Racism is a public health issue. Here's why
KFF Health News journalist Cara Anthony has been covering racism and the ways it can affect people's health for years. The project is about two killings of Black men that happened decades apart in Sikeston, Mo.: a lynching in1942 and a police shooting in 2020. Michael B. Thomas for KFF Health News hide caption
KFF Health News journalist Cara Anthony has been covering racism and the ways it can affect people's health for years. The project is about two killings of Black men that happened decades apart in Sikeston, Mo.: a lynching in1942 and a police shooting in 2020.
Michael B. Thomas for KFF Health NewsRacism is often covered as a political, cultural or news story. But how is it affecting our health?
That's the question that Cara Anthony, KFF News reporter, wanted to answer. And she wanted to answer it not just on an individual scale, but on a community-wide one – to examine the medical impact of trauma that moves through families and across generations, and how to treat it. So for the past few years, she's been reporting on a small town in the Midwest that illustrates that health issue: Sikeston, Mo.
Today on the show, Cara walks host Emily Kwong through Sikeston's history — and what locals and medical experts have to say about how that history continues to shape the present. Plus, what's the treatment for generational trauma?
For more of Cara's reporting, you can check out KFF Health News' documentary and four-part podcast series, Silence in Sikeston.
Want to hear more about epigenetics and emerging science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org. We'd love to hear from you!
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez. Cara, Hannah, and Tyler Jones checked the facts. Patrick Murray was the audio engineer.
Thanks to the KFF Health News team behind Silence in Sikeston, including but not limited to Cara Anthony, Simone Popperl, Taylor Cook, Taunya English, and Zach Dyer.