How did a doctor's decision to risk his life lead to the Declaration of Independence? In this episode of Johan Norberg’s New and Improved, discover the intellectual roots of our rights to life, liberty, and property.

We live our lives with the conviction that we own ourselves and our belongings. What’s yours is yours and what’s mine is mine. But this belief was once considered radical and dangerous. Doctor turned philosopher John Locke faced torture and execution to change that.

Locke’s ideas reached a young Thomas Jefferson ultimately inspiring the Declaration of Independence. Safeguarding the free exchange of ideas creates conditions where the radical words of today become the accepted ideas of tomorrow.