BackStory

The Health of the Nation

The following audio clip is excerpted from the BackStory episode “Body Politics: A History of Health Care.”  You can listen to the entire episode here. Political scientist Jacob Hacker, author of the “public plan,” uses history to explain how we wound up with a system so different from the European model, and why lobbyists hold [...]

Health Care in the New World

The following audio clip is excerpted from the BackStory episode “Body Politics: A History of Health Care.”  You can listen to the entire episode here. Reporter Catherine Moore visits Virginia’s Mt. Malado, the first hospital in the New World, and finds out why the “public plan” in the Virginia colony may have had its drawbacks. [...]

Heathen Health

The following audio clip is excerpted from the BackStory episode “Body Politics: A History of Health Care.”  You can listen to the entire episode here. The Memory Palace‘s Nate DiMeo tells the story of how inoculation first came to the New World. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] Excerpted from: Body Politics: A History [...]

Mother Knows Best

The following audio clip is excerpted from the BackStory episode “The Good Mother: A History of American Motherhood.”  You can listen to the entire episode here. Ann Hulbert, an expert on parenting experts, explains why mothers in the 1920s were instructed not to smother their children with love. [Audio clip: view full post to listen] [...]

"Body Politics" Transcript

This is the transcript of “Body Politics: A History of Health Care,” first broadcast in October of 2009.

Body Politics: A History of Health Care

Recent fights about health care reform have landed several people in the hospital. So who foots the bill? Historically, what’s been the government’s role in keeping Americans healthy?