Rewind: The Curious Case of Typhoid Mary

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2020

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An account of a mysterious typhoid fever outbreak from the early 20th century and the woman — Mary Mallon, the so-called Typhoid Mary — at the center of the strange epidemic. The tale of Typhoid Mary is a harrowing detective story and a chilling tale of disease and death. Why are whole healthy families suddenly getting sick with typhoid fever — from the languid mansions of Long Island’s Gold Coast to the gracious homes of Park Avenue? Can an intrepid researcher and investigator named George Soper locate a mysterious woman who may be unwittingly spreading this dire illness? boweryboyshistory.com This show was originally broadcast on September 18, 2015 Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys.
0:02.0	Hey.
0:03.0	Support for the Bowry Boys is provided by our listeners.
0:06.0	Join us for as little as $1 a month by visiting patreon.com slash Bowry Boys.
0:16.0	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:19.0	The following is a rebroadcast of a show that we recorded back in 2015
0:25.0	on the curious case of Typhoid Mary.
0:29.0	Unfortunately, this show has only gotten more eerily relevant in the year 2020.
0:36.0	This podcast is set in the early 20th century in a rightfully paranoid city,
0:42.0	which by this point in its history had suffered through endless epidemics.
0:48.0	New York could employ many different methods in preventing future outbreaks.
0:54.0	Some of those methods at the cost of the personal liberty and livelihood of its residents.
1:00.0	Now, Typhoid Mary was a real person, but the term has come to mean a carrier of disease,
1:08.0	somebody to be feared and shunned.
1:11.0	In her story, we can also think about the personal responsibility that we all share to protect our fellow citizens.
1:19.0	But what should we think about the personal liberties of Mary Malin?
1:23.0	The woman at the center of this story.
1:26.0	This tale will pay visits to the kitchens and back rooms of the gilded ages finest mansions
1:33.0	and to a small cottage on a four-learn little island in the East River.
1:38.0	So, wash up and join Tom and I as we explore the curious case of Typhoid Mary.
2:08.0	So Greg, our story begins in Oyster Bay, Long Island,
2:35.0	and specifically in the residence of a Mrs. George Thompson who owned a beautiful house near the water.
	...

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