Thank God For Coney Island

StoryCorps

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2023

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1920, a father made a split-second decision to save his newborn's life by taking her to an incubator exhibit at Coney Island. We meet her in this episode, and she shares how a sideshow attraction saved her life, and thousands of others, when hospitals couldn't, ultimately changing the course of American medicine.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Dave Isay, founder of StoryCore.
0:03.2	Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial.
0:06.9	Did you know that a prepaid funeral plan is one of the greatest gifts you can give your
0:10.3	family, plan your life celebration in advance to protect your loved ones?
0:14.6	For additional information, visit DignityMemorial.com.
0:20.2	When I was born, my father said I was so tiny at only in his hand.
0:24.1	I think I was only about two pounds, and I couldn't live on my own.
0:27.7	I was too weak to survive.
0:29.6	So the hospital didn't have anything to do with it?
0:31.5	No, they didn't have any hope for me at all.
0:33.6	It was just your die because you didn't belong in the world.
0:38.1	In 1920, a father made a split-second decision during a moment of desperation.
0:43.9	My father was looking for a blanket or a towel to wrap me up and somebody said,
0:48.0	where are you going?
0:49.2	He said, I'm taking it to the incubator in Coney Island.
0:53.2	In this episode, how a side-show attraction saved thousands of lives and changed the course
0:59.0	of American medicine.
1:00.6	It's the StoryCore podcast from NPR.
1:04.1	I'm Camilla Cushani.
1:06.1	Even if you've never lived in New York City, you've probably heard of Coney Island.
1:26.7	It has a boardwalk, a theme park, Nathan's hot dogs, and this really rich, colorful, and
1:32.0	kind of bizarre history of freak shows.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -561 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.