The House You Live In
Producer Ben Park opens the episode by discussing the perception of the city of Chicago as an "industrial" town, a description that has a way of excusing threats to health that are endemic to Chicago's housing stock.
Reporter Don Herbert speaks with a mother of 5 who has not been permitted by to take her 2-month-old twins home, under doctor's orders, due to potential threats to their health. Both mother and father recount their searches for better housing. The father also discusses his arguments with his landlord, who prevents his children from playing outside. Herbert talks to a pediatrician, who recounts a similar situation with one of his patients, and speculates about the future well-being of the child.
Commercial break.
Don Herbert visits another section of Chicago, describing the urban landscape. He interviews another mother of 5 living in a blighted area in an overcrowded home. She discusses similar threats to health in her housing situation and similar difficulties in finding adequate housing. The threats to her family's health are in spite of her best efforts at cleanliness and her new washing machine and ice-box.
Herbert returns to talk to the pediatrician, who discusses the role of housing in prominent diseases that poorer families are particularly susceptible to, including tuberculosis and rheumatic fever, as well as problems with behavior and emotional development. The doctor also discusses overcrowding.
Park returns to discuss measures of health over on year in urban Chicago. Infant mortality is three times as bad in poorer areas compared to richer ones, and tuberculosis is nearly 20 times worse in poor versus rich areas.
Herbert then talks to a woman who was able to move from a poor area to a better one. She discusses the improvements to her family's health that came with the move. Her son and daughter had lost one and two years of schooling respectively due to illness. She talks about moving into public housing, which helped her family immensely.
Park returns to the pediatrician's recommendation for more outdoor activities, as best a family can, and his stressing of the importance of housing.
Commercial break.
Preview of next week's episode.
Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection
WNYC archives id: 150110
Municipal archives id: LT1967
