Minnesota plays a unique role in the arena of health, with impactful political/cultural moments, and important contributions from institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Hazelden, UCare, among others. Over the decades, MPR News and American RadioWorks have produced a breadth of reports and programming specifically dedicated to the subject of health. This collection includes interviews, debates, speeches, and documentaries that provide greater detail to the many facets of healthcare, from both a local and national perspective.
October 4, 1975 - A Home for the Weekend program focusing on public health. Segments include success in battling small pox disease, followed by speeches from Dean of University of Texas School of Public Health, and author Ruth Sidel, at annual meeting of Minnesota Public Health Association.
October 10, 1975 - Dr. Christian Barnard, famous heart transplant surgeon, talks briefly about his novel whose protagonist is a heart surgeon. He says one point of the book was to bring out racial discrimination and segregation in medicine, petty-apartheid (petit-apartheid?), in South Africa. He talks about having received threats due to his challenging the white ideology in South Africa, where the white minority fears they?ll lose everything they?ve built there without the apartheid government structure. They?ve seen what has happened in other African countries. South Africa represents western civilization in Africa, and competition is based on your ability to compete in that environment, where it?s natural the white man would do better.
October 13, 1975 - Senator John Milton says Michigan people, particularly key legislators, regard the nursing home industry as a public utility because the amount of money from public funds going into the industry is enormous, and the taxpaying public has an interest greater than with normal commercial ventures. Another reason is a lot of old people who need protection, a responsibility and concern of state in terms of public health and safety. In many cases the homes are being bought through use of public funds and federally guaranteed mortgage money, with fees put on the reimbursement system. Dues paid to associations who hire lobbyists for the industry are being passed on to the public.
October 13, 1975 - Reporter summarizes findings of Senate subcommittee on nursing homes trip to Michigan to look at how nursing homes are regulated there. Among their ideas were that state's variable reimbursement favoring smaller businesses over larger chains that are primarily real estate ventures. Sen. John Milton talks about what the committee discovered,
October 31, 1975 - Julian Bond, Georgia politician, talks about his political beliefs. Julian Bond talks about concessions that adherents to the new politics might demand from candidates in 1976. Included: Income and wealth redistribution with a tax restructure to reduce disparity between the needy and the greedy. Elimination of poverty through program of real employment. Education to dignify vocational aa well as academic training. Free adequate health care for each American financed through the national treasury and not through profit-making insurance companies. Control of monopolies. Municipal ownership of vital services. Talks about Americans as two-party people, variations in political parties and the role of independent voters. He speaks at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN.
October 31, 1975 - Psychotherapist, author and lecturer Dr. Rollo May speaking at Augsburg College. May’s address was titled "Awareness and Community." Dr. May was key note speaker at a conference entitled, "Exploring Personal Options Within Community", sponsored by the Women's Center of the Saint Paul YWCA and Augsburg College. His speech examined the tension produced when one's private environment expands and comes into conflict with one's public environment.
February 2, 1976 - U.S. Senator Hubert H. Humphrey comments about Reserve Mining at a public meeting in Duluth. Audio also includes comments from a United Citizens for Clean Water and Air spokesman.
July 9, 1976 - Joan Halifax-Grof, a medical anthropologist specializing in psychiatry and religion, speaks on transformation and human consciousness, transformation and initiation and visionary states, and transformation and the experience of death.
October 16, 1976 - Midday discusses the swine flu innoculation program with Diane Peterson and Dr. John Andrews from the MN State Health Dept. Listeners call in with questions.
November 9, 1976 - Arthur Flemming, U.S. Commissioner on Aging with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, speaking at National Conference on Arts and the Aging in Minneapolis. About conference: More than 150 members of state and regional arts groups and senior citizens' organizations gathered in Minneapolis recently for the first National Conference on Arts and the Aging. The conference, in cooperation with the Minnesota Arts Board and the Governor's Citizens Council on Aging, brought together artists, arts administrators and representatives of programs for older Americans. The general purpose of the meetings was to bring older Americans more directly into local and regional arts programs of all kinds, both for the benefit of the senior citizens, and the arts themselves.