Tribute to Charlotte Towle with Ner Littner, Pearl Rosenzweig, Alan Wade and Dame Eileen Younghusband.

"Hospital: An Oral History of Cook County Hospital" covers what was once the largest public hospital in the United States. With 6,000 employees, Sydney Lewis learned that County Hospital was a small city onto itself. One may have a long wait at the hospital, but Lewis found because of it's good health care, there was a kind of a loyalty toward County. With Chicago and its diversity, it was good for the people to see African American doctors and nurses that were black and brown, too.

Susan Nussbaum, founder of Access Living and Michael Pachovas founder of Disabled Prisoners Program discuss the upcoming Disabled Americans Freedom Rally in the backdrop of the International Year of the Disabled Persons and President Reagan's budget cuts. Society needs to understand that expenditures are required to secure the rights of disabled people to live active, productive lives. They need to be able to get out of their apartment buildings or homes, travel on sidewalks and ride buses. That may require access ramps, working elevators, cut curbs, and hydraulic buses to lower steps.

Studs Terkel interviews two representatives from Abbott Laboratories: Richard Kasperson, V.P. of corporate regulatory affairs, and Dr. Robert Janicki, V.P. of corporate clinical research. The topic of conversation is the prescribed use of Cylert, which was a trade name for the drug Pemoline. Cylert was used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. Janicki and Kasperson respond to claims that the drug was overprescribed to school-aged children.

What started out as a 5-piece article on health care became Laurie Abraham's book, "Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America". Through her stories, Abraham points out the many hardships and catch-22 scenarios of some poor families. One woman, after caring for her mother all day, Julie, wanted to work part time in the evenings. However, she soon learned that she'd be making too much money and she'd no longer be eligible for Medicaid for herself and her children.

As part of an on-going series, Chicago Sun Times reporter, Judy Nichol and her colleagues went to various high schools in Chicago and the suburbs to talk to students about drugs in the high schools. Lane Tech seniors Jim and Kurt said the reason they got into doing drugs was because of their peers and because they wanted to be a part of the crowd.

Joan Komaiko saw there were kids who could buy cartons of milk for four cents and the other kids who couldn't afford the milk, sat and watched the ones who drank the milk. Komaiko wrote a letter to the school board pointing out how kids couldn't do well at school because they were sent to school hungry. Dr. Quentin Young explained that the government needs to provide the children with breakfast and lunch at the schools because those two meals were probably the only meals children would receive that day.

Discussing the current production "E.R" (Emergency Room) with Organic Theatre company cast members Stuart Gordon, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Richard Fire and Gary Houston.

Discussing "The Damnedest Radical: The Life and World of Ben Reitman, Chicago's Celebrated Social Reformer, Hobo King, and Whorehouse Physician," (published by University of Illinois Press) with the author Roger Bruns.

Discussion about halfway houses with a panel of former halfway house residents.

Interviewing Dr. Quentin Young and others about Cook County Hospital and public health services in Chicago and throughout the country.

Dr. Young talks about his policy about addictive medications at Cook County Hospital, and about the financially driven connections between pharmaceutical companies and doctors.

Interview with Dr. Linda Murray and Dr. Quentin Young which discusses how closing public hospitals can affect minorities and less privileged communities. Also talks about the expectations of medical students and the dynamics of medical school.