Special Episode: Dr. Andrew Wehrman & The Contagion of Liberty

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Riots over inoculations. Large-scale quarantines and lockdowns. Criticisms of government action (or inaction) during disease outbreaks. The spread of mis- and disinformation about the safety of immunizations. You may be thinking, “this is a COVID episode, isn’t it?”. Not quite. In this latest installment of the TPWKY book club we’ll be discussing another key period in US history that had profound, long-lasting impacts on public health and access to medical care: the American Revolutionary War, when liberty from smallpox was even more important to the American colonists than independence from Great Britain. Our time travel tour guide is Dr. Andrew Wehrman, Associate Professor of History at Central Michigan University, who joins us to discuss his fascinating book The Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution, published in December 2022. As our conversation reveals, public demand for inoculation was so great that riots were held to protest unequal access, our current lack of universal healthcare systems has incredibly deep roots, and George Washington’s greatest legacy may in fact be his ability to change his mind when presented with new information. With the Fourth of July just one week ago, what better time to consider this fresh perspective on the American fight for independence and freedom from disease.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:06.0	Many put their hope in Dr. Serhat.
0:09.0	His company was worth half a billion dollars.
0:11.0	His research promised groundbreaking treatments for
0:14.3	HIV and cancer, but the brilliant doctor was hiding a secret. You can listen to
0:20.0	Dr Death, bad magic, exclusively an ad free by subscribing to Wendry Plus in the Wendry app. Oh, Oh, Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh, and this is this podcast will kill you. Welcome back to this season's
1:16.4	mini series of bonus episodes the CPW KY Book Club where we get to read the best, most interesting, most impactful, most hilarious,
1:27.0	most relevant, most everything popular science books and then chat with the authors of these books.
1:34.1	It has been such a fun and fascinating ride exploring topics such as pandemic prediction,
1:40.9	menstruation myths, wildlife wrangling, perspiration perspectives, infections
1:46.1	and inequalities, and so much more.
1:49.4	We've got just a couple more of these book club episodes coming out this season after this one and
1:54.2	we'd really love to hear from you all about how you liked this book club.
1:58.4	Whether you'd like it to come back next year, any books you'd want to have featured,
2:02.1	we've gotten some excellent
2:03.9	recommendations so far, so thank you to everyone who has written in. Your
2:08.1	favorite book of the season, just send us all your thoughts. Today's episode weaves its way through discussions of unequal access to health care,
2:17.0	debates over safety and regulation of immunization,
2:20.0	the formation and subsequent erosion of socialized medical services, the policy change. Sounds pretty familiar, I'm guessing. But in fact, the focus of today's
2:36.2	episode is not the COVID pandemic, but rather another significant period in
2:41.2	US history that would have lasting impact on health care and public
2:45.2	health policy in this country, the American Revolution and the rise of smallpox inoculation.
	...

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