Pepsi's original name was 'Brad's Drink'

Pepsi only decided against 'Brad's Drink' because of one medical concern. (Reuters)

Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine is a podcast about what used to be considered medicine. The hosts, a married couple (she’s a doctor and he’s “the dumb guy”), detail the sometimes hilarious, often horrifying ways we used to treat disease. (Honestly, the conceit is laid out pretty well in the name of the podcast. No surprises here.)

This week, the duo visited Atlanta, the birthplace of Coke, and so decided to give a history of how soda used to be sold as medicine (explains all the pharmacy soda counters, eh?) and the evolution of soda from a trick to get people to drink more mineral water to its current incarnation as a frequent target for public health advocates.

But what stopped me in my tracks was the revelation that Pepsi used to be called Brad’s Drink, named for its creator Caleb Davis Bradham. But the name “Pepsi-Cola” — derived from dyspepsia (i.e., indigestion), which the beverage was supposed to assuage — took hold on August 28, 1898, which means next year will be its 120th anniversary.