The patent for insulin, this incredible substance that has saved millions of lives, was sold for 1$ back when it was discovered in 1921. The goal was to never, ever, let this discovery be used for profit - it was supposed to be a family inheritance for humanity by the benevolent scientists that made this groundbreaking discovery.

100 years later, today, a vial costs 3-6 dollars to produce, yet it's sold for over 400$. Because of this, millions of Americans need to ration their insulin. How on earth did we get here?

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09 - The Bitter Cost of Insulin

As of November 25, 2025, a third infant in Kentucky has died of whooping cough [https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/pertussis/third-infant-kentucky-dies-whooping-cough-national-cases-stay-high-second-year-row]. So far this year, Kentucky has reported at least 566 cases. Texas has reported 3,500 cases so far this year. Falling vaccination rates are entirely to blame for this situation.

Most of what we hear from parents who are reluctant to agree that their children should be vaccinated comes from the fear that vaccines cause autism. Which could not be further from the truth. Yet - to admit you are wrong means a loss of identity as a true believer and loss of group inclusion, of a deeply held certainty about how the world works. So our tribal times now make more sense, where clearly false beliefs or conspiracy theories have become loyalty tests for group membership.

All of this leads me to ask - what has happened to rugged American individualism, the sharp and skeptical and realistic view of the world that has guided Americans for so long?

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08 - The Sound of Whooping Cough

Why would a society turn on itself? What darkness hides in the hidden depths of the social body? Doesn't it seem paradoxical that a country living its peak cultural moment can turn that dynamic on its head and become unrecognizably repressive and barbaric? And finally, riddle me this - are these questions about N4zi Germany or the US?

Many decades after attending a university class about the rise of N4zism together, Gerry visits Lawrence in Ottawa to talk about the same subject, but under a different context, one that's a bit too close to home. Specifically, directly south of home.

Lawrence Aronovitch is a Canadian playwright and actor based in Ottawa, Ontario. He is the playwright in residence at the Great Canadian Theatre Company. His stubborn optimism about the final outcome of the US' dark descent into barbarism contrasts Gerry's calculated pessimism. Maybe he's right - disruptive, challenging, disrespectful art that challenges these barbaric narratives might just be what we need. Who would've thought that "purple dinosaurs against f4scism" might actually be a valid political statement in 2025!

Thank you for tuning in, and we hope you enjoy the interview.

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07 - The New American Barbarism | Lawrence Aronovitch

Combined analyses show that Black patients in America are 22% less likely than white patients to receive proper pain medication and are frequently on the receiving end of unconscious bias [https://www.aamc.org/news/how-we-fail-black-patients-pain].

Fortunately, medical education is starting to address race. And outcomes will improve as a result.

However, racism at the federal level is driving devastating cuts to cancer research to address health disparities [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/15265161.2020.1851811?needAccess=true].

Failure to care for the most vulnerable among us is an indictment of a cruel society, that thrills at the pain of others, that revels in destruction and bitterness, that is perfectly fine to deny pain relief to people as long as they are not family or friends.

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06 - Medically Underserved

India is now the Type 2 diabetes capital of the world, with over 100 million estimated adult cases, and perhaps equally large numbers not yet diagnosed. In some Indian states, the age-specific prevalence of metabolic syndrome among elderly women is as high as 90%. 

Barry Popkin, a nutrition and population expert at the University of North Carolina, suggested that, after economies improve and famine recedes, patterns of food consumption and physical activity shift in ways that promote the emergence of obesity and its cardiovascular and diabetes complications. Basically, we are seeing a Westernization of disease patterns all over the world.

A tsunami of cancer cases related to these shifts in the economy, and patterns of eating and exercising, are likely to affect not just India, but all of the Global South, including Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and elsewhere.

Chocolate might seem to be our friend. But along with fentanyl, vodka, weed and everything else that takes away our pain, it’s just palliative care.

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05 - Death by Chocolate

Gerry grabs coffee with Aniruddh Kulkarni, cancer researcher at the Indian Institute of Science, to discuss some key public health issues of our times.

What's the impact of imported western lifestyles and dietary habits on non-western bodies? What is relative deprivation and how does it affect our mental health? What can we learn from the incredible progress our species has made against cancer and diabetes in the last few decades?

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04 - Death by chocolate: India's new fight against cancer | Aniruddh Kulkarni

“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.”

George Orwell, 1984

Since the Vietnam War, Americans have grown weary of their lying federal government, which has cynically committed troops to vague foreign objectives at great cost in American lives and the lives of civilians who are caught in the wars. Iraq is only a recent example of the betrayal of trust that has been hammered home for decades.

These lies and betrayals come at a high cost in public trust, not only in the political sphere, but in public health, trust of Americans in each other and in the possibilities of the future.

I think we have only just begun to fathom the trust that has been lost, the cost of the cynical and repeated betrayals of the American people by those in power.

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03 - Betrayal

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” ― Goethe

In the first interview of the Fifth Column podcast, Gerry shares a conversation with Rev. Michael Thompson, an ordained priest, lawyer, activist, and dear friend, about the importance of community in increasingly hostile times, the true biblical message, and taking a stand against the New American Barbarism.

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02 - A Community of Support | Rev. Michael Thompson

The Fifth Column Trailer

“If the father is a hero, the son is a real man. If the father is a reactionary, the son is a bastard. That’s basically how it works.”
A slogan used by Beijing Red Guards, 1966

The Cultural Revolution left lasting wounds in Chinese society, with memories of trauma, loss, isolation and death widespread among survivors.

The MAGA Revolution may yet inflict these terrors on American society. Our only hope is that the millions who oppose this descent into backwardness and madness stand together to resist it.

01 - The Cultural Revolution

The American system is failing us. Our physical and mental health is deteriorating. Our anxiety is rising. Our civil rights are slowly taken away, one by one. Why?

The Fifth Column is a weekly wartime journal documenting the erosion of the American Republic through the lenses of history and public health.

Through interviews and creative commentary, we aim to build a space for community, for imagination, and for dissent against the ever-growing shadow of American fasc1sm.

Hosted by Gerald Denis, molecular biologist and cancer researcher based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Gerald Denis

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