Public Hostage Public Ransom
Ending Institutional America
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Narrated by:
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Ted Ryan
About this listen
Public Hostage, Public Ransom starts with the autobiographical story of William Bronston, the activist physician whose early professional California training steels him with a deep moral, professional, and cultural bond to the huge 6,000-person disabled population he encounters incarcerated in Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY, on whose behalf he daily battles to humanize and ultimately catalyze a federal class action lawsuit against the state to close the death-making institution. Prior to the expose of Willowbrook, no small individualized community living arrangements existed across New York State in lieu of 30 massive state institutions. Medicaid-funded, these institutions warehoused the "different" population imposed on their stricken families. Having been closed to admission by public scandal and impossible overcrowding, families were blackmailed to have their dependent member submit to secret viral research whose impact was completely unknown, where rampant disease, gruesome sanitation, lack of adequate food, clothing, carloads of tranquilizing medicine, and the most minimal care and supervision was the brutal norm. Ultimately, concerned parents, caring workers, top child development leaders in the field, and local and national media were organized to expose and address the bureaucratic evil and ubiquitous violence that dominated the wretched lives inside.
This passionate book documents the immense drama, and story arc, of the public mobilization, media expose, and federal judicial process Bronston helped arouse that forged the path to what ultimately becomes the legal conviction for this systemic human abuse and Justice Ruth Ginsburg’s subsequent, monumental Supreme Court Olmstead Decision that framed the rightful foundation for nationwide deinstitutional reform. Dr. Bronston draws the clear line to indict the self-serving state bureaucracy and the strategic rationale to end Title 19 of the Social Security Act, the Medicaid system, in order to heal the deep societal wound caused by the nursing-home and assisted-living industry, the segregated norm that compels our universal commoditized and paradigmatic terminus.
The human rights movement in America has transformed the lives of all people with special needs as new politics, technology, and a profound awareness of the dehumanization of this vast community reached a zenith in the late 1960s and 1970s. It leads to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act that emancipated the devalued and stigmatized populations of labeled people including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, polio, sensory loss, neuromuscular degenerative conditions, on and on, “public hostages”, who now age to become society’s elders consigned again to profit-driven, segregated, and congregate institutional lives, funded by Medicaid’s billions, America’s “public ransom”.
Universal expanded and improved Medicare for all, single-payer health care, is the clear solution and ultimate antidote to this crime against humanity we numbly tolerate. The shocking horrors of Willowbrook State School have been exposed and will never be forgotten. In Doctor William Bronston’s defining book, Public Hostage Public Ransom: Ending Institutional America, he takes on all of America’s institutions, the segregated nursing-home industry, that have not learned the lesson of the tragedy of Willowbrook. His muckraking efforts remind one of a latter-day Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tarbell, or Jacob Riis. His book is a scathing reminder of all we still have to do to build a sympathetic and just world for the many who are unable to find it for themselves.
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-
Story
Just days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg was appointed to administer the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a unique, unprecedented fund established by Congress to compensate families who lost a loved one on 9/11 and survivors who were physically injured in the attacks. Over the course of the next three years, Feinberg spent almost all of his time meeting with the families and learned about the enduring power of grief, love, fear, faith, frustration, and courage. Most importantly, he learned that no check could make the families and victims of 9/11 whole again.
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Short and to the point. Worth the time.
- By Victor on 06-02-23
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Teeth
- The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America
- By: Mary Otto
- Narrated by: Suehyla El'Attar
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Teeth takes listeners on a disturbing journey into America's silent epidemic of oral disease, exposing the hidden connections between tooth decay and stunted job prospects, low educational achievement, social mobility, and the troubling state of our public health.
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Content everyone should know; dismal narration
- By Elaine on 08-04-17
By: Mary Otto
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Unspeakable
- The Story of Junius Wilson
- By: Susan Burch, Hannah Joyner
- Narrated by: Corey Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Junius Wilson (1908-2001) spent 76 years at a state mental hospital in Goldsboro, North Carolina, including 6 in the criminal ward. He had never been declared insane by a medical professional or found guilty of any criminal charge. But he was deaf and Black in the Jim Crow South. Unspeakable is the story of his life.
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Nuanced look at a complicated case of injustice
- By Karla on 08-06-24
By: Susan Burch, and others
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Haiti After the Earthquake
- By: Paul Farmer
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep, Edoardo Ballerini, Edwidge Danticat
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 12, 2010, a major earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and the greater part of the capital was demolished. Dr. Paul Farmer, U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti, who had worked in the country for nearly thirty years treating infectious diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS, and former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, had just begun to work on an extensive development plan to improve living conditions in Haiti.
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If you read one book about Haiti make it this one
- By Bryan on 06-07-12
By: Paul Farmer
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The Social Transformation of American Medicine
- The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry
- By: Paul Starr
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 24 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Considered the definitive history of the American healthcare system, The Social Transformation of American Medicine examines how the roles of doctors, hospitals, health plans, and government programs have evolved over the last two and a half centuries. Updated with a new preface and an epilogue analyzing developments since the early 1980s, this new edition is a must-listen for anyone concerned about the future of our fraught healthcare system.
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Fascinating Survey of Healthcare in Amerixa
- By Rob on 06-24-19
By: Paul Starr
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Silent Invasion
- The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It's Too Late
- By: Deborah Birx
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In late February 2020, Dr. Deborah Birx—a lifelong federal health official who had worked at the CDC, the State Department, and the US Army across multiple presidential administrations—was asked to join the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force and assist the already faltering federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. For weeks, she’d been raising the alarm behind the scenes about what she saw happening in public—from the apparent lack of urgency at the White House to the routine downplaying of the risks to Americans.
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Great insight into Public Health
- By Ann-Karen Weller on 05-09-22
By: Deborah Birx
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My Story
- By: Julia Gillard
- Narrated by: Julia Gillard, Jennifer Vuletic
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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"I was prime minister for three years and three days. Three years and three days of resilience. Three years and three days of changing the nation. Three years and three days for you to judge." On Wednesday 23 June 2010, with the government in turmoil, Julia Gillard asked Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for a leadership ballot. The next day, Julia Gillard became Australia's 27th prime minister, and our first female leader.
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Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
- By Michael on 10-11-16
By: Julia Gillard
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The Audacity of Hope
- Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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In July 2004, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. Now, in The Audacity of Hope, Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics: a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the "endless clash of armies" we see in Congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of "our improbable experiment in democracy".
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My Fellow Conservatives, Give This A Listen
- By Dallas D.L. on 02-12-15
By: Barack Obama
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Willful Blindness
- Why We Ignore the Obvious at Our Peril
- By: Margaret Heffernan
- Narrated by: Margaret Heffernan
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret Heffernan argues that the biggest threats and dangers we face are the ones we don't see - not because they're secret or invisible, but because we're willfully blind. A distinguished businesswoman and writer, she examines the phenomenon and traces its imprint in our private and working lives, and within governments and organizations, and asks: What makes us prefer ignorance? What are we so afraid of? Why do some people see more than others? And how can we change?
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How Not to Be the Blind Leading the Blind
- By Cynthia on 06-29-13
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Asperger's Children
- The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna
- By: Edith Sheffer
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1930s and 1940s Vienna, child psychiatrist Hans Asperger sought to define autism as a diagnostic category, aiming to treat those children, usually boys, he deemed capable of participating fully in society. Depicted as a compassionate and devoted researcher, Asperger was in fact deeply influenced by Nazi psychiatry. Although he did offer individualized care to children he deemed promising, he also prescribed harsh institutionalization and even transfer to Spiegelgrund for children with greater disabilities, who, he held, could not integrate into the community.
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Powerful but partial analysis
- By Mira Krishnan on 12-17-20
By: Edith Sheffer
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This Noble Land
- My Vision For America
- By: James A. Michener
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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This Noble Land is Michener's most personal statement about America, an examination of the issues that threaten to fragment and undermine the nation - racial conflict, the widening gulf between rich and poor, the decline of education, the inadequacies of our health care system - as well as a thought-provoking prescription for sustaining our "outstanding success". First published shortly before Michener's death, This Noble Land stands as a wake-up call for a troubled era, infused with the wisdom and passion of a lifetime.
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A startling realization
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-15
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Rising to the Challenge
- My Leadership Journey
- By: Carly Fiorina
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Fiorina shares the lessons she's learned from both her difficulties and triumphs. Drawing on her experience as a pioneering business and nonprofit leader, a politically active citizen, and a parent, she diagnoses the largest problem facing our country today: untapped potential. Too often American men and women are held back by systems that prevent them from working and flourishing. Too many people lose hope for themselves.
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A must share book!
- By Teresa Holman on 08-20-16
By: Carly Fiorina
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Rwanda, Inc.
- How a Devastated Nation Became an Economic Model for the Developing World
- By: Patricia Crisafulli, Andrea Redmond
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Eighteen years after the genocide that made Rwanda international news, yet left it all but abandoned by the West, the country has achieved a miraculous turnaround. Rising out of the complete devastation of a failed state, Rwanda has emerged on the world stage yet again - this time with a unique model for governance and economic development under the leadership of its strong and decisive president, Paul Kagame. Here, Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond look at Kagame’s leadership.
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Paul Kagame is a dictator, not a savior.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-21-21
By: Patricia Crisafulli, and others
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A Collective Bargain
- Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy
- By: Jane McAlevey
- Narrated by: Jane McAlevey
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Collective Bargain, longtime labor organizer, environmental activist, and political campaigner Jane McAlevey makes the case that unions are a key institution capable of taking effective action against today’s super-rich corporate class. Since the 1930s, when unions flourished under New Deal protections, corporations have waged a stealthy and ruthless war against the labor movement. And they’ve been winning.
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Disappointing
- By Ellen on 01-26-20
By: Jane McAlevey
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The Story of Jane
- The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service
- By: Laura Kaplan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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First published in 1997, The Story of Jane recounts the evolution of Jane, the underground group in Chicago that performed abortion services before the procedure was legalized. An extraordinary history by one of its members, this is the first account of Jane's evolution, the conflicts within the group, and the impact its work had both on the women it helped and the members themselves.
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Will we need Jane again?
- By kate2010 on 10-28-20
By: Laura Kaplan