Created Equal, Season 2: Thomas Sugrue

Season 2 of “Created Equal,” hosted by Stephen Henderson, looks at the Flint Water Crisis from the point-of-view of key participants.

Thomas Sugrue, page 120, is a  Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History at NYU. A specialist in twentieth-century American politics, urban history, civil rights, and race. He is the author of “The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit.

WDET’s “Created Equal” Season 2 focuses on the Flint Water Crisis and the elected officials, health care and environmental experts, and citizens who were on the ground from the beginning.

The podcast season is a companion to the book “What the Eyes Don’t See,” written by Flint pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, above, whose research showed Flint children had elevated lead levels in their blood after the switch. The Flint water crisis began in April 2014 when, under the authority of a state-appointed emergency manager, the city of Flint switched its water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department system to water from the Flint River.

Among the immediate consequences was brown smelly water flowing from taps into residents’ sinks. After initial warnings began to signal something wasn’t right in Flint, two key figures talk about how the city’s residents began to be heard.

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