KFF Health News reporter Cara Anthony has covered racism and how it can affect people’s health for years. The project focuses on two murders of black men that occurred decades apart in Sikeston, Missouri: a lynching in 1942 and a police shooting in 2020.
Michael B. Thomas for KFF Health News
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Michael B. Thomas for KFF Health News
KFF Health News reporter Cara Anthony has covered racism and how it can affect people’s health for years. The project focuses on two murders of black men that occurred decades apart in Sikeston, Missouri: a lynching in 1942 and a police shooting in 2020.
Michael B. Thomas for KFF Health News
Racism is often treated as a political, cultural or media subject. But how does this affect our health?
This is the question that Cara Antoinethe KFF News journalist wanted to respond. And she wanted to address it not only on an individual scale, but also on a community scale: examining the medical impact of trauma that crosses families and generations, and how to treat it. So, for several years, she has been reporting on a small town in the Midwest that illustrates this health problem: Sikeston, Missouri.
Today on the show, Cara walks as host Emily Kwong through Sikeston’s history — and what residents and medical experts have to say about how that history continues to shape the present. Additionally, what is the treatment for generational trauma?
To learn more about Cara’s reporting, you can check out KFF Health News’ documentary and four-part podcast series, Silence in Sikeston.
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This episode was produced by Hannah Chinn and edited by our showrunner, Rebecca Ramirez. Cara, Hannah and Tyler Jones fact-checked. Patrick Murray was the sound engineer.
Thanks to the KFF Health News team behind Silence in Sikeston, including but not limited to Cara Anthony, Simone Popperl, Taylor Cook, Taunya English and Zach Dyer.