One Year: 1990 - The Angry Death of Kimberly Bergalis

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Before 1990, there had never been a documented case of a patient getting HIV from a health care worker. Kimberly Bergalis changed that. Her claim that she’d been infected by her dentist would captivate and terrify the country. And the dentist, David Acer, would be made into a villain without America ever knowing who he really was. This episode was written by Kelly Jones and Josh Levin, One Year’s editorial director. One Year’s senior producer is Evan Chung. This episode was produced by Kelly Jones and Evan Chung, with additional production by Olivia Briley. It was edited by Joel Meyer and Derek John, Slate’s executive producer of narrative podcasts. Merritt Jacob is senior technical director. We had mixing help from Kevin Bendis. We had production help this season from Jabari Butler. Join Slate Plus to get a special behind-the-scenes conversation at the end of our season about how we put together our 1990 stories. Slate Plus members also get to listen to all Slate podcasts without any ads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Spark your creativity with the Sims. Sometimes you might feel like you're not creative
0:07.0	and you have to go in search of your creative spark again. Maybe this is catching up with creative
0:11.9	friends, experimenting with a new look or trying out a new recipe.
0:16.0	And thanks to The Sims, inspiration is just one game and one spark away.
0:21.0	Ready to spark something? Download the Sims 4 and play for free. On September 26, 1991, Capitol Hill was on edge. There was a big
0:39.5	congressional hearing that
0:44.4	was
0:45.3	and nobody was sure if the star witness was going to make it.
0:48.4	She's able to function about 10 minutes.
0:49.6	Okay, well, I don't think.
0:50.8	It was around 9 a.m. when her wheelchair rolled into the hearing room.
0:55.0	She was immediately sworn by photographers.
0:58.0	Thank you.
1:00.0	Thank you.
1:01.0	The woman everyone had come to see Thank you.
1:03.4	The woman everyone had come to see was Kimberly Brigallis.
1:07.2	Millions of Americans had heard her story.
1:09.9	Now it was obvious that she didn't have much time left. She was 23 years old and weighed just 70 pounds.
1:17.0	Her hair was short and wispy and she wore a blazer decorated with pale flowers.
1:24.0	As the cameras closed in, her eyes stayed pointed at the floor.
1:28.0	Okay, we want to begin our hearing.
1:32.0	Someone kneeled down and clipped a microphone to Kimberly's lapel
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.