This is Radio Atlantic. I'm Hana Rosen. It's the middle of winter and like every winter we're seeing a spike in COVID cases. So this week we're going to share an episode from the summer.

It's a conversation with science writer Ed Young about long COVID and in particular about fatigue.

That condition and our understanding of how it's connected to chronic illness is still evolving, but by its nature it tends to be

under-seen, under-disgust, and just under-appreciated.

So we wanted to resurface it this week. Here's the episode.

Every single time I write one of these pieces,

hundreds of people were write in saying that for the first time

they have read something that actually explains their experiences, that they have tried so hard to explain to doctors, to

employers, to friends and family with no success. I really cannot stress enough what a large community of people

exists out there who are suffering and feel like they're suffering alone.

I'm Hannah Rosen and this is Radio Atlantic.

In theory, a conversation between a doctor and a patient should be pretty straightforward.

Doctor, I have this thing.

Okay, patient, I can help you out in this way.

But sometimes it doesn't go that way, because can help you out in this way.

But sometimes it doesn't go that way,

because the doctor may have some baggage,

like outdated medical knowledge or cultural stereotypes.

And the patient might have some baggage like shame or not quite the right words and all

of that gets in the way.

This is a condition whose sufferers could very easily be overlooked in part because many things about their condition

hide them from public scrutiny. Today we're talking to former Atlantic staff writer Ed Young about a disease,

...