The Original Anti-Vaxxer

In 1902, a Swedish-American pastor named Henning Jacobson refused to get the smallpox vaccine. This launched a chain of events leading to two landmark Supreme Court cases, in which the Court considered the balancing act between individual liberty over our bodies and the collective good. A version of this story originally ran on The Experiment on March 21, 2021. Voices in the episode include: • Rev. Robin Lutjohann — pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts • Michael Willrich — Brandeis University history professor • Wendy Parmet — Northeastern University School of Law professor Learn more: • 1905: Jacobson v. Massachusetts • 1927: Buck v. Bell • 2022: National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration • 2022: Biden v. Missouri • "Pox: An American History" by Michael Willrich • "Constitutional Contagion: COVID, the Courts, and Public Health" by Wendy Parmet Music by Ob (“ Wold ”), Parish Council (“ Leaving the TV on at Night ,” “ Museum Weather ,” “ P Lachaise ”), Alecs Pierce (“ Harbour Music, Parts I & II ”), Laundry (“ Lawn Feeling ”), water feature (“ richard iii (duke of gloucester) ”), Keyboard (“ Mu ”), and naran ratan (“ Forevertime Journeys ”), provided by Tasty Morsels . Additional music by Dieterich Buxtehude (“Prelude and Fugue in D Major”), Johannes Brahms (“Quintet for Clarinet, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello in B Minor”), and Andrew Eric Halford and Aidan Mark Laverty (“Edge of a Dream”). Shadow dockets, term limits, amicus briefs — what puzzles you about the Supreme Court? What stories are you curious about? We want to answer your questions in our next season. Click here to leave us a voice memo . Supreme Court archival audio comes from Oyez® , a free law project by Justia and the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. Support for More Perfect is provided in part by The Smart Family Fund.

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The Original Anti-Vaxxer is an episode from Radiolab Presents: More Perfect by WNYC Studios.

This episode is 00:40:57 long.

This episode was published on Jul 27, 2023.

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