Jim Downs, a historian and professor at Connecticut College, talks with Dave Ross about a devastating but little-known smallpox epidemic that affected former slaves immediately after the Civil War. The widespread illness was minimized for political reasons - and Jim argues we see the same rationale repeating today in our healthcare policy debates.

How do politics and policy actually affect real people in their daily lives? Dave and Jim discuss the Democrat's 2020 campaign towards universal healthcare, and the crisis at our southern border.

You can purchase Jim's book, "Sick from Freedom: African American Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction" here.