1.27.15: Black History Is American History & Making A Fashion Statement For The Sake Of Vaccinations

In a series of comic books, Joel Christian Gill shines a light on unsung African American figures from history. On today’s show, he tells us why he’s launched a campaign against Black History Month, and makes the case that #28DaysAreNotEnough.

Then, an outbreak of measles traced to Disneyland has outraged parents and cast anti-vaccine advocates as dangers to the public. We’ll hear about a propaganda tool that targeted anti-vaxxers in 18th Century France: fashionable hats!

Listen to the full show and click Read more for individual segments.

Credit Logan Shannon / NHPR

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NHPR

#28DaysAreNotEnough

• Joel Christian Gill is Dean of Student Affairs at The New Hampshire Institute of Art and the author and illustrator of, Strange Fruit and The Talented Tenth series. He says dedicating the shortest month of the year to black history is wrong.

Encouraging Vaccination With A Little Help From Fashion

• Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell is a fashion historian based in Los Angeles and the author of Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. She wrote about fashion and the vaccination movement for The Atlantic: "How Fashion Helped Defeat 18th Century Anti-Vaxxers."

Snow Days Are A Good Thing

• A few weeks ago we spoke with Joshua Goodman, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, about the upside of snow days, and it seems all the more appropriate today.

Just Clap Your Hands to Play

• Kids don’t need a fancy board or a deck of cards to play games. In this case, all you need to play is a pair of hands and your vocal chords. Julie Sabatier, host and producer of Destination DIY, brings us the story.
• You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.

 
The Best & Worst Board Games

• Oliver Roeder is a senior writer for FiveThirtyEight where he wrote about "The Worst Board Games Ever Invented." He says we're in the golden age of board games, and many of the games of our youth, rank among the worst.