Theo Von and Duncan Trussell riff on how brutally hard life was in pre-modern America — Lincoln lost three of four children to tuberculosis before age 18, medieval nobles deloused their clothes with toilet fumes, and people routinely attended funerals every Sunday. The two use absurdist humor to make a serious point: compared to any prior century, modern life is almost miraculously comfortable, and most people are 'ahistoric' — they don't know enough history to appreciate it.
Key Moments
Duncan Trussell
“it means they people don't give a [ __ ] about history. They don't care. No one's looking back. Nobody No, most people don't. And not just like with like US history, world history, but like musical lineages and stuff. People just don't really care.”
Duncan explains what 'ahistoric' means after Theo asks him to define the word he just used.
“But people don't people do not understand and we do not understand that this was the president of the United States and three of his kids died by the age of 18 of tuberculosis.”
After looking up Lincoln's children, Duncan reacts to the fact that three of Lincoln's four children died young from disease.
“When you have [ __ ] kids, anything about a kid dying, any It's like your DNA changes for real. Even dads. Wow. So, it hit so hard losing three of your children. Like, I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine. You're You're not sleeping anymore. You're You can't You're just a walking corpse.”
Duncan reflects on how becoming a parent changes your emotional response to child mortality, connecting it to Lincoln's grief.
“if you have electricity, you're doing pretty good. Like if you're a w you're a modern day wizard. Wizard. Yeah. Exactly. Like you could just flip a switch and lights come on and you could take a [ __ ] and flush it and it goes bye-bye”
Discussing Peter Diamandis-style optimism and how people undervalue modern conveniences relative to historical hardship.
“the way that you would get lice off your clothes cuz everyone was covered in lice back then is you would put your clothes out over an open toilet, a medieval toilet, and all the ammonia from the [ __ ] would kill the lice. So you were wearing clothes that had been lice free, right?”
Duncan shares a fact about medieval castle sanitation — nobles used toilet-pit fumes to delouse their clothing.
Duncan Trussell is a stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster best known for The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, a long-running podcast blending comedy with philosophy, spirituality, and psychedelics. He also voices the lead character in the Netflix animated series The Midnight Gospel, which is based on his podcast interviews. His newest project is Mystery Boys, a podcast co-hosted with comedian Kurt Metzger.
Takeaways
1
Lincoln lost three of four kids before adulthood Edward Baker Lincoln died at 3 of tuberculosis, William Wallace Lincoln at 11 of typhoid fever, and Tad Lincoln of tuberculosis or heart failure — all before age 18. Trussell and Von use this as a concrete example of how normalized child death was in 19th-century America, even for the most powerful man in the country.
2
Most people are dangerously 'ahistoric' Duncan coins the term 'ahistoric' to describe how most people have no frame of reference for how difficult life was even 150 years ago — not just politically, but medically and domestically. Without that context, everyday frustrations feel catastrophic. Understanding history is a practical calibration tool for gratitude and resilience.
3
Tuberculosis killed 18% of people in 1867 Kentucky The episode cites that in one 1867 Kentucky sample, 18 of every 100 deaths were from consumption (tuberculosis), a highly contagious bacterial infection. This wasn't fringe — it was the leading killer across age groups. Edgar Allan Poe's wife also died of it, illustrating how universal the disease was across all social classes.
4
Medieval nobles deloused clothes with toilet fumes Castle garderobe toilets — built over pits or moats — produced ammonia-heavy air that nobles deliberately used to kill lice and fleas in their clothing. A 'clean shirt' in medieval times smelled like a portapotty. This is a vivid, verified historical fact that reframes how we think about hygiene progress.
5
Electricity and indoor plumbing make you a historical wizard Referencing futurist Peter Diamandis, Duncan frames basic modern utilities — flipping a light switch, flushing a toilet — as capabilities that would have seemed magical to 99% of all humans who ever lived. The practical takeaway: reframing ordinary conveniences as extraordinary can meaningfully shift baseline happiness.
6
Parenthood physically rewires your response to child mortality Duncan argues — and Theo agrees — that having children changes something at a near-biological level: content about child death that was previously easy to process becomes viscerally unbearable. He uses this to explain why Lincoln's appearance deteriorated so dramatically during his presidency, beyond just political stress.