What do The Lion King, Amelia Earhart, World War I explosives, and a hospital IV have in common? Coconuts.

This week on True Crime Culinary, we're cracking open the surprising history of coconuts, starting with a hospital in the Solomon Islands that ran out of IV fluids and turned to coconut water.

From how coconuts travel across oceans to why coconut milk became a staple in cuisines around the world, we explore the fruit's remarkable survival skills. Along the way, we meet enormous coconut crabs linked to a theory about Amelia Earhart's disappearance, a German Guinness World Record holder who smashes coconuts with his bare hands, and the coconut oil industry that helped supply wartime explosives while transforming Pacific Island communities.

Plus, why does Zazu sing about coconuts in The Lion King? And what's actually the difference between coconut water and coconut milk?

• American Journal of Emergency Medicine — Coconut Water as an Intravenous Fluid

• Coconut Origins, Domestication and Dispersal — Scientific Research

• Coconut Biology and Anatomy

• Australian National University — The Copra Trade

• Guinness World Records — Most Coconuts Smashed with One Hand

• National Geographic — Coconut Crabs and Amelia Earhart

• YouTube — Additional Coconut Reference

References

What do animal crackers have to do with P.T. Barnum, circus elephants, and a group of clowns who started a riot in Toronto?

In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary, we’re exploring how the modern circus grew from horseback performances into enormous traveling spectacles, why circuses and exotic animals became intertwined, and how that history ended up on a little box of animal crackers.

Plus, we head to Toronto in 1855, where a fight between circus clowns and firefighters escalated into one of the strangest riots in the city’s history.

References:
• V&A — The Story of Circus
• Smithsonian Magazine — Animal Crackers Freed From Their Cages
• Spacing Toronto — The Toronto Circus Riot of 1855
• Wikipedia — Toronto Circus Riot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vi0iTKtcvg

What is the history of Goldfish crackers, and how did a Swiss love story turn into one of America's most recognizable snacks?

In this bonus episode of True Crime Culinary, Leah traces Goldfish back to Switzerland, where Oscar J. Kambly created the original Goldfischli in 1958 as a birthday gift for his Pisces wife. From there, we follow Margaret Rudkin—the remarkable founder of Pepperidge Farm—as she brings the little fish crackers to America.

Along the way: Julia Child serves Goldfish with martinis, the crackers travel aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, Pepperidge Farm goes to court over competing fish-shaped crackers, and Goldfish briefly become "Chilean Sea Bass" to appeal to grown-ups.

Then we return to the Maine woods and Christopher Knight, the "North Pond Hermit," whose hidden campsite contained a 30-ounce container of cheddar Goldfish after nearly three decades of isolation.

From Swiss birthday present to space snack to evidence of a life hidden in the woods, Goldfish have had a surprisingly strange journey.

References:
Kambly — History of Goldfischli
Pepperidge Farm/Campbell Soup Company — Goldfish and Pepperidge Farm history
Michael Finkel — The Stranger in the Woods
U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit — Nabisco, Inc. v. PF Brands, Inc.
Canadian Breast Cancer Network — Goldfish and managing treatment-related nausea
UCLA Health — Nutrition and familiar foods during cancer treatment
Goldfish — Chilean Sea Bass campaign
Michael Finkel / reporting on Christopher Knight and the North Pond Hermit