The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

Science, Natural Sciences, History, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 43.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, a story that starts small and private, with one woman alone in her bathroom, as she makes a quiet, startling discovery about her own body. But that small, private moment grows and grows, and pretty soon it becomes something so big that it has impacted the life of every person reading this right now… and all that without the woman ever even knowing the impact she had. We originally aired this story back in 2010, but we thought we’d bring it back today, as questions about bodily autonomy circle with renewed force. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Rebecca Skloot Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected] support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Listener supported WNYC Studios.
0:10.0	Hey-oh, Lulu here.
0:12.1	This is Radio Lab.
0:13.5	Today we have a story that starts in a very private moment.
0:19.0	A woman alone in her bathroom making a quiet, startling discovery about her
0:24.5	own body. But that tiny personal moment will keep growing and growing and growing until it becomes so big
0:33.9	that has impacted the lives of everybody listening right now. And all that, without the
0:39.7	woman ever knowing the impact she had. It's a story that we first aired over a decade ago,
0:45.1	but it is just as relevant today as questions about bodily autonomy, circle with renewed force.
0:52.7	So here we go, the story of one of the most important people in the history of medical
0:58.1	science, who was almost erased from the record.
1:02.4	Wait, you're listening.
1:03.9	Okay.
1:05.2	All right.
1:06.1	Okay.
1:07.7	All right.
1:09.1	You're listening to Radio Lab
1:11.4	From W-N-Y-S-E-C-R-E-C-Y-C-Y-Y-Y-C-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-W-E-WY-Y-WY-WY.
1:21.6	Hey, I'm Jada-A-B-R-R-E-LW-E.
1:23.6	This is Radio Lab.
1:25.0	The podcast. Today on the podcast, a story of when I've been
1:27.7	wanting to do this story for forever, forever, forever. Like two years ago, I think. Oh, long than that.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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