The Minnesota Starvation Experiment: How Far Would You Go for Science? | Smartest Year Ever (June 4, 2025)

In 1944, while war raged across Europe, 36 American men volunteered to be starved in Minnesota. But this wasn’t punishment. It was science.

In this episode of Smartest Year Ever, Gordy unpacks one of the most extreme human experiments ever approved: The Minnesota Starvation Experiment. Conducted by Dr. Ancel Keys, this study wasn’t about cruelty — it was designed to solve one of the biggest post-war crises facing the world: how to refeed millions of starving civilians safely.

What happened to these men during and after this infamous study? And why is their data still used in research today?

Join Gordy as he explores this intense, controversial, and deeply human story — a tale of psychological unraveling, nutritional science, and the ethical lines that science continues to walk today.

Follow Smartest Year Ever for your daily fix of curiosity, history, and clever conversation fuel. New episodes drop every single day.

Sources:

• Keys, A., Brožek, J., Henschel, A., Mickelsen, O., & Taylor, H. L. (1950). The Biology of Human Starvation. University of Minnesota Press.
  

• Tucker, T. (2006). The Great Starvation Experiment: The Heroic Men Who Starved So That Millions Could Live. Free Press.
  

• Kalm, L. M., & Semba, R. D. (2005). They Starved So That Others Be Better Fed: Remembering Ancel Keys and the Minnesota Experiment. Journal of Nutrition, 135(6), 1347–1352.
  

Music thanks to Zapsplat. #StarvationStudy #HumanExperimentation #NutritionHistory #MinnesotaHistory #EthicsInScience #WWIIHistory #historyfacts #sciencefacts