HPPR Health, Education & Welfare

I’m Mike Strong from Hays for HPPR, Radio Reader’s Book Club.  The book is “Neither Wolf Nor Dog” by Kent Nerburn. On occasion I think of this book as “The Excellent Adventures of Dan and George - with Nerburn.” Kent Nerburn, the author, tells his own “swimmer out of the swimming pool” story as he is educated by Dan and George in Native representations.

Dan, in particular is instructing, Nerburn, a writer who is not of Dan’s nation, how to think about and see Native America.

This is Mike Strong, in Hays, for HPPR Radio Reader’s Book Club. The book is “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” by Anne Fadiman

For me, the “nut” of Anne Fadiman’s story of Lia Lee, a child she met only after Lia was in a persistent vegetative state, the “nut” is the community of which Lia is a part, though she is not conscious of any of them.

This spring the HPPR readers’ book club is reading Anne Fadiman’s “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”. I am Phillip Periman in Amarillo here to give you a little background on this narrative, non-fiction book which was published in 1997 and is the story of the cross-cultural conflict between modern American medicine and a family of refugee Hmong whose baby daughter Lia had a seizure disorder. The child had 17 admissions and over 100 clinic visits to the Merced medical community between the ages of three months and four year.

Hi, I’m Valerie a radio reader from Topeka and I’m in the middle of reading The Spirit Catches you and you Fall Down: a Hmong Child, Her American Doctors and the Collision of Two Cultures by Anne Fadiman. This book is part of HPPRs Radio Readers Book Club this go round with the theme Cultures in a Common Land.

Most of this book is about the clash of cultures and outlook towards healing and spirituality. Interestingly, I could totally relate to the Hmong point of view, as opposed to the American doctors.

Thank you for joining us on the High Plains Public Radio Station. My name is Jessica Sadler, and I am a Science Teacher and STEAM facilitator in Olathe, Kansas. I am here with the other book leaders to discuss When the Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. For all initial appearances this is based on the true case of Lia Lee, a young Hmong girl with epilepsy and the battle forged by her family with the westernized world of medicine. However, there is a strong opportunity for learning more about the Hmong people and their centuries of history up to present day.

This is Phillip Periman in Amarillo speaking about the HPPR Reader’s Book Club This spring we are reading Anne Fadiman’s non-fiction, narrative story of the cross-cultural conflict between western medicine and a Hmong family(the Lees) whose 3 month old daughter, Lia, has a seizure disorder which in their language is called  kow da pays which means The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. Fadiman uses this as the title of her book.

You are listening to the High Plains Public Radio Reader’s Book Club. My name is Freddy Gipp, I am an enrolled member of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma, and my Indian name is T’san T’hoop Ah’n, meaning “Lead Horse”, in the Kiowa language, I graduated from the University of Kansas and head a small community development firm based in Lawrence, KS.

In her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Anne Fadiman tells the story of Lia Lee, a young Hmong girl whose epilepsy was diagnosed in Merced, California.

This is Phillip Periman in Amarillo giving listeners a taste of what we are reading in the HPPR readers’ book club this spring. Anne Fadiman’s non-fiction narrative story of the cross-cultural conflict between a Hmong family whose baby girl has a seizure disorder and modern western medicine came out in 1997. Her title came from the Hmong name for the illness qaug dab peg(kow da pays) which translates: “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”.

This is Leslie VonHolten with another HPPR Radio Readers Book Byte.

A lifetime of reading books teaches you that words—English words, anyway—are expandable, malleable vessels of seemingly endless meaning. As I read Anne Fadiman’s incredible book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, I kept chewing on one word in particular: Culture. Such a small word, culture. Interesting how in the United States, we load that small word up with so much  complexity and contradictory simplicity—with such respect and dismissal.

 Hello, Radio Readers. I’m Jane Holwerda from Dodge City, Kansas.  Our Spring Read, Cultures in a Common Land, invites us to think about conflicts between our ways of life and the customs, habits, and traditions of others.  We began our spring read with Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible, a novel that plunks a 1950’s family from the American South into the middle of the African Congo.  Not versed in the customs or the geography of the land, and slow to learn, each member of the Price family adapts or dies.

Nonprofits across our region have had to do some fancy footwork to keep their organizations afloat throughout an economic downturn and pandemic. However, they’ve risen to the occasion with innovative, virtual care and online events. Today, we checked in with David DeLoach, the Early Intervention Program Director at Russell Child Development Center in Garden City, Kansas.

Happy Fourth of July, High Plains. (Well, a little early, but IT'S ALL I GOT!) Today on High Plains Morning, I talked to Jill Bronaugh, the Public Information Manager for the Office of the State Fire Marshal for Kansas. She shared some great tips and reminders regarding safety for this year's holiday weekend. Not only do you need ot be mindlful of fireworks, but this year also has a lot of other risks due to the pandemic.

I think I’m losing my romantic touch. The other evening I was attempting to flirt with Joel, and I said, “Hey baby, can you do that thing I love so much?”

He looked up from his newspaper and replied, “The dishes or the laundry?”