Special Episode: Maria Smilios & The Black Angels

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.1K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the pre-antibiotic era, tuberculosis was one of the biggest killers humanity ever faced. The specter of the ‘great white plague’ hung over towns and cities across the world, cities like New York whose population boom in the early 20th century paved the way for this deadly disease to spread throughout crowded tenements. As tuberculosis rates in NYC reached a breaking point, city officials sought to solve the problem by establishing a sanatorium on Staten Island. But they quickly ran into an issue - who would be willing to work there, exposing themselves to this untreatable deadly disease? In The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis, author Maria Smilios tells the story of the courageous nurses who worked at Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, facing the constant threat of disease and perpetual racism from patients, colleagues, and neighbors. Smilios brings these women’s stories to life, describing how they persevered in these difficult conditions to ultimately help bring about the cure for tuberculosis, for which they have only recently been recognized. Tune in for a fascinating discussion about a monumental time in tuberculosis history! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right. Oh, Oh, Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh, and this is, this podcast will kill you. You're listening to the
0:55.3	latest episode of the T.P.W. K. Y Book Club where we bring on authors of
1:00.9	best-selling books in science, medicine, and the history of science and medicine,
1:05.4	and ask them all sorts of questions about those wonderful books.
1:09.9	So far, this series, we've gotten to dig into topics ranging from the deadly draw of plant and animal-derived poisons
1:17.6	to the origins of American gynecology, from the way a single molecule can change your entire identity to the current
1:25.9	landscape and possible future of the COVID pandemic. And we've got so many more
1:31.8	episodes to come.
1:33.4	If you're curious about those book club episodes to come,
1:36.4	check out our website, this podcast will kill you.
1:38.9	com, and head over to the extras tab,
1:41.2	where you'll find a link to our bookshop affiliate page. On that
1:44.8	page you'll find lists of T.P.W. K. Y books including a book club list which
1:50.7	includes all of the books we've covered so far and the ones
1:53.7	we'll be covering throughout the rest of the season. As always keep sending in
1:58.1	your recommendations, your follow-up questions, your thoughts, whatever, we truly appreciate hearing from you all.
2:05.4	Now on to the Book of the Day. I hope you like time travel, because that's exactly what we'll be doing in this week's episode.
2:14.6	New York City in the early decades of the 20th century
2:18.1	was a booming, bustling city at the center of the world,
2:21.7	where everything seemed possible and the good times would never end.
2:25.6	It was just basically like the Great Gatsby, right?
2:29.3	Not for everyone.
	...

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