Quarantine Genius
Quarantine Genius

Quarantine Genius

quaragenius

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Episodes

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How did Shakespeare cope when theatres shut for plague? How were Virginia Woolf and TS Eliot affected by the Spanish flu? How did Frida Kahlo's experience of polio trigger her artistic relationship with disease? Over the course of 8 episodes, 'Quarantine Genius' investigates historical epidemics from the perspective of cultural and scientific figures.

Recent Episodes

8. Salome Karwah and Ebola
AUG 1, 2020
8. Salome Karwah and Ebola

In 2014, Salome Karwah was living in Monrovia, Liberia, when Ebola struck. It killed seven members of her family and infected her, her sister and her fiancé. As soon as Karwah recovered, she volunteered with Doctors Without Borders and went to help others. In the final episode of Quarantine Genius, we tell her story. Thanks for listening. Donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime.cfm?_ga=2.11903092.1946371403.1595857604-1914176887.1595857604

Written and researched by Lucinda Smyth; composed and sound edited by Tom Chapman; logo by Al Konstam. 

(Refs: WHO, Origins of the 2014 Ebola epidemic, One Year Report (2016); 'Families Must Care For Sick at Home as ebola wards fill up', The Times (2014); Jonah Lipton, ‘What ebola taught me about coronavirus’, Guardian (March 2020); Medicin Sans Frontieres, Tribute: 'Salome Karwah survived ebola to help others', (2017); NPR, 'An Ebola hero had a baby in Liberia, 4 days later she was dead' (2017); Richard Preston, Inside The Ebola Ward, New Yorker (Aug 2014); Documentary – Ebola: The Story, Dir Pascal Magnin, (2018); Ebola: When Health Workers' duty to treat is trumped, BBC, (October 2014))

 


 

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20 MIN
7. Freddie Mercury and AIDS
JUL 25, 2020
7. Freddie Mercury and AIDS

In May 1991, Queen shot their iconic video for These Are The Days of Our Lives. Six months later, lead frontman Freddie Mercury was dead from AIDS. In this episode we look at one of the worst disease outbreaks in modern history, and how Freddie Mercury - one of the century's the most charismatic & resilient creatives - worked through it. Donate to AKT: https://www.akt.org.uk/donate/roomforlove/10  Written by Lucinda Smyth, composed by Tom Chapman, logo by Al Konstam. 


(Refs: 'Thatcher Tried to block bad taste public health warnings', The Guardian, 2015; Documentary 'Days of Our Lives', BBC, 2011; 'Public Health History of AIDS', Futurelearn; Documentary: 'AIDS – The victims' (1985), BFI; Tom Crewe, 'Here Was A Plague', LRB (2018); 'The Vile, Horrific Way the Media reported the AIDS Crisis', Pink News. 'When Doctors Refuse to Treat AIDS Patients', New York Times, 1987.)

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22 MIN
6. Frida Kahlo and Polio
JUL 18, 2020
6. Frida Kahlo and Polio

WARNING: Contains graphic descriptions of violence. 

In 1913, a six year old Frida Kahlo contracted polio disease in Coyoacan, Mexico. The following nine months she spent pent up as a result of the illness would ignite her creativity, and begin an artistic relationship with illness that lasted a lifetime. Written and produced by Lucinda Smyth, sound edited and composed by Tom Chapman, logo by Alice Konstam. (Refs: Hayden Herrera, Frida (1983); David Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story (2005); 'Exploring Frida Kahlo's relationship with her body', Google Arts; Gareth Williams, 'How a virus brought New York to a standstill in the summer of 1916', The Conversation; NPR, How The US Snuffed Out A Killer, 2012; Patrick Cockburn, Diary: the 1956 Polio Epidemic, May 2020, London Review of Books.)

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22 MIN
5. Virginia Woolf and Spanish Flu
JUL 11, 2020
5. Virginia Woolf and Spanish Flu

In London 1918, Spanish Flu seemed a minor threat, especially compared to the pressing matter of the First World War. Living in the leafy suburb of Richmond, Virginia Woolf mocked The Times for an article comparing the flu with the Black Death. But the analogy was accurate, and later that year Woolf herself would be bedbound as a result of the disease. Written and presented by Lucinda Smyth; composed and edited by Tom Chapman; logo by Alice Konstam. (Refs: Laura Spinney, Pale Rider; Elizabeth Outka, Viral Modernism; Hunting the 1918 Flu, Kirsty Duncan; Robert Hume, Far Too Little Too Late, History Extra (2020); Joanna Bourke, ‘Another Battle Front’, Guardian (2008); Louis Menand, Practical Cat, New Yorker; (2011))

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21 MIN
4. Abraham Lincoln and Smallpox
JUL 4, 2020
4. Abraham Lincoln and Smallpox

Lincoln had just given the Gettysburg address when, on the train back to Washington, he began to suffer from symptoms of smallpox. In this episode, we go over to the US to look at the effect of smallpox on Lincoln's presidency - and what happens when a leader is directly affected by a pandemic. Written, researched and produced by Lucinda Smyth; composed and sound edited by Tom Chapman; logo by Alice Konstam. Donate to Women's Aid: https://www.womensaid.org.uk/donate/ (References: The Lincoln Trail in Pennsylvania, Bradley R Hoch (2001); The Last Major Smallpox Outbreak in America, SciShow, Youtube (2017); Abraham Lincoln, Smallpox and the Gettysburg address, (2013): Civil War Profiles; Jim Downs, ‘The Epidemics America Got Wrong’, Atlantic, (March 2020); Greg Lange, Smallpox Epidemic of 1862 among Northwest Coast and Puget Sound Indians (2003); Washington: A History of The Capital, Constance McLaughlin Green (1962))

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14 MIN