The Kerner Commission (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Kerner Commission
Writer: Mycah Hazel
Producer: Mycah Hazel
Producer: Joe Richman
Abstract: Decades before our current debate over critical race theory, the 1968 Kerner Report pointed the finger at structural racism for creating the conditions that had triggered a series of protests in Black communities across the United States in the summer of 1967. Former Senator Fred Harris is the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, a group appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the protests and author the report, which shocked the political establishment and the public. Featuring interviews with Fred Harris and rare archival audio, we look back at this pivotal moment in American race relations.
Date: 09/26/2021
Primary URL: https://www.npr.org/2021/09/26/1040791834/the-kerner-commissions-last-living-member-we-still-need-to-talk-about-racism
Primary URL Description: The NPR webpage where the story and its companion web article appeared.
Secondary URL: https://www.radiodiaries.org/last-witness-kerner-commission/
Secondary URL Description: The Radio Diaries webpage where the podcast episode appeared.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

My Iron Lung (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: My Iron Lung
Writer: Erin Kelly
Writer: Alissa Escarce
Producer: Alissa Escarce
Producer: Erin Kelly
Producer: Joe Richman
Abstract: In the first half of the 20th century, the disease known as poliomyelitis panicked Americans. Just like Covid today, polio stopped ordinary life in its tracks. Tens of thousands were paralyzed when the virus attacked their nervous systems. Many were left unable to walk. In the worst cases, people’s breathing muscles stopped working, and they were placed in an iron lung, a giant ventilator that fits the human body from the neck down. On June 8, 1953, five-year-old Martha Lillard contracted polio. She spent six months in the hospital, where she was put in a ventilator called an iron lung to help her breathe. A polio vaccine became widely available in 1955 — and millions of Americans got vaccinated. The iron lung became obsolete and they stopped being manufactured in the late 1960’s. While many people who suffered from polio or post-polio syndrome either weaned themselves off the machines or switched to another form of ventilator, Martha never did. To this day, she is one of only two people in the United States who still depends on the iron lung to survive.
Date: 10/25/2021
Primary URL: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/25/1047691984/decades-after-polio-martha-is-among-the-last-to-still-rely-on-an-iron-lung-to-br
Primary URL Description: The NPR webpage where the broadcast story and the companion web article appeared.
Secondary URL: https://www.radiodiaries.org/my-iron-lung/
Secondary URL Description: The Radio Diaries webpage where the podcast episode appeared.
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

The End of Smallpox (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The End of Smallpox
Writer: Alissa Escarce
Producer: Alissa Escarce
Producer: Joe Richman
Abstract: Only one human disease has ever been completely eradicated from the earth: smallpox. Smallpox claimed the lives of ancient Egyptian pharaohs as well as an estimated 300 million people during the twentieth century. Then, by the 1980s, it was gone. The smallpox vaccine—the world’s very first vaccine—was invented by Edward Jenner in the 1700s. Almost two hundred years later, public health workers from around the world came together to try to eliminate the virus. American public health worker Alan Schnur and French doctor Daniel Tarantola were among them. When Schnur and Tarantola arrived in Bangladesh in the early 1970s, it was the last country in the world to still have outbreaks of variola major, the deadliest strain of smallpox. Variola major killed a third of the people it infected. Our story chronicles the last case of deadly smallpox, involving a 2-year-old girl named Rahima Banu and the public health workers who helped stamp out the virus worldwide.
Date: 05/20/2022
Primary URL: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/20/1099830501/smallpox-covid-vaccine-eradication-who
Primary URL Description: The NPR webpage where the broadcast story and companion web article appeared.
Secondary URL: https://www.radiodiaries.org/the-end-of-smallpox/
Secondary URL Description: The Radio Diaries webpage where the extended podcast episode appeared.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

The Almost Astronaut (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: The Almost Astronaut
Writer: Mycah Hazel
Producer: Mycah Hazel
Producer: Joe Richman
Abstract: On November 4th, 1961, 28-year-old Ed Dwight got a letter from the United States government inviting him to join the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) at Edwards Air Force base—making him the United States’ first Black astronaut candidate. Dwight had been a commander with the Air Force, flew B-52s in Japan, and was a bomber pilot with 9,000 flying hours under his belt, more than many of his white counterparts. Dwight’s selection was met with cover spreads all over black media, from Ebony to Jet Magazine. It also satisfied the public’s demands that the U.S. send a Black person to space. However, according to Dwight, his arrival at ARPS was met with disapproval from the largely white instructors—including the head of the school, Air Force Officer Chuck Yeager. In October 1963, 14 astronaut trainees, known as Group 3, were selected for NASA’s next missions: Gemini and Apollo. Though he completed his training, Ed Dwight was not chosen. Our story follows Dwight’s career and explores the underlying racial tensions in the United States’ space race with the Soviet Union.
Date: 07/05/2022
Primary URL: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/05/1109678316/edward-dwight-space-race-nasa-astronaut-moon
Primary URL Description: The NPR webpage where our broadcast story and companion web article appeared.
Secondary URL: https://www.radiodiaries.org/the-almost-astronaut/
Secondary URL Description: The Radio Diaries webpage where our podcast version appeared.
Access Model: Open Access
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File
Format: Web

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