Why the book mixes personal and scholarly stories

When she was 28, Laura Mauldin became a full-time caregiver for her romantic partner with leukemia — an experience that exposed how deeply America’s health-care system depends on the unpaid labor of loved ones. Now a disability scholar, Mauldin explores this hidden reality in her new book, In Sickness and in Health: Love Stories From the Front Lines of America’s Caregiving Crisis. She sat down with Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu to discuss how gaps in the medical system leave families shouldering the burden of care — and how couples navigate that strain while maintaining their sense of partnership and dignity.