Lost Prologue

This episode uncovers the decades-long pursuit to reconstruct the deadliest pathogen in human history and the lessons learned about what made the 1918 virus so lethal.

This episode examines the ways that Americans were differentially and inequitably impacted by the 1918 virus — how their experiences varied based on age, race, class, and region.

Chapter 1, The Cost of War, explores the inextricable link between World War I and the Spanish flu...the ways that the movement of soldiers accelerated the spread of the virus and the role that the press and political censorship had on silencing this story.