Selected Stories
Here is a selection of my stories that have aired on various radio outlets. My complete archive can be heard by clicking the Archive tab on the left.
Thanks for listening!
Thanks for listening!
Making of CDC's Disease Detectives, or .....
The Case of the Nutty Dish
They’re called disease detectives – the nation’s medical eyes and ears, on the lookout for disease outbreaks and bioterror attacks. They’re the Epidemic Intelligence Service officers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They go all over the world to handle outbreaks of measles, malaria, and even Ebola. Each July, 70 new trainees become EIS Officers. Join two rookies as they learn to become disease detectives by solving the case of the nutty dish. (September, 2014)
Okeefenokee Wilderness
Suwanee Canal
photo: Hyde Post
Folkston, GA - Looking at a map, it's hard to think of the Okefenokee swamp as a wilderness area. The Atlantic Ocean’s white sandy beaches are close by. Florida, with its theme parks and golf courses, touches its southern border. And it’s only a short car ride to Jacksonville or Savannah. But travel just a few hundred yards from the Okefenokee welcome center and you’re in the wild.
Produced for "Untrammeled: Celebrating 50 years of Wilderness", October, 2015
Produced for "Untrammeled: Celebrating 50 years of Wilderness", October, 2015
Hostage Rescue and Reunion
Former missionary hostages and pilot Mack Scord (second row, right)
In August 1964, in the central African country known today as the
Democratic Republic of Congo, a militant rebel group called the Simbas seized nearly 2,000 U.S. and European citizens, many of them missionaries, and held them hostage in Stanleyville. On November 24th of that year, Belgian and American military forces mounted a dramatic airborne mission to rescue the hostages and crush the Simba rebellion. Recently, some of the surviving hostages, the pilot, and the airplane used in the rescue were brought together by a lucky chain of events.
(Produced for VOA and AARP Prime Time, April, 2013)
Is It Healthy to Live Near a Superfund Site?
Brunswick, Ga. — Just north of Brunswick, there is a slice of land that is classic coastal Georgia - 700 acres of marshland. Birds dot the sky and redfish, mullet and shrimp swim in the creeks and rivers. But looks can be deceiving.
For 70 years, at LCP Chemicals Industrial facilities, oil was refined, electricity generated and paints and chemicals manufactured. Toxic waste was dumped on the soil, released into the air, leaked into the ground water and into the adjacent tidal marshland. The former site is the poster child for the federal Superfund program.
Some of the waste - mercury, lead and chemicals - polychlorinated biphenyls - cause endocrine and neurologic disorders. PCBs can also cause cancer. So far there are no reports of unusual numbers of cancers or other health problems in Brunswick, but the toxic waste is there in the environment and people are worried: some of the toxic chemicals have been found in fish, soil and people more than 30 miles away from the site.
Georgia Public Broadcasting, March 30, 2015
Some of the waste - mercury, lead and chemicals - polychlorinated biphenyls - cause endocrine and neurologic disorders. PCBs can also cause cancer. So far there are no reports of unusual numbers of cancers or other health problems in Brunswick, but the toxic waste is there in the environment and people are worried: some of the toxic chemicals have been found in fish, soil and people more than 30 miles away from the site.
Georgia Public Broadcasting, March 30, 2015
Driving for Civil Rights History
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In 1966, Tom Houck was a volunteer in Alabama and Mississippi, helping organize demonstrations and register African Americans to vote. The white high school dropout was just 18 years old. An invitation to Sunday lunch with Dr. Martin Luther King and his family led to a job driving Dr. King's children to school, and a job as a personal assistant to the family. He got to know the Kings and Atlanta intimately. Now, almost five decades later, Houck is driving again - he's organized bus tours taking Atlanta visitors to places where prominent African Americans and civil rights leaders lived, worked, and played.
VOA, February 2, 2015 |
Tom Houck, Civil Rights Activist &
Martin Luther King Chauffeur
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The Atlanta Braves:
What were the doing right?
What were the doing right?
Faces of Elephantiasis: In Nigeria, Patients Remain After the Disease is Gone
The LF Support Group in Jos, Nigeria
Before I became a reporter, I was a medical epidemiologist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and lived in Africa in the 1980s. I recently returned to the continent as a journalist and came face to face with a disease I had only read about in textbooks. Here are my thoughts on that experience.
(Produced for The World, April 11, 2013)
New Strategy Aims to Eradicate Elephantiasis
Hamisu Isa has lymphatic filariasis
The tropical disease known as lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, affects 120 million people worldwide. The devastating parasitic illness causes lymphedema, in which legs, arms and genitals swell to enormous size. Now, a new public health strategy, tested in Nigeria by the Atlanta-based Carter Center, is raising hopes that this crippling disease can soon be eradicated.
(produced for VOA, April 6, 2013)
(produced for VOA, April 6, 2013)
Rotarians Volunteer to Rid Nigeria of Polio
Rotarian Patrice Putnam immunizes a child in Kaduna, Nigeria
They’re at a point in their lives where they could be playing with their grandchildren, working in the garden, or on a cruise, instead, these seniors are spending their leisure time eradicating polio in Nigeria. In December, 2012, I joined a 15-person team of Americans - all Rotarians - as they participated in Nigeria's National Immunization Days.
(produced for AARP Prime Time, April, 2013)
(produced for AARP Prime Time, April, 2013)
Chicken Farmer Up to His Neck in Alligators
Newly hatched alligator
Georgia is well known for its agricultural products, like peaches, pecans, and chickens. Now, in the tiny town of Camilla, one farm is turning out an unusual item that's in big demand in Europe's high fashion industry.
[for listener comments, see NPR Website]
(produced for NPR's All Things Considered, October 7, 2012)
[for listener comments, see NPR Website]
(produced for NPR's All Things Considered, October 7, 2012)
Blind Willie McTell Lives on in Thomson, Georgia
In the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s bluesman Blind Willie McTell traveled throughout the south, but Thomson, Georgia - his birthplace - was a frequent stopover. For the past 18 years, the city of Thomson has been celebrating its famous musical son by organizing The Blind Willie McTell Festival.
(produced for Georgia Public Broadcasting, May 15, 2012)
Georgia Jellyfish Are Tasty Delights in China
Jellyfish are a nuisance to fishermen and a danger to swimmers, but in the small costal town of Darien, Georgia, some shrimp fishermen are catching jellyfish and sending them to China and Japan where they're considered a delicacy.
(produced for VOA, March 2012)
Grady Hospital - Atlanta's Health Care Safety Net
For more than 100 years, Grady Hospital has been providing healthcare to the poor and uninsured. But in the past decade, as healthcare costs rose and government budgets shrank, it has become harder for Grady Hospital to balance its books. This came to a head in 2007, when Grady almost lost its accreditation. Major changes were made to the hospital's governance, personnel, and budget. In this three part series, broadcast in January, 2012, on WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate, looks at how well Grady is meeting its mandate to serve as the region's health safety net.
(This series was supported in part by a fellowship from the USC/Annenberg - California Endowment for Health Reporting)
(This series was supported in part by a fellowship from the USC/Annenberg - California Endowment for Health Reporting)
STORY ONE: Grady's Mandate: Have budget cuts and staff cuts hurt Grady's ability to serve the poor?
STORY TWO: Grady's New Directions: With government support limited, Grady is seeking new sources of revenue
STORY THREE: Is primary care the solution?: Primary health centers may improve Grady's ability to deliver care
Hidden History Saves African-American Schoolhouse
When the tiny African-American community on Georgia’s St. Simons Island set out to save its one-room schoolhouse, it didn't realize the building was linked to an historic effort to combat racial discrimination in the early 20th century.
(Produced for VOA & Prime Time Radio, November 2011)
