A Field Guide to the History Arc

Before the episodes begin, this guide explains how to listen to the series: as a documentary investigation, not a textbook summary.

The opening guide introduces why this series exists, how cardiovascular medicine came to organize risk around cholesterol measurement, and why the original documents matter.

The History Arc follows the evidence forward through the primary literature: from the confused pre-cholesterol world of experimental arteriosclerosis, to Anitschkow’s rabbits, to the chemistry of cholesterol synthesis and lipoprotein transport, to Gofman’s ultracentrifuge, to the Friedewald equation, and finally to the modern rediscovery of apoB and particle number.

The goal is not nostalgia. The goal is to recover the question the field gradually lost: whether cardiovascular risk is best understood by measuring the cholesterol cargo, or by counting the particles that carry it.

Listen to the Field Guide
A short orientation before Episode 1.

The investigation is forensic.
The standard is what the documents say.