Isolation and the Struggle for Understanding in Disease Containment

A special episode from our colleagues at NPR's history podcast Throughline.

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.

Email the show at shortwave@npr.org.

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