Today my guest is author John Erickson. John is a journalist with over thirty years’ experience working at daily newspapers in Illinois and Ohio. A prominent reporter in local news, John led the coverage in three stories that earned him a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize, including a series that won a Pulitzer for National Reporting in 1998. His recently published book, When Mortals Play God : Eugenics and One Family’s Story of Tragedy, Loss, and Perseverance is a story about four generations of his family that have been impacted by atrocious interference from local government, which resulted in his grandmother Rose DeChaine being a victim of a eugenics birth control programme. This is not a sad story, but one of triumph and happiness, despite the loss and tragedy that happens along the way. I had a great conversation with John, so I hope you are sitting comfortably and happy to stay with us.
We started our conversation with me asking John about the reasons behind him writing the book (00:56), how important his great grandmother Mary was to the family (03:02) and how the health system was constantly working against his family (06:32). We then moved on to the story of Rose and how she was unfairly judged by the community around her (12:26), and how a minority of people in power were making life changing decisions without care for the long-term implications (14:08). We talked in depth about Rose’s son Ernie and how his fractured upbringing had devastating consequences (21:50), before moving on to the story of Robert who was placed into adoption and was never seen again by his mother or siblings (25:14). We finished with John’s mother Millie who at the age of 101 is still living an exciting and full life (31:52). Towards the end of our conversation we talked about the possibility of writing a separate story on his mother (34:44), and her reaction to the publication of the book (37:12).
Show Notes
- When Mortals Play God review
- Book sales portal
- John on LinkedIn
- Eugenics in the United States of America
- For more, hear my conversations with Clare Mulley, Prof. Pat O’Connor and Benjamin Chesterton
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