Today we get to talk to my friend Emily Bass, the debut author of the extraordinary book TO END A PLAGUE: America’s Fight to Defeat AIDS in Africa. This book is…

• An essential history of a U.S. government program.

• A history of the evolution of AIDS activism, and human dignity activism, in the US and in several African nations, Uganda in particular.

• A history of some of people in whose bodies both the virus and the drug treatment lived.

• A history of the potential and the limits of foreign developmental aid. 

And the book is a love letter to “people without visible power having enormous power.” And also a legislative thriller and a medical thriller and a heartbreaker and a roadmap for dealing with pandemics!

Em and I talk about writing puzzles, the work of managing decades of reporting, why she shows up in the narrative, and what PEPFAR and AIDS can teach us about handling the next plague.

Enjoy!

Join us this summer to write your book. Or blog post! Or journal! At READ TO ME Literary Arts salons, workshops, and coaching sessions, we know you can write amazing things — and so you do. www.readtomepod.com