150 years ago last week, on March 3rd, 1873, the Comstock Laws on obscenity, including birth control and abortion supplies or information, became part of the US Criminal Code. (Bill and Rachel.)
Links and notes for ep. 462 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AFD-Ep-462-Links-and-Notes-March-1873_-Comstock-Laws.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Rachel returns from a microbiology trip to the CDC in Atlanta and presents an episode on its history.
Links and notes for ep. 441 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/AFD-Ep-441-Links-and-Notes-History-of-the-CDC.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
On the 50th anniversary of the 1972 revelation of the unethical Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments begun in 1932, Bill and Rachel look back at the huge national push against syphilis in the 1930s United States (before penicillin) and the many strange effects of that campaign.
Links and notes for ep. 436 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/AFD-Ep-436-Links-and-Notes-The-1930s-Syphilis-Campaign-and-Tuskegee.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Bill and Rachel discuss syringes, morphine, laudanum, the American Civil War, “women’s problems,” and the ongoing debate among historians today about how to understand opiate use and addiction in the late 19th century United States.
Links and notes for ep. 410 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/AFD-Ep-410-Links-and-Notes-Late-19th-Century-Opiates-in-the-US.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Description: 100 years ago this week, on November 23, 1921, the first US government attempt at a modest social welfare program (focused on maternal and infant health) became law. Reactionary forces unraveled it by 1929, but it was influential regardless. Bill and Rachel discuss.
Links and notes for Ep. 400 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AFD-Ep-400-The-Sheppard-Towner-Act-of-1921.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
In September 1921, the first fast food restaurant (White Castle) was launched, taking inspiration from the Hygiene Movement. Guest John Leavitt (@LeavittAlone) joins Bill, Kelley, and Rachel to talk about this and Automats and to imagine a different future for restaurants.
Links and notes for Ep. 395 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/AFD-Ep-395-Links-and-Notes-September-1921_-Fast-Food-White-Castle-with-guest-John-Leavitt.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Description: Bill and Rachel discuss why coronavirus pandemic coordination between governors is not technically an “interstate compact” and what the 19th century Supreme Court said about interstate disease control.
AFD Ep. 304 Links and Notes (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/AFD-304-Links-and-Notes-Interstate-Compacts-Revisited.pdf
Return to episode 92 from July 2014: http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/2014/07/16/july-16-2014-arsenal-for-democracy-92/
Original theme music by Stunt Bird.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
