Laura Rothenberg spent most of her life knowing she was going to die young.
She had cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs. When she was born, the life expectancy for people with CF was around 18 years. (It's more than double that now.) Laura liked to say she went through her mid-life crisis when she was a teenager.
I met Laura when she was 19. I gave her a tape recorder. And for two years, she kept an audio diary of her battle with cystic fibrosis and her attempts to live a normal life - with lungs that often betrayed her.
The Two Lives of Asa Carter
When Ground Zero was Radio Row
Last Witness: The Kerner Commission
Prisoners of War
The Gospel Ranger
The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records
From the Archive: Josh's Diary
The Tulsa Race Massacre, 100 Years Later
Juan, 25 Years Later
25 Years of Radio Diaries
Busman's Holiday
The Last Place: Diary of a Retirement Home
Fly Girls
Burma '88: Buried History
Living with Dying
Teen Contender: Then & Now
America Vs. America
Love from Six Feet Apart (Revisited)
Love at First Quarantine, The Sequel
Centenarians (Still) in Lockdown
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Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace