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Update frequency:
weekly
Average audio length:
20 minutes
English
United States
17 episodes
since Feb. 5, 2021
serial

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In the winter of 1918, the city of Milwaukee faced a crisis almost exactly like our own. A highly contagious and deadly virus found its way to the city. This disease was the great influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919; and like the coronavirus pandemic today it completely upended life in our city. Wh…

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In the years after its effective response to the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic, Milwaukee became known as “the healthiest city.” But that reputation, and the public health preparedness that made it possible, wasn’t built up overnight: Milwaukee learned how to respond to a dangerous epidemic the hard …
In episode two of The Healthiest City podcast, hosts Bailey Green and Roman Lulloff explore how the rise of the Socialist Party in Milwaukee helped build up the city’s public health programs in the years before the 1918 flu pandemic struck. Emil Seidel was elected as the city’s first Socialist mayo…
As the 1918 influenza pandemic tore its way across the globe, the damage it caused went hand-in-hand with the ongoing combat of World War I. The massive mobilization of troops from around the world provided the perfect conditions for the disease to spread. And with the need to keep sending troops t…
When a disease folks then called the "Spanish Flu" was first detected in Milwaukee, the city's public health officials faced a choice not unlike the one we've debated for most of this last year: whether to close the community's schools. This episode of The Healthiest City f…
While pandemics can seem to disrupt every facet of our daily lives, they are, at their core, medical crises. This week on The Healthiest City we talk about how doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals face these challenges. We open by talking with an ICU nurse in Milwaukee who worked in …
Milwaukee's success at handling the influenza pandemic did not mean the going was easy. For the city's bars and restaurants, shut down orders and consumer fear made business difficult. On this week's episode of The Healthiest City, we explore how Milwaukee's entertainment and re…
By the end of the epidemic, the United States had lost 0.6% of the population to the Spanish Flu, with around 675,000 deaths. Yet Milwaukee suffered a relatively low death rate. In 1918, Milwaukee was the thirteenth largest city in the US and one of the nation’s most densely populated cities. Perha…
A preview of the new season of a podcast from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Department of History and the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Last season looked at the 1918-1919 Influenza outbreak in Milwaukee, and asked what that history could teach us about navigating the coronavi…

Water Spirits

The first peoples who called the land we call Milwaukee home recognized the centrality of water to the region. Beyond relying on the rivers and lakes to survive, the area's Indigenous communities also revered water. In this episode of Water Works, public historian David Zeh documents how effig…
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Milwaukee County Historical Society, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.