Struggling for Breath in Coal Country
The FRONTLINE Dispatch
GBH
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 January 2019
⏱️ 16 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Appalachia, more than 2,000 coal miners are suffering from advanced black lung disease, caused by toxic dust in the mines and part of an epidemic federal regulators failed to prevent. Reporter Howard Berkes spoke with dozens of sick and dying miners with varying stages of the disease about how it has irrevocably changed their lives. For Berkes, the story is a culmination of nearly four decades of reporting on rural America. Today, he shares some of his most intimate interviews with them.
Find the full FRONTLINE and NPR investigative documentary here:Â https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/coals-deadly-dust/
Produced by NPR’s Investigation Unit.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Rainey Aronson, executive producer of the PBS investigative series Frontline, |
| 0:06.5 | and you're listening to the Frontline Dispatch. This time in collaboration with NPR, |
| 0:11.7 | the voices of coal miners and Appalachia, coal miners suffering |
| 0:15.5 | from black lung disease. |
| 0:17.6 | The miners, more than 30 of them, were interviewed by NPR's Howard Burghis and his colleagues over the past year. |
| 0:24.0 | It's part of our investigation into the resurgence of the worst form of black lung. |
| 0:29.0 | Howard asked the miners about their many years mining coal, about the disease and who they blame. |
| 0:37.0 | The Front Line Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation Journalism Initiative, |
| 0:41.6 | committed to excellence. |
| 0:45.1 | The Frontline Dispatch is made possible by the Abrams Foundation, committed to excellence |
| 0:49.7 | in journalism, and by the Frontline Journalism Fund, with major support from John and Joanne Hagler. |
| 0:56.0 | Support for Frontline Dispatch comes from the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, |
| 1:00.0 | dedicated to providing compassionate care and cancer specialists who are experienced in the cancer you have. |
| 1:05.0 | When you hear the word cancer, their team is ready. |
| 1:08.0 | Learn more at mass general.org. |
| 1:10.0 | Or slash cancer. |
| 1:20.0 | Craig. I'm Howard Burcas from National Public Radio. Great to meet you. |
| 1:21.0 | Uh-huh. |
| 1:22.0 | You want to go in and talk? |
| 1:24.0 | I'm Greg Kelly. |
| 1:27.0 | I'm in Lotherwood, Kentucky. |
| 1:30.0 | Well, I dropped out of high school. |
... |
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