Speaker 1: Pushkin. Six years ago, before podcasting was even a twinkle
Speaker 1: in my eye, I wrote a screenplay for a TV series.
Speaker 1: It was called Druid Hills, my first and only screenplay.
Speaker 1: I spent a year on it. In the opening scene,
Speaker 1: a battered Honda pulls up to a house on a long,
Speaker 1: leafy street. Angela Nation thirty one is behind the wheel, jeans,
Speaker 1: Afro sunglasses. She's beautiful, though trying not to be. The
Speaker 1: car looks like a family's been living in the backseat.
Speaker 1: She pulls up to an immaculate Victorian. A petite, very
Speaker 1: proper African American woman comes out the front door, Ingrid
Speaker 1: James sixty three. She gets in, Let's be clear, nothing
Speaker 1: happened with Dude Hills. I got as far as pitching
Speaker 1: it to a Hollywood studio. I shouldn't say who. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: it was Fox. Imagine a room full of TV executives
Speaker 1: around a table. I talked about the big themes, the theories, race, conscience, conspiracies, corruption,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. I waved my hands in the air
Speaker 1: for a good hour. The room was hushed, and when
Speaker 1: I was done, the executive in charge said, we love it,
Speaker 1: but do you think you could work in a car chase.
Speaker 1: Things went downhill from there. My name is Malcolm Glabow.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things overlooked
Speaker 1: and misunderstood. This is part one of what will be
Speaker 1: two bonus episodes for the holiday season. I'm going to
Speaker 1: answer your listener questions, riff on things Revisionist History ish,
Speaker 1: and tell random stories, including in part two, what about
Speaker 1: my Dad, another about a famous rapper, and beginning in
Speaker 1: an act of shameless self promotion, with the story of
Speaker 1: my failed screenplay. We brought it to life with the
Speaker 1: help of the Pushkin theatrical players. I promise the point
Speaker 1: of all this will be clear. In a moment, Angela
Speaker 1: looks over at Ingrid season Atlanta Hawks cap in the
Speaker 1: bag by Ingrid's feet. Oh, Ingrid a Hawks cap? Wait?
Speaker 1: You made? Why it take you to a game? Ingrid
Speaker 1: leans forward and pushes the cap down in the bag
Speaker 1: so it's no longer visible. My one indulgence, Angela rarely
Speaker 1: gets the upper hand on Ingrid. Do you have one
Speaker 1: of those big foam number one hands? I most certainly
Speaker 1: do not. Will you make buy you big things of popcorn?
Speaker 1: Ingrid shutters involuntarily, then with a mischievous glint. Although I
Speaker 1: did once try out for the Hawks cheerleading team. What
Speaker 1: it was the seventies. She makes a dismissive move with
Speaker 1: her hand, as if that explains everything. I thought they
Speaker 1: were dances. I did ballet, you know, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: it would be so vulgar. The men play a beautiful game,
Speaker 1: the women shake their bosoms. Angela instinctively does up the
Speaker 1: lower of the two open buttons on her blouse. They
Speaker 1: had a player named John Drew. Oh, my ingrid geze
Speaker 1: is out the window. It's nice to be reminded of
Speaker 1: those days. My screenplay was set in Atlanta. Now why
Speaker 1: did I write a screenplay set in Atlanta? Because I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with Atlanta. Ask anyone who knows me. I'm always
Speaker 1: threatening to move there. You know, people always say such
Speaker 1: and such is the future of America. Texas is the
Speaker 1: future of America. Florida is the future of America. No,
Speaker 1: no, no no. Best case scenario for all of us is
Speaker 1: if Atlanta is the future of America. Because Atlanta is
Speaker 1: the most wonderful mash up of all the most wonderful
Speaker 1: bits and pieces of this country. Birthplace of the Civil
Speaker 1: Rights Movement, Janelle Manet and Wonderland and Gucci Main and Migoes,
Speaker 1: and basically half the entire hip hop world See an
Speaker 1: End Jimmy Carter, Stacy Abrams, the best Indian food in
Speaker 1: the US outside of Queens, the Running Oval at Piedmont Park,
Speaker 1: Little Tart bake Shop, I could go on. I was
Speaker 1: once in my favorite coffee shop in Atlanta and realized
Speaker 1: that around me were a rock band writing lyrics, a
Speaker 1: couple of folks having a Bible study, someone from the
Speaker 1: Mayor's office, and a handful of moms with kids, all representing,
Speaker 1: by my count at least six different ethnicities and an
Speaker 1: age range of maybe seventy yours. How beautiful is that?
Speaker 1: I love Atlanta? And I thought that if I sat
Speaker 1: a TV series in Atlanta and somehow magically it got made,
Speaker 1: then I'd have an excuse to go there all the time.
Speaker 1: How have you been, I'm recovering getting there. I've spent
Speaker 1: seven years buried away day and night. Then one day
Speaker 1: it's over. It's almost like I got a divorce. I'll
Speaker 1: tell you the whole story someday. I already know Jesus,
Speaker 1: I will always watch out for you, my dear, remember
Speaker 1: that by the way to break in here. This is
Speaker 1: an allusion to the dark mystery at the heart of
Speaker 1: the story. She reaches over and grasps Angela's hand briefly.
Speaker 1: Ingrid is not one for prolonged displays of ocean. The
Speaker 1: two of them sit in companionable silence from Grant Park,
Speaker 1: the grittiness of the old fourth Ward, finally regal Druid Hills,
Speaker 1: leafy streets, turn of the century mansions. Ingrid is now
Speaker 1: back to her church lady routine, adjusting her hair in
Speaker 1: the visor mirror, subject closed, we see a big sign
Speaker 1: Emory University Hospital. Angela heads toward the main entrance. Ingrid
Speaker 1: shakes her head. Angela keeps driving around to the loading
Speaker 1: docks at the back. Ingrid smiles at Angela touches her
Speaker 1: arm affectionately as she exits the car. There's something so
Speaker 1: ostentatious about the front door. Dold you thank our hero.
Speaker 1: Angela Nation and her mysterious sidekick Ingrid James are brilliant
Speaker 1: scientists on the faculty of the Medical Center at Emory University,
Speaker 1: hence the title Druid Hills. That's the neighborhood in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: where Emory is now. You may have noticed that Emory
Speaker 1: University is the sponsor of this bonus episode of our
Speaker 1: visioner's history. Emory came to us and asked if they
Speaker 1: could talk about some of the work they've been doing
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. And it's super interesting, as you'll hear
Speaker 1: in a moment. But the offer made me happy for
Speaker 1: more selfish reasons as well. The first time I went
Speaker 1: to Atlanta nearly thirty years ago was to visit Emory.
Speaker 1: I was a science reporter back then for the Washington Post,
Speaker 1: and if you write about American medicine, you eventually make
Speaker 1: the pilgrimage to Emory. Emory is how I got obsessed
Speaker 1: with Atlanta. My disaster of a screenplay was a medical
Speaker 1: mystery set at Emory. I mean, what are the odds?
Speaker 1: How often does life come together so beautifully and serendipitously
Speaker 1: under the sacred umbrella of the four or four area code.
Speaker 1: See here we are Revisionist History Bonus Holiday Atlanta Edition
Speaker 1: Part one. All right, before we go any further, I
Speaker 1: want to explain why Emory is such a magical place
Speaker 1: for people interested in medicine. Healthcare has been part of
Speaker 1: Emory since the campus moved from a small town east
Speaker 1: of Atlanta to Atlanta in about nineteen fifteen, and at
Speaker 1: that point the Atlanta Medical College became part of Emory
Speaker 1: University as a school of Medicine. This is Greg Fenvis,
Speaker 1: the university's president. A decade or so after that. One
Speaker 1: of the most important benefactors for Emory University Robert W. Woodruff.
Speaker 1: He's the Coca Cola guy, right, He is the legendary
Speaker 1: CEO of Coca Cola. But mister Woodruff, as we call
Speaker 1: him here at Emory, loved the rural areas in his
Speaker 1: ranch and South Georgia malaria was a huge problem, and
Speaker 1: so Georgia as a state was one of the leaders
Speaker 1: in developing treatments for malaria in the early part of
Speaker 1: the twentieth century. Years later, after World War Two, mister
Speaker 1: Woodruff was very good friends with Dwight D. Eisenhower. Malary
Speaker 1: had been a big problem in World War Two that
Speaker 1: Eisenhower had had to deal with, and so the federal
Speaker 1: government wanted to establish a research center to solve malaria,
Speaker 1: treat malaria, prevent malaria, and mister Woodruff, through his friendship
Speaker 1: with President Eisenhower, had it located on Emory property, which
Speaker 1: became the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that is
Speaker 1: now not only across the street, it's actually on the
Speaker 1: Emery campus. And so that relationship between Emory It's School
Speaker 1: of Medicine and focus on affectious diseases, and the CDC
Speaker 1: has been very, very close since World War Two. One
Speaker 1: of the heroes of the AIDS epidemic was Jim Curran,
Speaker 1: head of the CDC in the nineteen eighties. He's now
Speaker 1: the dean of the Public Health School at Emory. Emory
Speaker 1: was where one of the most important drugs against HIV
Speaker 1: M treva was discovered. When the American medical workers who
Speaker 1: had fallen ill with ebola in Africa a few years
Speaker 1: ago came home to be treated, where did they go
Speaker 1: Emory because Emory was one of the few places set
Speaker 1: up in this country to treat them. Tucked away in
Speaker 1: Druid Hills is a really remarkable place that has played
Speaker 1: a key role in our understanding of infectious diseases for
Speaker 1: seventy five years, which is something to be grateful for,
Speaker 1: especially now. My favorite part of Emory is the Yerkes
Speaker 1: National Primate Research Center, one of the oldest and biggest
Speaker 1: non human research centers in the country three thousand non
Speaker 1: human primates and eight thousand rodents eight thousand. Do you
Speaker 1: know what the plot of my screenplay was. Our hero
Speaker 1: Angela was testing an experimental drug for Huntington's disease on
Speaker 1: a specially engineered strain of mice created by her boss
Speaker 1: Rajan at the Yerkey Center. The whole story was about
Speaker 1: mice and this Angela opens an adjoining door is where
Speaker 1: Rajan keeps his mice in metal cages. We see mouse
Speaker 1: after mouse, dozens of them, moving like old men. Rajan's
Speaker 1: Huntington's mice. The air is filled with a sound of
Speaker 1: feeble squeaks. Rajan is much better with mice than people.
Speaker 1: If there is anyone out there in Movieland who is
Speaker 1: interested in a screenplay about two black women from Atlanta
Speaker 1: trying to cure a deadly disease co starring a room
Speaker 1: full of specially engineered lab mice at the Yerkey Center,
Speaker 1: call me let's make this happen. Okay, Time for the
Speaker 1: listener mailbag, Ryan m Asks. If you could have dinner
Speaker 1: with any three people from history, who would they be
Speaker 1: and why? I think it would be my great grandmother's.
Speaker 1: I only met one of them, Martha Nation, a very
Speaker 1: regal Jamaican lady who, when she died in her late
Speaker 1: nineties had just a few strands of gray hair. She
Speaker 1: was the embodiment of black Don't Crack. But I never
Speaker 1: met the other three. How great would that be. Here's
Speaker 1: a comment from a listener on iTunes, d C Commute.
Speaker 1: You know I read the comments right. D C Commute says,
Speaker 1: I think you should revisit The Obscure Virus Club, Season four,
Speaker 1: episode ten. The recent success of vaccine development stands on
Speaker 1: the shoulders of giants. This is actually a great point
Speaker 1: and it deserves a long answer. Obscure Virus Club, if
Speaker 1: you haven't listened to it was about all group of
Speaker 1: virologists who spent years and years in a scientific wilderness
Speaker 1: studying a group of weird animal viruses that no one
Speaker 1: else thought were even remotely meaningful. They were ridiculed, ostracized.
Speaker 1: Then one day all those naysayers woke up and realized,
Speaker 1: oh the work these people were doing. Often the shadows
Speaker 1: is going to save the world. And if you want
Speaker 1: to know how the Obscure Virus Club save the world,
Speaker 1: you'll have to listen to the episode because I don't
Speaker 1: want to give away the ending. The point of the
Speaker 1: episode was that's how science works. Everything important and beautiful
Speaker 1: begins years and years earlier with someone's quixotic obsession. And
Speaker 1: so thanks for your comment, dese commute. This is absolutely
Speaker 1: the case with COVID vaccines as well. There are countless examples.
Speaker 1: But since we're telling Emery stories, let me pick one
Speaker 1: from one of their scientists, a guy named Rama Amara,
Speaker 1: who is so obscure Virus Club. In his case, his
Speaker 1: obsession was with something called the envy A vaccine. This
Speaker 1: is a vaccine made from the pox virus family. A
Speaker 1: version of it has been used as a vaccine against smallpox.
Speaker 1: It's been tweaked so that it can't cause disease anymore,
Speaker 1: but because it still resembles something menacing, the immune system
Speaker 1: goes on high alert the minute it comes across it.
Speaker 1: And the theory that scientists like Amara had was that
Speaker 1: if you tinkered with MBA and customized it, you could
Speaker 1: produce an immune response against other deadly infectious diseases. I
Speaker 1: was working on tuberculosis vaccines and I used to go
Speaker 1: to TV Sanatoria to collect samples from TV patients. That's
Speaker 1: when I started seeing HIV infection. That's amara. So then
Speaker 1: I developed interest in also developing a HIV vaccine. That's
Speaker 1: how I came to Emory to work on that problem.
Speaker 1: He moves to Atlanta to Emory, and just to put
Speaker 1: this in perspective, he moves to Atlanta in the year
Speaker 1: two thousand. So for twenty years his lab works on
Speaker 1: the problem, learning everything they can about how this particular vaccine,
Speaker 1: Emory MBA, interacts with the body's immune system. You've been
Speaker 1: working on this vaccine for this model for twenty years,
Speaker 1: as yet nothing had reached the market. Were did you
Speaker 1: get discouraged? Did you wonder whether anything, whether this research
Speaker 1: was ever going to bear fruit. Personally, I was not,
Speaker 1: but I have heard a lot of times from my
Speaker 1: friends that you know, this is going to be a
Speaker 1: long road, maybe you should start working on other vaccines
Speaker 1: as well, so that there is you know, some result
Speaker 1: at the end. So I was never going to leave
Speaker 1: the HIV vaccine at foot, but I did think about
Speaker 1: branching into other vaccines as well. So I was thinking too.
Speaker 1: We started actually working on vaccines for TB so that
Speaker 1: was that's where I started it's again a hard target.
Speaker 1: So you pick two of the toughest targets out there. Yes,
Speaker 1: you're someone with you're a glutton for punishment, that's true.
Speaker 1: So but I wanted to tackle something really challenging. And
Speaker 1: then what happens COVID and we had a meeting in
Speaker 1: the center at the Yerkes Primate Center and all for
Speaker 1: colleagues got together and we were talking about what we
Speaker 1: should be doing. I think that was towards the end
Speaker 1: of February or beginning of March. I think then at
Speaker 1: that point it you know, I came back to my
Speaker 1: lab from the meeting. Then I was discussing with my people.
Speaker 1: You know, it would be good to make a vaccine,
Speaker 1: but do you think we have the band it right now?
Speaker 1: And then they all said no, no, no, we really
Speaker 1: want to do it. And they were also excited. They
Speaker 1: everybody wanted to do it, so that gave me a
Speaker 1: lot of push and then I decided that we should
Speaker 1: do one. We should make one. And what the idea
Speaker 1: was that if you'd made such progress against HIV, and
Speaker 1: HIV is much harder target, the notion was, well, we
Speaker 1: should be able to make really good inroads against COVID.
Speaker 1: It was that the thinking. Yes, that's the thinking. HIV
Speaker 1: is hard to make a vaccine against because it mutates
Speaker 1: like crazy. So you have to design a vaccine that
Speaker 1: can handle all these constant changes. And HIV integrates into
Speaker 1: your body's DNA, it literally becomes part of you. HIV
Speaker 1: is mount Everest. Then COVID comes along and it doesn't
Speaker 1: mutate as much, doesn't hide in your DNA, and Amara realizes,
Speaker 1: I can make my vaccine climb that mountain. Had you
Speaker 1: not done those two decades of proper story work, you
Speaker 1: would not have been in a position to jump on.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't know whether MVA was a safe and effective
Speaker 1: vehicle for COVID. If you hadn't done all of that
Speaker 1: preparatory work with HIV, no, I would not have any clue. Now,
Speaker 1: will the Emory MBA vaccine turn out to be effective
Speaker 1: against COVID? We don't know yet. It's still being tested.
Speaker 1: At best, it's a second generation vaccine after the first
Speaker 1: wave of vaccines that were created in record time. But
Speaker 1: if the Emory vaccine works, it will be a crucial addition.
Speaker 1: The first wave vaccines are all super specific. They work
Speaker 1: against COVID nineteen. This covid, the emory MVA vaccine, would
Speaker 1: be different because it triggers a much broader immune response.
Speaker 1: It could work against news strains of covid. It could
Speaker 1: conceivably be used as a booster to extend your initial
Speaker 1: vaccine immunity. Here's my point. The lone success story in
Speaker 1: the pandemic thus far has been medical science. We have
Speaker 1: vaccines available just over a year after the pandemic started.
Speaker 1: That's bananas. But we shouldn't draw the lesson from this
Speaker 1: that science is fast. Science only looks fast. It's actually
Speaker 1: really slow. The quote unquote sudden development usually has twenty
Speaker 1: years of work behind it, and you can't order up
Speaker 1: progress because sometimes the magic happens only at the end
Speaker 1: of a wandering, serendipitous journey that may have looked like
Speaker 1: folly before it became a success. And what all this
Speaker 1: means is that progress doesn't come from ideas. It comes
Speaker 1: from places where smart people have the time and freedom
Speaker 1: to wander around and make mistakes and pursue interesting ideas
Speaker 1: that one day may end up saving your life. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much, and good luck than We're all
Speaker 1: cheering for you. Thank you, thank you very much. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're back with more of your insightful listener questions. Marianna
Speaker 1: Missick at Marianna Missick writes, do you actually watch Friends?
Speaker 1: This is actually a question related to my book Talking
Speaker 1: to Strangers, which had an entire chapter on friends. And
Speaker 1: in answer to the question, of course I do. And
Speaker 1: while we're on the subject of friends, let me tell
Speaker 1: you the following true story. Now you need to know
Speaker 1: something about me before I start. I'm not good with faces.
Speaker 1: I usually identify people by the way they walk or
Speaker 1: how they dress. So this is years ago. I'm in
Speaker 1: a coffee shop in Miami, working away. Woman sits down
Speaker 1: next to me, leans over and says, super friendly, Hey,
Speaker 1: what's that you're eating? Is that good? And I'm working
Speaker 1: so I kind of grunt and ignore her. Five minutes pass,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, she was really attractive. Five
Speaker 1: more minutes pass, and I think, you know, she looked
Speaker 1: really familiar. Five more minutes pass, and I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Jennifer Aniston. By that time she was gone.
Speaker 1: My big chance at tabloid immortality, and I blew it. Next.
Speaker 1: Courtney Miller at CoA, Miller asks, is Canada better than America?
Speaker 1: Is that even a question. I actually thought of this
Speaker 1: a lot this past summer during all the George Floyd protests.
Speaker 1: You know how police departments all have slogans. In Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: the LAPD motto is to protect and to serve. In
Speaker 1: New York City it's fidelis ad mortem, faithful unto death.
Speaker 1: You know what it is in my hometown in Ontario,
Speaker 1: people helping people. Now, I don't want to read too
Speaker 1: much into the meaning of mottos, but if you live
Speaker 1: in a society struggling with persistent problems of police violence,
Speaker 1: would you be happier with a police department that thinks
Speaker 1: of itself as a quasi military force engaged in life
Speaker 1: or death struggles, or one that chooses to self identify
Speaker 1: as people helping people. I don't know. Mitch at Papa
Speaker 1: Mitchy asks who's smarter you or Michael Lewis Michael is
Speaker 1: Stivan close. Let's put it this way. If you said
Speaker 1: to me, would I trade Michael's literary output from my own?
Speaker 1: Would I do it? And the answer is in a heartbeat,
Speaker 1: I actually think that The Blindside is a perfect book.
Speaker 1: I would have retired after writing that and his podcast
Speaker 1: Against the Rules which he does for Pushkin, I might add,
Speaker 1: is so good. This is actually a great time for
Speaker 1: me to give you my grand unified theory of Michael
Speaker 1: Lewis Ready. It's that virtually every one of his books
Speaker 1: is a biblical allegory. It's why they strike such a chord.
Speaker 1: So Liar's Poker, his book about being a young naive
Speaker 1: college grad in the heart of a hostile Wall Street bank.
Speaker 1: That's Daniel in the Lionstand. The blind Side is Easy.
Speaker 1: A couple rescues a young boy literally as he is
Speaker 1: walking alone and neglected by the side of the road.
Speaker 1: That's the Good Samaritan Flashboys, his book about a group
Speaker 1: of people trying to clean up crooked trading on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: That's Jesus and the money Changers. My father's temple is
Speaker 1: a house of prayer. You have turned it into a
Speaker 1: nest of thieves. Moneyball, which is about a group of
Speaker 1: baseball executives finding value in a group of players others
Speaker 1: have overlooked. I mean, come on, that's Jesus and Mary Magdalene,
Speaker 1: the prostitute and the outcast he drafts onto his team.
Speaker 1: Just so you know, I once ran this theory by
Speaker 1: Michael Lewis and he looked at me like I was crazy.
Speaker 1: This next one is actually more of a comment than
Speaker 1: a question from Ryan x J nine hundred on iTunes
Speaker 1: boring two stars. I tried, it just didn't interest me.
Speaker 1: Scroll through the episode titles and see for yourself. It's
Speaker 1: kind of random and nothing all too interesting. Man, Wait,
Speaker 1: isn't it's kind of random? A compliment I live for
Speaker 1: kind of random, Ryan, dude, lighten up? Okay? Final question
Speaker 1: from Twitter from normal guy one. What show idea that
Speaker 1: didn't make the cut was most surprising? Also? What idea
Speaker 1: ended up being different than expected? Well, it was this, Wait, Casey,
Speaker 1: can you play that song for us? Is it going
Speaker 1: to be too Let's say? Okay, okay, Well we'll see
Speaker 1: if this happens. She grew up playing Calgar girl in
Speaker 1: bill Road Town Dream and she'd see, oh shoot, hold on.
Speaker 1: I went to Nashville when I was reporting the final
Speaker 1: episode of season three, which may be my favorite ever
Speaker 1: analysis para praxis Elvis. It's about the one song Elvis
Speaker 1: couldn't sing, and I arranged for a session musician to
Speaker 1: do a version of Elvis's song for me, very straightforward.
Speaker 1: So this musician Casey Bowles shows up. We start talking
Speaker 1: and eventually I persuaded her to sing one of her
Speaker 1: own songs, and it's one of the most magical moments
Speaker 1: I think in all of Provision's history. Dream and she'd
Speaker 1: see HollyHood Sunday she knew song is done friday e
Speaker 1: with the in here just right, they would come and
Speaker 1: carry away as far as shake CAUs say. I never
Speaker 1: thought when I started this podcast that it would be
Speaker 1: a way of making friends, but it has. Anyway, I've
Speaker 1: stayed in touch with Casey and she's made some new music,
Speaker 1: including a song for kids called Dare to Be Me,
Speaker 1: which is really really lovely. Dare to bed to be
Speaker 1: Dare to be Mamma. Stay tuned to this feed for
Speaker 1: another bonus episode because I can't quit you, Atlanta, but
Speaker 1: for now, this is what I'd like to leave you with,
Speaker 1: Casey Bowls, Dare to Be Me. Happy Holidays. Everyone. One
Speaker 1: of a gun, said Zacha back with Dancer rights, Lions
Speaker 1: of Paper, Ling of Lion and a Sky photopiga and
Speaker 1: a viduality no carbon copy blazon Maya Mason with the
Speaker 1: speed of a Ferrari. Original's history is produced by Mia Lobell.
Speaker 1: And Leaming Gistu with Jacob Smith, Eloise Linton, Kobe Guildford
Speaker 1: and Annanim. Our editor is Julia Barton. Original scoring by
Speaker 1: Louis Guerra, mastering by Flawn Williams. Special thanks to the
Speaker 1: Pushkin crew had a fine Carly Migliori, Maya Kanig, Maggie Taylor,
Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Jason Gambrel, Emily Rostek and of course el
Speaker 1: Hafe Jacob Weisberg. And special thanks to our actors. Angela
Speaker 1: Nation was played by Miriam Victoria Simmons, Ingrid James and
Speaker 1: the narrator were all played by Anto Jacob, who actually
Speaker 1: has a short film out called Love and Submission which
Speaker 1: you should look up. And finally, extra special thanks to
Speaker 1: Emery University, Greg Fendz, Rama Amara, Robert Goddard and my
Speaker 1: mysterious behind the scenes friend Dan who made this happen.
Speaker 1: Oh and will someone please buy my screenplay please? I'm
Speaker 1: Malcolm Gradboda to damn damn to me, Damn to me,
Speaker 1: damn damn damn me. Interior Doctor's office, Emory University Hospital Day.
Speaker 1: An elderly African American woman sits alone. Eden Cummings seventy
Speaker 1: six is dressed as if for church. Blue dress pearls,
Speaker 1: her hair is all gray. She's reading Brown Face, Big Master.
Speaker 1: The door opens in walks Angela Nation, reviewing a clipboard
Speaker 1: in her hand. Nerves, Can you tell me? When the
Speaker 1: doctor gets to Angela stops. She turns to face Eden,
Speaker 1: and for a long tense moment, their eyes lock, they
Speaker 1: break into peals of laughter. You must get that lot,
Speaker 1: not as much as you do. Eden nods her head slowly.
Speaker 1: How is Mike. He drove to the supermarket last week
Speaker 1: and turned left out the driveway instead of right. He's
Speaker 1: made that tim for forty years. It's time to take
Speaker 1: away his keys. He's eighty four. He's eighty four. Angela
Speaker 1: says nothing. She waits for Eden to speak again. Why
Speaker 1: did you want me to come in by myself? Doctor
Speaker 1: Bennett always had us come in together. I know what
Speaker 1: doctor Cole did, but you're stuck with me now. If
Speaker 1: Mike comes here, the optimologists will get all worked up
Speaker 1: about his glaucoma, give him drops which will irritate his eyes,
Speaker 1: even though he's ten years before that becomes a problem.
Speaker 1: The cardiologist will tell him to change his diet and
Speaker 1: eat things that he's hated. His entire life, and I'll
Speaker 1: diagnose him with early stage Alzheimer's, which will turn him
Speaker 1: from a human being into a patient. He's eighty four.
Speaker 1: Eden is becoming emotional and trying her best to hide it.
Speaker 1: Angela waits, lets her regain her composure. Are the two
Speaker 1: of you happy eten? Knots? How are the grandkids good eating? Knots?
Speaker 1: You don't need me, not yet. She escorts Eden to
Speaker 1: the door, sits back down at her desk, takes out
Speaker 1: an enormous ham sandwich and a bag of potato chips,
Speaker 1: and painstakingly places the contents of the bag, chip by
Speaker 1: chip between the two slices. Then she takes out her
Speaker 1: cell phone, takes a picture of the fortified sandwich and
Speaker 1: posts it to her Instagram