Kate and Tafara's episode examines how disease can marginalize certain groups of people and, in turn, impact labor. With the use of the archival pamphlets “What is HIV Infection and What is AIDS,” “AIDs and the Law,” and “When AIDs Comes Home,” these hosts look at the HIV/AIDs panic and connect what we find to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. On top of having to go through treatments and physical hardships, discrimination created by these diseases made it extremely hard for those affected by it to get and keep jobs. The question they aim to answer is: how does a stigmatized disease impact employer and community relationships?

Cover photo by the National Cancer Institute on Unsplash.