Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows

Among the most staggering and painful aspects of the AIDS crisis was the degree to which it was willfully ignored by a society that believed it was happening on the margins. And so Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows, a podcast co-produced by The History Channel and WNYC Studios, acts as both a corrective and a testament. The podcast makes the case that AIDS touched vastly more corners of American life than is commonly recalled, drawing upon testimony from physicians, activists, politicians, and more who bore witness. A common theme emerges over six episodes: in the absence of national leadership, community members must rely on one another to make it through. And in that same absence, tenacity—again and again, in stories ranging from hospital wards to prisons to needle exchanges—is the weapon that can, very gradually, move us toward progress. For its excavation of recent history and prismatic sense of the AIDS crisis as an endless series of stories about connection and resilience, Blindspot: The Plague in the Shadows wins a Peabody Award.