:00.620 --> 00:12:03.990 Chessman in 1960. The governor's phone call or 00:12:03.990 --> 00:12:06.070 the legal reprieve came through to the warden's 00:12:06.070 --> 00:12:08.090 desk, but the lever had already been pulled. 00:12:08.330 --> 00:12:11.529 Wow. The pellets had dropped into the acid. The 00:12:11.529 --> 00:12:13.350 chemical reaction was already filling the room 00:12:13.350 --> 00:12:16.309 with lethal gas. It was finalized. And the aftermath 00:12:16.309 --> 00:12:19.669 of the execution is a whole other layer of logistical 00:12:19.669 --> 00:12:22.429 danger. You can't just open the heavy steel door 00:12:22.429 --> 00:12:24.350 and carry the person out once they passed away. 00:12:24.730 --> 00:12:27.789 No. The extraction process is extremely hazardous. 00:12:28.139 --> 00:12:31.019 First, the entire chamber has to be mechanically 00:12:31.019 --> 00:12:33.940 purged with exhaust fans, venting the lethal 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:36.960 gas up a very tall pipe into the outside atmosphere. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:40.600 Then, the residual lethal gas inside the chamber 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:43.240 has to be chemically neutralized. They do this 00:12:43.240 --> 00:12:46.000 by pumping in anhydrous ammonia. And anhydrous 00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:48.720 just means without water, right? I use that specific 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:51.879 chemical. Because pure ammonia gas chemically 00:12:51.879 --> 00:12:54.360 binds with the hydrogen cyanide molecules, rendering 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:57.940 them largely inert. But even after all that venting 00:12:57.940 --> 00:13:01.000 and neutralizing, the guards tasked with removing 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:03.720 the body have to wear specialized hazmat suits 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:06.220 and oxygen tanks. Really? Even after neutralizing 00:13:06.220 --> 00:13:08.500 it? Yes, because they have to exercise extreme 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:10.899 caution and literally ruffle the victims' hair 00:13:10.899 --> 00:13:13.299 and clothes because deadly pockets of hydrogen 00:13:13.299 --> 00:13:15.379 cyanide gas can remain trapped in the fabric. 00:13:15.779 --> 00:13:18.059 A single deep breath of that could be lethal 00:13:18.059 --> 00:13:21.009 to the guard. Okay, so that's the danger to the 00:13:21.009 --> 00:13:24.029 staff. But what about the experience of the condemned? 00:13:24.970 --> 00:13:27.429 Because for decades, wardens would tell the prisoners 00:13:27.429 --> 00:13:29.549 to take several deep breaths as soon as they 00:13:29.549 --> 00:13:31.929 smelled the gas, which smells like bitter almonds, 00:13:32.090 --> 00:13:34.570 right? Right. They'd claim it would speed up 00:13:34.570 --> 00:13:36.690 unconsciousness and put them peacefully to sleep. 00:13:37.629 --> 00:13:40.769 But the physical reaction is anything but peaceful. 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:43.980 The physiological reality completely contradicts 00:13:43.980 --> 00:13:46.759 the clinical goal of a peaceful death. Hydrogen 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:49.200 cyanide doesn't just put you to sleep, it attacks 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:52.220 the body on a cellular level. It binds to the 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:55.000 mitochondria in your cells, preventing them from 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:57.200 using the oxygen that is actually circulating 00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.299 in your blood. So you're suffocating even though 00:13:59.299 --> 00:14:01.879 you're breathing? Exactly. You essentially suffocate 00:14:01.879 --> 00:14:03.960 from the inside out even while your lungs are 00:14:03.960 --> 00:14:06.940 pumping. This causes severe violent physical 00:14:06.940 --> 00:14:09.840 reactions. We are talking about intense convulsions, 00:14:10.179 --> 00:14:12.299 heavy drooling, violent vomiting, and complete 00:14:12.299 --> 00:14:15.039 loss of bodily control. The prisoner is visibly 00:14:15.039 --> 00:14:17.179 agonizing, fighting for air that their cells 00:14:17.179 --> 00:14:20.340 literally cannot use. Which is exactly what eventually 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:22.440 shattered the public illusion of the civilized 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:25.740 gas chamber. I mean, the historical records detail 00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:29.220 some highly publicized, horribly botched executions 00:14:29.220 --> 00:14:32.639 that changed everything. Very much so. Like in 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:36.139 1983 in Mississippi, a man named Jimmy Lee Gray 00:14:36.139 --> 00:14:39.240 gasped for air and violently banged his head 00:14:39.240 --> 00:14:41.639 against a steel pole for eight straight minutes 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:44.259 while horrified officials had to actually clear 00:14:44.259 --> 00:14:46.659 the viewing room of witnesses. It was incredibly 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:50.659 grim. And in 1992 in Arizona, Donald Eugene Harding's 00:14:50.659 --> 00:14:54.159 execution took 11 agonizing minutes. It was so 00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:56.360 visually traumatic that the prison warden publicly 00:14:56.360 --> 00:14:58.919 threatened to quit his job if the state ever 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.159 forced him to conduct another one. Deniable visual 00:15:02.159 --> 00:15:04.259 realities are what ultimately forced the legal 00:15:04.259 --> 00:15:06.980 system to act. Following the execution of Robert 00:15:06.980 --> 00:15:09.519 Alton Harris in California, a federal court ruled 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.399 in 1996 that the state's lethal gas protocol 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:15.679 was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual, specifically 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:17.399 because of the visible suffering. So that was 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:19.480 the end of it. That ruling essentially ended 00:15:19.480 --> 00:15:22.159 the era of hydrogen cyanide executions in America. 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:25.240 The last person executed this way was a German 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:28.879 national named Walter LeGrand in Arizona in 1999. 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:32.220 So the legal and scientific search for a better, 00:15:32.360 --> 00:15:34.960 less visually disturbing gas continued right 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:38.159 into the 21st century. Because if hydrogen cyanide 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.940 is visibly torturous, states still wanted a method 00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:43.480 that at least looked peaceful. And that brings 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:47.019 us to the modern pivot, which is inert gas asphyxiation. 00:15:47.159 --> 00:15:50.399 Specifically, excluding oxygen by using pure 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:53.360 nitrogen gas. Right. We actually just saw Alabama 00:15:53.360 --> 00:15:55.759 use this exact method on a man named Kenneth 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:59.980 Eugene Smith on January 25, 2024. Yes. And Oklahoma 00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:02.340 tried for years to design a workable nitrogen 00:16:02.340 --> 00:16:04.899 protocol before temporarily abandoning it. But 00:16:04.899 --> 00:16:07.159 the concept of nitrogen hypoxia is currently 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:09.639 gaining massive legal traction across several 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:12.320 states as the primary alternative to legal injection, 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.059 which obviously has its own supply chain and 00:16:15.059 --> 00:16:17.480 botched execution issues. But physiologically, 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:20.220 I need you to clarify this for me. Why is nitrogen 00:16:20.220 --> 00:16:22.320 considered fundamentally different by these states? 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.600 Why do they argue it's better than cyanide or 00:16:24.600 --> 00:16:26.779 carbon dioxide? If we connect this to the bigger 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:29.720 picture of human biology, there is a fascinating 00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:32.519 fundamental loophole in how our bodies detect 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:35.159 suffocation. When you hold your breath right 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:37.799 now, that burning, panicky feeling you get in 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:40.679 your chest isn't actually your body detecting 00:16:40.679 --> 00:16:44.100 a lack of oxygen. Wait, really? Really. Humans 00:16:44.100 --> 00:16:46.419 don't have biological sensors for low oxygen. 00:16:47.039 --> 00:16:49.440 That panic is actually your body detecting a 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:52.220 dangerous buildup of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream. 00:16:52.659 --> 00:16:56.230 It's called hypercapnia. Your brain senses the 00:16:56.230 --> 00:16:59.230 CO2 rising and triggers the panic response to 00:16:59.230 --> 00:17:01.509 force you to breathe. Oh, wow. Okay, so how does 00:17:01.509 --> 00:17:03.870 nitrogen bypass that? Well, nitrogen is an inert 00:17:03.870 --> 00:17:07.329 gas that already makes up about 78 % of the ambient 00:17:07.329 --> 00:17:09.630 air we normally breathe every day. If you are 00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:11.970 placed in a sealed mask or an environment pumping 00:17:11.970 --> 00:17:14.609 pure nitrogen, you continue to exhale carbon 00:17:14.609 --> 00:17:17.210 dioxide normally. So the CO2 escapes. Right. 00:17:17.369 --> 00:17:19.349 Your lungs are still working, moving gas in and 00:17:19.349 --> 00:17:21.970 out, so your CO2 levels never spike. Because 00:17:21.970 --> 00:17:24.150 the CO2 isn't building up, your brain's alarm 00:17:24.150 --> 00:17:27.089 system never goes off. But crucially, you aren't 00:17:27.089 --> 00:17:30.690 taking in any new oxygen. That is wild. Theoretically, 00:17:30.849 --> 00:17:33.450 the victim detects very little abnormal sensation 00:17:33.450 --> 00:17:36.450 as the oxygen level in their blood quietly falls. 00:17:37.150 --> 00:17:40.069 They simply slip into unconsciousness and succumb 00:17:40.069 --> 00:17:43.210 to hypoxia without the traumatic, painful feeling 00:17:43.210 --> 00:17:46.299 of suffocation. That is a staggering biological 00:17:46.299 --> 00:17:48.880 loophole. It's literally tricking the body's 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:51.160 alarm system into staying quiet while the body 00:17:51.160 --> 00:17:54.460 dies. But, you know, while human executions using 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:56.940 gas are incredibly rare and highly publicized 00:17:56.940 --> 00:18:00.400 events, the exact same concepts using gas to 00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:03.039 engineer death at scale are used every single 00:18:03.039 --> 00:18:04.900 day in a completely different sector. Absolutely. 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:06.640 One that most people listening to this have probably 00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:08.240 never even thought about. We are talking about 00:18:08.240 --> 00:18:10.660 industrial agriculture. The sheer scale of this 00:18:10.660 --> 00:18:13.559 is mind bending. According to the data in 2024, 00:18:13.549 --> 00:18:16.829 In England and Wales alone, 90 % of pigs killed 00:18:16.829 --> 00:18:19.829 in slaughterhouses and 77 % of broiler chickens 00:18:19.829 --> 00:18:22.190 were stunned or killed using mass gas chambers. 00:18:22.390 --> 00:18:24.509 It has become the global industry standard because 00:18:24.509 --> 00:18:27.589 it solves a massive logistical problem. Handling 00:18:27.589 --> 00:18:30.450 hundreds of thousands of live terrified animals 00:18:30.450 --> 00:18:33.529 individually is dangerous, it's expensive, and 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:36.029 it's highly stressful for both the animals and 00:18:36.029 --> 00:18:39.069 the slaughterhouse workers. Gas allows the facility 00:18:39.069 --> 00:18:41.690 to process massive groups of animals efficiently 00:18:41.690 --> 00:18:44.400 without human ever having to manually wrestle 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:46.319 a live animal. Let's talk about the mechanics 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:48.200 for pigs because the engineering here is something 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:51.220 straight out of a dystopian sci -fi movie. It's 00:18:51.220 --> 00:18:54.619 a mechanism called the Patternoster system. Slaughterhouses 00:18:54.619 --> 00:18:57.440 build a deep concrete pit, usually four to eight 00:18:57.440 --> 00:18:59.559 meters straight down, and they fill the bottom 00:18:59.559 --> 00:19:02.000 of it with a high concentration of carbon dioxide 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.940 gas. Right. Now, because CO2 is significantly 00:19:04.940 --> 00:19:07.220 heavier than the ambient air, it doesn't float 00:19:07.220 --> 00:19:09.369 away. It just sits in the bottom of this pit. 00:19:09.569 --> 00:19:12.329 So imagine an invisible, incredibly heavy pool 00:19:12.329 --> 00:19:14.309 of water. That's the perfect analogy. The heavy 00:19:14.309 --> 00:19:16.390 gas settles and behaves exactly like a fluid. 00:19:16.869 --> 00:19:19.369 Right. And the pigs are loaded into these open 00:19:19.369 --> 00:19:22.230 -air metal gondolas at the top of the pit. The 00:19:22.230 --> 00:19:25.170 gondola descends down into the pit on a conveyor, 00:19:25.349 --> 00:19:27.609 literally dipping. the live animals into this 00:19:27.609 --> 00:19:30.990 invisible pool of CO2. They stay submerged in 00:19:30.990 --> 00:19:32.990 the high concentration gas at the bottom for 00:19:32.990 --> 00:19:35.349 a set amount of time, and then the gondola slowly 00:19:35.349 --> 00:19:38.569 ascends back up the other side. By the time they 00:19:38.569 --> 00:19:40.869 reach the top, the pigs are deeply stunned or 00:19:40.869 --> 00:19:43.410 completely dead and they are mechanically unloaded 00:19:43.410 --> 00:19:45.940 for processing. And the poultry industry uses 00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:48.359 a similar concept called controlled atmosphere 00:19:48.359 --> 00:19:52.160 stunning or CAS. These are massive sealed tunnels 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.799 or closed cabinets where the birds are exposed 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:58.000 to increasing concentrations of CO2 while they 00:19:58.000 --> 00:19:59.740 are still sitting in their plastic transport 00:19:59.740 --> 00:20:02.599 crates. So nobody handles them. Exactly. It completely 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:05.119 eliminates the need for human workers to handle 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:07.880 the live panicking birds, speeding up the processing 00:20:07.880 --> 00:20:10.079 line immensely. But wait, I have to push back 00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:12.460 on the welfare aspect of this because earlier 00:20:12.460 --> 00:20:15.269 you just explained that Humans panic intensely 00:20:15.269 --> 00:20:17.369 when carbon dioxide builds up in their blood. 00:20:17.809 --> 00:20:21.009 The burning chest, the hypercapnia. Well, biologically, 00:20:21.269 --> 00:20:23.690 pigs are very similar to humans. Don't they react 00:20:23.690 --> 00:20:26.150 the exact same way to being dipped into a pool 00:20:26.150 --> 00:20:28.670 of high concentration CO2? They absolutely do. 00:20:28.730 --> 00:20:31.150 This raises an important question about the ongoing 00:20:31.150 --> 00:20:33.690 tension between industrial efficiency and animal 00:20:33.690 --> 00:20:37.349 suffering. High concentration CO2 is highly aversive 00:20:37.349 --> 00:20:40.069 to mammals. It is genuinely painful. How so? 00:20:40.309 --> 00:20:42.569 When it mixes with the moisture in the animal's 00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:46.289 eyes, mouth, and airways, it forms a mild carbonic 00:20:46.289 --> 00:20:48.930 acid, causing severe irritation and burning to 00:20:48.930 --> 00:20:51.329 the mucous membranes. And under clinical test 00:20:51.329 --> 00:20:53.849 conditions, it takes an average of 47 to 60 seconds 00:20:53.849 --> 00:20:55.930 for the pigs to actually lose consciousness in 00:20:55.930 --> 00:20:59.529 that pit. Wow. So a full minute. Yes. That is 00:20:59.529 --> 00:21:01.950 a full minute of violent gasping, vocalization, 00:21:02.049 --> 00:21:04.990 and active panicked attempts to escape. The European 00:21:04.990 --> 00:21:07.470 Food Safety Authority has explicitly stated and 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:09.990 published that this is absolutely not optimal 00:21:09.990 --> 00:21:12.630 for animal welfare. So if everyone knows it causes 00:21:12.630 --> 00:21:15.730 pain, why on earth do they use it? Why not use 00:21:15.730 --> 00:21:17.769 an inert gas like the nitrogen we talked about 00:21:17.769 --> 00:21:20.869 earlier or argon? I was reading that argon gas 00:21:20.869 --> 00:21:23.309 has been tested extensively and because it's 00:21:23.309 --> 00:21:26.319 inert, it works just like nitrogen. It strongly 00:21:26.319 --> 00:21:28.700 reduces the animal's panic and aversion because 00:21:28.700 --> 00:21:31.099 it doesn't trigger that CO2 alarm system. It 00:21:31.099 --> 00:21:33.900 all comes down to the brutal, inescapable math 00:21:33.900 --> 00:21:37.099 of industrial processing. Inert gases like argon 00:21:37.099 --> 00:21:40.440 take much, much longer to induce deep unconsciousness. 00:21:40.960 --> 00:21:42.759 If the animal takes longer to go to sleep, you 00:21:42.759 --> 00:21:45.240 have to slow down the entire mechanical processing 00:21:45.240 --> 00:21:48.990 line. Oh, I see. That slowdown alone raises the 00:21:48.990 --> 00:21:51.470 cost per pig by two to three times compared to 00:21:51.470 --> 00:21:54.990 using CO2. Furthermore, the longer stunning time 00:21:54.990 --> 00:21:57.210 with argon has been shown to cause higher numbers 00:21:57.210 --> 00:21:59.450 of microscopic blood spots in the meat. So it 00:21:59.450 --> 00:22:02.049 actually affects the product. Exactly. This visibly 00:22:02.049 --> 00:22:04.170 impacts product quality and consumer sales at 00:22:04.170 --> 00:22:06.369 the grocery store. So the entire global food 00:22:06.369 --> 00:22:09.089 industry is caught in this massive unresolved 00:22:09.089 --> 00:22:12.349 tension between minimizing animal distress and 00:22:12.349 --> 00:22:14.809 maximizing economic efficiency and pristine meat 00:22:14.809 --> 00:22:17.150 quality. So what does this all mean? We started 00:22:17.150 --> 00:22:19.769 this deep dive looking at a makeshift drafty 00:22:19.769 --> 00:22:23.490 prison cell in 1920s Nevada where officials naively 00:22:23.490 --> 00:22:25.849 thought they could just pump poison gas under 00:22:25.849 --> 00:22:28.650 a door to create a civilized execution. Yeah. 00:22:28.849 --> 00:22:31.049 And we've ended up looking at massive highly 00:22:31.049 --> 00:22:34.369 mechanized invisible pools of heavy gas processing 00:22:34.369 --> 00:22:36.829 millions of animals a year to protect our supply 00:22:36.829 --> 00:22:39.490 chains. For you listening, I think this journey 00:22:39.490 --> 00:22:41.890 reveals something profound and honestly a little 00:22:41.890 --> 00:22:44.630 unsettling about human nature. We are constantly 00:22:44.630 --> 00:22:46.650 desperately wrestling with the moral weight of 00:22:46.650 --> 00:22:48.329 death. Whether we are looking at the criminal 00:22:48.329 --> 00:22:50.869 justice system, the horrors of war, or the food 00:22:50.869 --> 00:22:53.490 supply, we try to use complex engineering to 00:22:53.490 --> 00:22:56.569 mask the grim reality of taking a life. We want 00:22:56.569 --> 00:22:59.049 the end result, but we demand that the process 00:22:59.049 --> 00:23:01.690 be clean, invisible, and detached from our conscience. 00:23:02.109 --> 00:23:04.809 And as we've seen, the very definition of what 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:08.309 constitutes a clean or humane death has constantly 00:23:08.309 --> 00:23:10.809 shifted over the last century. It is never truly 00:23:10.809 --> 00:23:13.029 objective. It is always dictated by the limits 00:23:13.029 --> 00:23:15.490 of our current technology and our society's shifting 00:23:15.490 --> 00:23:18.009 tolerance for visible suffering, which leaves 00:23:18.009 --> 00:23:20.170 us with a lingering question to consider long 00:23:20.170 --> 00:23:23.019 after this deep dive ends. What's that? If the 00:23:23.019 --> 00:23:25.519 supposedly civilized, cutting -edge solutions 00:23:25.519 --> 00:23:28.559 of the 1920s are viewed as barbaric and absurd 00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.539 by us today, what entirely standard, heavily 00:23:31.539 --> 00:23:33.920 engineered practices of our modern world will 00:23:33.920 --> 00:23:36.140 future generations look back on with the exact 00:23:36.140 --> 00:23:36.700 same horror?