Fallout Shelter Fads, The Library of Cocaine, Mosquito Nepobaby
July 1, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readThis episode of The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week weaves together three seemingly unrelated stories—a mosquito-hunting great-grandfather, a stash of cocaine in the Library of Congress, and the great fallout shelter bust of 1961. The throughline is a quiet one: the gap between how we imagine science and history working and how they actually happen. Each story reveals that behind the scenes, progress is driven by obsessive individuals, weird coincidences, and a lot of failure.
The Mosquito Prince of the Philippines
Laura’s story begins on a first date, when her now-husband casually mentioned that mosquitoes are named after his great-grandfather. That man was Francisco Edlagan Baisas, a Filipino entomologist born on a farm in Luzon in 1896. He originally wanted to be a journalist, but while studying at the University of the Philippines, an American engineer from the Rockefeller Foundation recruited him to train as a malaria technician. The U.S. Army, with a growing presence in Southeast Asia, needed to understand the insects sickening soldiers and locals alike. Baisas became the first Filipino trained as a malaria tech and was promoted to entomologist supervisor after just four years.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:19) **Show Intro & Guest Ben Bradford** - Hosts Rachel, Laura, and Ben introduce themselves; Ben plugs his podcast "Are We Doomed" about existential threats and optimism.
- 2 (03:53) **Tease Round: Mosquito Nepobaby, Fallout Shelter Bust, Library Cocaine** - Each host offers a one-line teaser for their story.
- 3 (05:24) **Laura's Story: The Mosquito Prince of the Philippines** - Laura details her husband's great-grandfather, Francisco Edlagan Baisas, a pioneering entomologist.
- 4 (22:47) **Rachel's Story: The Library of Congress's Cocaine (and Chocolate Map)** - Rachel explores the weird items in the Library of Congress, culminating in the truth about its cocaine stash.
- 5 (44:11) **Ben's Story: The Fallout Shelter Fad That Failed** - Ben explains the brief, intense fallout shelter craze of 1961 and its rapid collapse.
- 6 (03:53) **Tease Round: Mosquito Nepobaby, Fallout Shelter Bust, Library Cocaine** - Each host offers a one-line teaser for their story.
- 7 (05:24) **Laura's Story: The Mosquito Prince of the Philippines** - Laura details the life and work of Francisco Edlagan Baisas, her husband's great-grandfather and a pioneering entomologist.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Ben Bradford, host of the podcast Are We Doomed?, joins the show to talk about when buying fallout shelter goods was all the rage. Plus, Laura tells us how she's related to mosquito royalty, and Rachel explains why the Library of Congress is holding onto Freud's "friend's" cocaine.
Check out Ben's show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/are-we-doomed/id1893359212
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