Vidya Krishnan - The Phantom Plague

Lekh

In the 28th episode, I speak to Vidya Krishnan, journalist and author of The Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis shaped History published by Hachette. The book’s a comprehensive and compelling social history of Tuberculosis ranging from the 19th century to its recent resurgence, especially across the developing world. The conversation begins by asking what prompted Vidya to begin working on the book and whether it began as a book on TB. Next, we cover the book’s critical framing that places and explains TB’s rise and resurgence through the emergence and perpetuation of systems of power that allows this scourge to persist across the developing world. Then, we unpack some of these special interests like the Gates Foundation that use their clout and influence to ensure this status quo remains. Krishnan also explains the difficulties of researching and writing about entities like the Gates Foundation given its sway over global health politics and policy. The conversation then moves to understand TB’s stubborn rise in India by looking at how the government has and has not handled the crisis before moving to understand how caste, class, and gender interacts with TB. Krishnan laments the paucity of stories of people who have and have had TB that could help sensitize the public about the disease and explains why we don’t get enough media coverage on TB. The conversation ends by asking what the hardest part of writing the book was and what Krishnan wants to do next.