The Monster Study of 1939
How did the Monster Study use science to break innocent kids' minds?
4.4 (20)
48 mins
Explore the disturbing story of the 1939 Monster Study, where orphaned children were unknowingly subjected to a speech experiment. Discover how researchers tried to prove that negative words and labels could create stuttering in children who had never struggled to speak. Learn about the lifelong emotional damage, decades of secrecy, and the reckoning that finally exposed what had been done.
Ep 1:
The Man Who Made Monsters
Meet Wendell Johnson, the stuttering scholar whose desperate theory led him to a Depression-era orphanage—and a chilling question no child should ever answer for.
Ep 2:
Twenty-Two Children, One Cruel Script
Inside the experiment: 22 orphans divided into secret groups, told lies about their voices, and left to unravel under a script designed to break them.
Ep 3:
Mary's Story: A Voice Silenced
One girl's heartbreaking journey from hopeful orphan to lifelong silence reveals the human cost of Johnson's theory—and the guilt that haunted his own researcher.
Ep 4:
Sixty-Two Years of Silence
Decades later, the truth surfaces. Survivors demand answers, a lawsuit unfolds, and science finally reckons with what the Monster Study really proved.
Discussions (5)
Nicholas
Level 7 · 3 weeks agoSo Johnson was writing in his journal worrying about his own son catching a stutter while literally designing an experiment to give other kids one? The audacity is unreal.
Paxton
Level 7 · 3 weeks agoJohnson's theory wasn't completely wrong though. parental reaction absolutely plays a role even if it's not the whole picture
Pascal
Level 8 · 3 weeks agoI stopped talking too. Just shut down.
