With debates about healthcare dominating the news, the past resonates all the more. American historian Dr. Ronit Stahl (Associate Professor of History, University of California: Berkeley) clearly illustrates this principle in her conversation with Dr. Mark Goldberg on February 11, 2022. Whether understanding the 2014 Hobby Lobby ruling about the birth control insurance mandate, the claim of religious hospitals to conscience rights and public funds, or the Trump administration’s ban on transgender troops, Dr. Stahl reveals how history can help us ask better questions about the present. This is no mere academic exercise but one of service to the wider public, as Dr. Stahl demonstrates through her many meetings with community groups and military organizations, numerous op-eds, and even a 2018 amicus brief before the United States Court of Appeals.

For more on Dr. Stahl’s work, see https://ronitstahl.com/.  

Historians’ Amicus Brief, written with Jennifer Mittelstadt, for Plaintiffs in Jane Doe 2 v. Donald J. Trump, December 10, 2018.

 Editing assistance of this episode provided by Dylan Allen.  

The Center for Public History at the University of Houston. https://uh.edu/class/cph