That Lawless Stream: A History of the Mississippi River
On this episode, we look at the Mississippi River: how access to its waters both united and divided a country, and how efforts to tame it have consistently come up just a little bit short.
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States of Insanity: Mental Illness in America
This month, the American Psychological Association will release the 5th version of its DSM. New disorders within its pages will reclassify millions of previously normal Americans as having a disorder of some sort. Is this a good thing?
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Pitch a Show (Spring/Summer 2013)
This past fall we received nearly 100 pitches for show topics – some of which made it on the air! Episodes about illicit drugs and voting were pitched by listeners, and lots of individual stories had their origins in your brains as well. So help us keep up the process!
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Sweet and Dangerous: A History of Sugar
In this episode, the History Guys will explore sweetness in American history. How has our national sweet tooth shaped our political and economic priorities?
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Patent Pending: A History of Intellectual Property
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1814 wood engraving of two types of locking mechanisms. (Library of Congress)
Can genes be patented? Are downloaders inhibiting musical creativity – or enhancing it? Questions about “intellectual property” are everywhere today – but what exactly is intellectual property? And what are these kinds of rights supposed to achieve? In this episode of BackStory, the American History Guys look to the past for answers.
Where the Constitution gave Congress the power “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts” through a patent and copyright system, the Guys uncover how industrial piracy actually propelled the economy of the early Republic – and with the Government’s stamp of approval! We hear how an author’s copyright used to extend little further than the letters on the page, and why it has come to embrace so much more. And as the Supreme Court gets ready to rule on gene patents, the Guys get perspective from the first scientist to patent a living organism.
Guests Include:
- Ananda Chakrabarty, University of Illinois College of Medicine.
- Kembrew McLeod, University of Iowa.
- Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University.
- Siva Vaidhyanathan, University of Virginia.
- Chris Sprigman, University of Virginia School of Law.
Further Exploration
- Listen to individual segments from this episode.
- Check out a range of resources we’ve put together on this topic.
The BackStory to this Episode…
- Check out the listener discussion that helped shape this episode.
