Pandemic on the Prairie
A podcast about the intersection of public health, cultural history, and war in Kansas. School closures, mask mandates, infection waves, front line workers, debates over the disease’s origin, disparities in health care access, quarantine fatigue. All of these descriptions could easily apply to both current times and a century ago. In the midst of the current Covid-19 pandemic, many have started looking back to the last global health catastrophe of this magnitude - the 1918 influenza pandemic, also known as the “Spanish flu”. Approximately 50 million people globally, including 675,000 Americans and over 12,000 Kansans, died of this strain of influenza between 1918-1920. “Pandemic on the Prairie” tells the stories of Kansas and Kansans during this tumultuous time of both a World War and a global pandemic. Through learning about our past, we hope to better engage with the present.
Pandemic on the Prairie
A Tale of Two Kansas Cities
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Kara Heitz
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Season 1
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Episode 7
The invisible line that runs through the middle of Kansas City may be an important political boundary, but in 1918, like today, diseases do not respect these human divides. This episode compares the Kansas City, KS and Kansas City, MO responses to the flu pandemic, including differences in business closures, compliance, and other “social distancing” measures. We’ll also look at the politics behind these differences, especially the operations of the Kansas City, MO democratic political machine connected to the rise of boss Tom Pendergast. What lessons can we learn from the 1918 responses across the state line that are applicable to 21st-century pandemics?