ACT UP: A History Of AIDS/HIV Activism

June 19, 2021 9:54 PM

It's Been A Minute with Sam Sanders breaks out of its usual form and talks to Sarah Schulman ACT UP: A History Of AIDS/HIV Activism [50m]. Transcript sadly not available, but some quotes from the interview on the page.

Schulman draws from nearly 200 interviews with ACT UP members to document the movement's history and explore how the group's activism transformed the way the media, the government, corporations and medical professionals talked about AIDS and provided treatment. She and Sam discuss this transformation and its relevance to social movements today.

posted by hippybear (11 comments total)

That was very cool. I love Sam Sanders.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 8:39 AM on June 20, 2021

Thanks for this post! Related: I recommend Beats Per Minute as another insider's take on ACT UP history.

I was interested in how The New Yorker recently covered Schulman's book in print and on the podcast. Both Remnick and Specter display a sort of irritation with Schulman's continued radicalism and insistence that collective action is more important than the few charismatic and famous white men whose names are most remembered now. Specter rightfully points out some ways that ACT UP's analysis was just factually incorrect in the moment, and critiques Schulman's particular perspective in a way that had some merit but also seemed to me to be weirdly scolding and patronizing. Remnick got in a weird back and forth with her about Fauci - in which he seemed to sort of miss the point of what she was saying as it didn't fit in with a worldview that imagines a single individual as the way things happen in the world. In conclusion: liberal values continue to oppose more radical values - news at 11 I guess.
posted by latkes at 9:33 AM on June 20, 2021 [4 favorites]

Compare the New Yorker coverage to Parul Seghal's rapturous review of Let the Record Show in the New York Times. I actually think there's something really interesting going on with mainstream coverage of that book, which has to do with a generational change in who gets prominent positions in the mainstream liberal-ish media.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 9:50 AM on June 20, 2021 [3 favorites]

I talked to Sam just a few days ago and he mentioned that this episode was the first time IBAM had ever completely mirrored its broadcast and podcast episodes. Whereas normally the radio version is an amalgamation of the two weekly pods, he felt this was an important enough episode for the radio audience to hear in its entirety.
posted by mykescipark at 10:16 AM on June 20, 2021 [2 favorites]

I listened to this interview this morning on the NPR "Up First" podcast. Talk about an eye-opener. I didn't know that AIDS was originally referred to as GRID (Gay Related Immune Disorder).
posted by Roger Pittman at 10:48 AM on June 20, 2021

Wow, just finished listening. Amazing footage and nicely curated with the interview segments. The vulnerability of the closing was very moving.
posted by latkes at 1:00 PM on June 20, 2021

You might want to follow up listening to this with watching United in Anger a History of ACT-UP.
posted by brookeb at 1:07 PM on June 21, 2021

This was a fantastic listen with many things to learn about the past and future of activism. Thank you.
posted by lumpenprole at 5:43 PM on June 21, 2021

Many of the base interviews are transcribed at the ACT-UP Oral History Project, created by Sarah Schulman and Jim Hubbard -- portions of the audio are played in the NPR piece.
posted by Jesse the K at 2:48 PM on June 22, 2021

The ACT UP/NY Oral History project is an amazing archive. The GLBT Historical Society has a similar oral history project to collect stories from ACT UP members in San Francisco. I feel a bit like a broken record on this front, but Sarah Schulman, like David France, only covers ACT UP/NY, which was one group in a much larger international movement.
posted by gingerbeer at 3:05 PM on June 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

Ezra Klein's recent podcast with Sarah Schulman is a good listen too, and includes discussion of Israel/Palestine. Link includes transcript.
posted by michaelhoney at 1:40 AM on June 26, 2021