What Next: Larry Kramer Wouldn't Be Quiet

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Larry Kramer always made sure you heard him, loud and clear. He was a playwright and a novelist, but he was perhaps best known for his work as an AIDS activist. In the 1980s and 1990s, Kramer sought to alert the world to a plague that was killing millions of people. He woke up the world -- through provocative demonstrations, fiery essays, and righteous anger. Kramer died in May. Guest: Mark Harris, a journalist and writer at New York Magazine. For a closer look at the history of ACT UP, check out United in Anger: A History of ACT UP. We’re re-running some of our favorite episodes from the past year. This episode originally aired in June, 2020. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Happy New Year, everyone. It's Mary. For the past week or so, we have been re-running episodes that really stuck with us this year.
0:08.0	This is the last of those.
0:10.0	Tomorrow starts a new year, and Monday, we'll be back with brand new episodes of
0:15.8	what next but we wanted to close out 2020 with a show that both honors the past
0:21.4	and reminds us that it's possible for regular people to work together and save each other.
0:28.6	It's an obituary of a sort, one I've thought about a lot over the past few months.
0:34.0	When I think about a lot over the past few months.
0:37.0	When I think about Larry Kramer,
0:41.0	the AIDS activist who died last week at the age of 84. I can hear his
0:46.3	voice. Loud, urgent, filled with this is a
0:52.8	is a plague
0:54.4	40 million infected people is a fucking plague and nobody acts as it is.
1:03.0	This is a clip that started making the rounds last week.
1:05.9	It was recorded 30 years ago.
1:08.2	Larry is expressing this frustration
1:10.5	with the pace of HIV research and drug development.
1:14.0	We are in the worst shape we have ever, ever, ever been in.
1:19.0	Nothing is working.
1:21.0	None of that shit you saw on that screen is working.
1:25.0	One of the funny things about Larry Kramer, though,
1:27.7	is that until he opened his mouth,
1:30.3	he didn't read as particularly angry.
	...

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