Freedom House Ambulance Service & Bessie Coleman
Citation Needed
Citation Needed Media
4.8 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first emergency medical service in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid.[1][2] Founded in 1967 to serve the predominantly Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was staffed entirely by African Americans.[3][4] Freedom House Ambulance Service broke medical ground by training its personnel to previously unheard-of standards of emergency medical care for patients en route to hospitals.[3][5][6] The paramedic training and ambulance design standards pioneered in the Freedom House Ambulance Service would set the standard for emergency care nationally and even internationally.[2][5] Despite its successes, the ambulance service was closed eight years after it began operating.[5]
Elizabeth Coleman (January 26, 1892 – April 30, 1926)[2] was an early American civil aviator. She was the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] and is the earliest known Black person to earn an international pilot's license.[10] She earned her license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale on June 15, 1921.[5][6][11]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to citation needed. |
| 0:24.7 | The podcast where we choose this subject, read a single article about it on Wikipedia, |
| 0:28.6 | and pretend we're experts. |
| 0:29.7 | Because this is the internet? |
| 0:30.8 | And that's how it works now. |
| 0:31.9 | I'm Eli Bosnick, and I'll be the one behind the wheel tonight. |
| 0:35.5 | But I'll need some folks to hang off the sides. First up, |
| 0:39.2 | the wee and woo to my |
| 0:40.6 | woo. Noah and... |
| 0:42.5 | What? I'm actually, I'm more of like a |
| 0:45.1 | we on. |
| 0:48.1 | I see that. Nice. |
| 0:49.4 | And given that you were on the fucking Ironman |
| 0:51.5 | sleep schedule when I met you, I feel like |
| 0:53.5 | you're my woo, if anything. That's fair. That is fair. And also joining us tonight. A two-man emergency, if ever there was one, Tom and Cecil. Okay, being very fair to Cecil, I'm a one-man emergency, Cecil just bats a lot of cleanup. A lot. It's true. It's like an equal opportunity emergency every moment of his life. Averages out. Yeah. Before we begin tonight, I'd like to take a moment to thank our patrons. Patrons, without you, we'd have a financial hole in our hearts that only showing our butts on only fans could fill. And if you'd like to learn how to join their ranks, be sure to stick around to the end of the show. |
| 1:28.4 | And with that out of the way, tell us Cecil, what person, place, thing, concept, phenomenon, or event will we be talking about today? Today, we're talking about freedom house ambulance service. And Tom, you found some folks with worse medical luck than yourself. Are you ready to break your neck like Scorpion on the record to prove him wrong? |
| 1:44.8 | Get over here, Eli. |
| 1:47.4 | I remember that. than yourself. Are you ready to break your neck like Scorpion on the record to prove him wrong? |
| 1:44.9 | Get over here, Eli. I remember that. So tell us, Tom, what was... It's a video game reference from this |
| 1:51.4 | Tom. I'm so proud of you. I wrote it for him. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us, Tom, what was Freedom House ambulance service? |
| 2:01.9 | We can't just jump right into it, Eli. That's crazy. |
| 2:05.6 | Tom's just teleporting all over the podcast. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Citation Needed Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Citation Needed Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.