S5, Ep8 Ruth Coker Burks: All the Young Men

S5, Ep8 Ruth Coker Burks: All the Young Men

Author: Hay Festival April 15, 2022 Duration: 0:00

A gripping and triumphant tale of human compassion, All the Young Men is the true story of a young, single mother who finds herself driven to the forefront of the AIDS crisis and who risks everything to give victims back their humanity. In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth Corker Burks visited a friend in hospital when she noticed that the door to one of the patient’s rooms is painted red. The nurses were reluctant to enter, drawing straws to decide who will tend to the sick person inside. Out of impulse, Ruth herself entered the quarantined space and begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. And in doing so, Ruth’s own life changes forever. Ruth goes from being an ordinary young mother in Hot Springs, Arkansas to an accidental activist, the only person willing to help the young men afflicted by the growing AIDS crisis in her deeply conservative community.

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Author: Language: English Episodes: 71

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S6, Ep12 Damon Galgut on his 2021 Man Booker Prize winner The Promise [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 0:00
Damon Galgut’s 2021 Booker Prize-winning novel charts a country in transition and a family in crisis. He discusses The Promise with author Elizabeth Day, as well as talking to Poppy Evans about everyday observations and…