Act 1

Act 2

Marker 01

In 1964, a young woman was murdered as she walked to her apartment in Queens, New York. Her screams were left unanswered. No one came to her help. Within the space of thirty minutes, the assailant would return two more times to stab her again and again. The woman died. The number of witnesses to this crime who did not help was: 38. Two psychologists posed a question: how could this happen in such a heavily populated city?

Two other landmark studies occur around this time including the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment. Two experiments that range from insightful to controversial. However, all of these have captured the attention of psychologists and students, and helped us to learn more about ourselves. If nothing else, the latter certainly taught how one should not conduct a psychology study.

These are some of the stories of psychology from the 60s.

In 1964, a young woman was murdered as she walked to her apartment in Queens, New York. Her screams were left unanswered. No one came to her help. Within the space of thirty minutes, the assailant would return two more times to stab her again and again. The woman died. The number of witnesses to this crime who did not help was: 38. Two psychologists posed a question: how could this happen in such a heavily populated city?
Two other landmark studies occur around this time including the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment. Two experiments that range from insightful to controversial. However, all of these have captured the attention of psychologists and students, and helped us to learn more about ourselves. If nothing else, the latter certainly taught how one should not conduct a psychology study.
These are some of the stories of psychology from the 60s.

Welcome to the This Medical Life podcast. Our mission is to share stories about the triumphs and tragedies of diseases and illnesses from ancient times up until what we know today. It is about those scientific and medical minds who came before us and how, every single day, we stand on the shoulders of giants. This is a podcast about the stories of medicine.


Hosted by Dr. Travis Brown and Steve Davis, our target audience is General Practitioners, medical students, and other health professionals. We hope to educate, inspire and celebrate those who choose to care for others in their profession. From experience, we know that our audience extends beyond these fields and would like to welcome anyone to listen. The stories of those who came before us are nothing short of remarkable and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Production by Tim Whiffen

Design by Tom Buzz

Advertisement