A Big Vaccine Win (Some Sunday Context)

A Big Vaccine Win (Some Sunday Context)

Author: Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia December 7, 2025 Duration: 22:57
This Day (An America 250 History Show)
History
Welcome to Some Sunday Context, where we bring you new conversations and archival episodes to provide some context on the stories playing out in the news today. This week, we just wrapped up our two-part series on early vaccine skeptics from the 1890s through the 1920s. We discussed how a lot of the skepticism began to fade away in mid-century, in part because of the success of vaccines. Perhaps the biggest win was the arrival of the polio vaccine in 1954. So, today, as we see a return of vaccine skepticism -- even within the CDC itself -- we bring you an epsiode we did in 2021 about the development of the polio vaccine in 1954. Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week. Find out more at thisdaypod.com This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Hosted by Jody Avirgan alongside historians Nicole Hemmer and Kellie Carter Jackson, This Day is a historical podcast from Radiotopia that steps back from the relentless news cycle to find context in the past. The series "50 Weeks That Shaped America" serves as its core, offering a rich, narrative-driven examination of pivotal moments that have fundamentally influenced the nation's political landscape and cultural identity. This isn't a dry recitation of dates but a deep, engaging exploration of the stories and decisions that collectively brought us to the present. Each episode functions as a carefully researched journey, unpacking the complexities and unintended consequences of historical events you might think you know, revealing the surprising threads that connect them to contemporary life. By focusing on these formative weeks, the podcast provides a unique and clarifying lens, arguing that to understand today's headlines, you often need to listen to the echoes of yesterday. The conversations between Avirgan, Hemmer, and Jackson are insightful and accessible, blending scholarly depth with compelling storytelling. Tuning into this podcast feels like gaining a new set of tools for thinking about America, its ongoing struggles, and its evolving character, all through the meticulous and thoughtful work of its hosts.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

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This Day (An America 250 History Show)
Podcast Episodes
A Compromise To Avert Civil War [Some Sunday Context] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 13:23
For our "Sunday Context" series, we discuss the political pressures that the arrival of California as a new state put on the country as a whole -- and the various attempts to avoid a conflict over the question of slavery…
Gold Changes Everything (1849) [Part 2] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:38
We continue our look at the effects of the gold rush with an examination of how various communities were affected, and found agency, in a rapidly transforming California -- women, Chinese immigrants, Native Americans, cr…
Gold Rush! (1848) [Part 1] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:08
This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to the winter of 1948 in San Francisco, where word starts to get around that "there's gold in them there hills." Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how gold was first…
A Guy Throws His Shoe At George W Bush [Some Sunday Context] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:55
For our "Sunday Context" series, we offer a follow up to our conversation about "Axis of Evil" and the start of the War in Iraq by looking at an incident from after the war was over -- when an Iraqi journalist threw his…
How We Got The "War On Terror" (2002) [Part 2] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:54
Our look at the response to 9-11 continues with a discussion of the neo-conversative movement that influenced the Bush White House, and how the idea of an "axis of evil" quickly morphed into a long war in Iraq. Join our…
The "Axis Of Evil" (2002) [Part 1] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:13
This week on "50 Weeks That Shaped America," we're headed to January 2002 and the first State of the Union speech after the 9-11 attacks. In it, George W Bush referred to Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an "axis of evil,"…
A New Orleans Slave Rebellion [Some Sunday Context] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 18:42
For our "Sunday Context" series, we build on this past week's coversation about the Battle of New Orleans with a look at the largest slave rebellion in US history, led by Charles Deslondes, which took place just outside…
Andrew Jackson Takes Control (1815) [Part 2] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:57
If part two of our "50 Weeks" look at the Battle Of New Orleans. Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at the pirates, generals, and others who fought that day in January of 1815 -- and how the events burnished the reputation of f…
The Bootletter Biplane Bombings [Some Sunday Context] [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 16:43
For our "Sunday Context" series, we build on this past week's coversation about Prohibition with perhaps the most colorful story of bootlegging and liquor gangsters we've ever heard. In 1926, members of the Shelton gang…

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