When Kimmel returned to ABC Television after a temporary suspension, he delivered a powerful defense of the American people’s right to criticize political leaders and their policies.

This podcast traces the evolution of ideas about free speech from a court case in 1735 to the present. It notes that some of the most important efforts to deal with the rights and limitations of speech and press occurred during wartime.

The podcast also explores the relevance of this history to present-day controversies about the Trump Administration’s pressures against Jimmy Kimmel and the mass media.

Medical science had pretty much eradicated measles by the year 2000, but an outbreak occurred recently in Texas and other states largely because many children had not been vaccinated. Public resistance to vaccination has grown in recent years, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has cut vaccine research drastically.

Could resistance to medical science run amok, endangering public health?

This podcast cites the example of George Washington’s decision to immunize his troops against smallpox early in the American Revolution. The podcast also identifies how a worldwide vaccination campaign to eliminate smallpox eventually succeeded in the late twentieth century. Both histories are relevant to present-day clashes between the defenders and critics of vaccines.