Typhoid Mary: Lessons From An Infamous Quarantine
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6.5K Ratings
🗓️ 3 July 2020
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When a cook who carried typhoid fever showed no symptoms and refused to stop working, authorities forcibly quarantined her for nearly three decades. Was she a perfect villain? Or a woman scapegoated because of her background?
Throughline hosts Rund Abdelfatah and Ramtin Arablouei tell the story of Typhoid Mary — a story about journalism, the powers of the state, and the tension between personal freedom and public health.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. |
| 0:05.3 | Hey nerds, Maddie here. |
| 0:06.8 | Today, the Shortwave crew is off for the holiday weekend, |
| 0:10.4 | so to make sure that you have something great to listen to, |
| 0:13.5 | our friends at NPR's History Podcast, |
| 0:16.0 | through line, have a story for you. |
| 0:18.5 | It's a story about the spread of disease |
| 0:20.8 | and the tension between personal freedom |
| 0:24.0 | and collective responsibility. |
| 0:26.3 | It's kind of perfect for where we are right now. |
| 0:29.6 | Enjoy the episode, enjoy your July 4th weekend, |
| 0:32.5 | and you know what? |
| 0:34.2 | Never hold lighted fireworks in your hand, okay? |
| 0:38.0 | And maybe rethink the whole sparkler thing |
| 0:40.8 | while you're at it, especially for the kids. |
| 0:43.1 | Those little suckers burn at 2,000 degrees. |
| 0:46.8 | You know what I'm saying? |
| 0:48.3 | All right, talk to you next week. |
| 0:50.2 | Bye. |
| 0:51.0 | And it's probable that Mary Mellon is a prisoner for life. |
| 1:01.2 | And yet she has committed no crime, |
| 1:03.7 | has never been accused of an immoral or rickid act, |
... |
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