Where Were You

Producer Christine Lesiak shares a personal essay about the wake-up call of COVID-19 and how it resonates through the history of Nebraska, and the world. Christine and her crew were nearly stranded in Boston while working on a documentary about Thomas Wilkins, Director of the Omaha Symphony, when the pandemic shutdown began. Her essay turns back the clock to reveal how America’s first Native doctor, Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte, battled a tuberculosis epidemic that devastated the Omaha tribe and the horror of the Spanish flu reflected in the experiences of Willa Cather and General John Pershing.