Episode 13
Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa Cell - a Historic Real Life Superhero
🎙
Henrietta Lacks is the closest thing this world has ever had to a superhero. Her cells are so unique that they have been used in biomedical research ever since her fateful visit to her doctors in 1951. It is because of her that the world has things like the Polio Vaccine, COVID Vaccine, In vitro fertilization, and so many more medical wonders.
I was honored to visit her hometown of Clover, Virginia as well as visit her gravesite.
Video: Henrieta Lacks
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Transcript
[Music]
Speaker:greetings and welcome to the talk with
Speaker:History Podcast I am your host Scott
Speaker:here with my wife and historian Jen
Speaker:hello on this podcast we talk about
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Speaker:we interview folks while chatting about
Speaker:history over a couple of drinks and let
Speaker:the conversation wander where it may
Speaker:[Music]
Speaker:most of the world if not all of it has
Speaker:been affected by the woman we are going
Speaker:to talk about today
Speaker:she's from a small town in Virginia and
Speaker:before she passed away
Speaker:she had no idea what kind of impact she
Speaker:would have on modern day medicine but it
Speaker:is because of an African-American woman
Speaker:born into poverty and working a farm
Speaker:with family A Woman by the name of
Speaker:Henrietta Lacks that we have to thank
Speaker:for so many medical Miracles so Jen why
Speaker:don't you tell us about who we're
Speaker:talking about today
Speaker:well you mentioned her name Henrietta
Speaker:Lacks yeah and
Speaker:this was an amazing story to do for many
Speaker:reasons but
Speaker:I stumbled upon this story when HBO did
Speaker:a movie about a book called The Immortal
Speaker:Life of Henrietta Lacks and the book
Speaker:came out in 2010 and the movie was made
Speaker:with Oprah Winfrey playing Henrietta
Speaker:lacks's daughter
Speaker:that's right and it went through the
Speaker:whole story of the family pretty much
Speaker:discovering that their mother's cell
Speaker:line was responsible for so much medical
Speaker:research impact right and what that
Speaker:meant for them and just kind of like
Speaker:past traumas that they had had in their
Speaker:life plus the trauma of the ethics of
Speaker:the whole situation yeah that her mother
Speaker:their mother never knew they never
Speaker:really even knew so why don't you for
Speaker:for The Listener who's never heard of
Speaker:Henrietta Lacks and why don't you talk
Speaker:about kind of what what that story was
Speaker:because really
Speaker:first off to set the stage you tell me
Speaker:about Henry Henrietta Lacks right
Speaker:because we do talk about a little bit of
Speaker:the production side of things and I'm
Speaker:like who the heck is this you're like oh
Speaker:don't worry it's like she's buried in
Speaker:her hometown is like in the middle of
Speaker:Virginia three hours away I was like
Speaker:sure let's do this let's drive three
Speaker:hours away so that's kind of like that's
Speaker:kind of where I was going with that is
Speaker:watching that movie and then after we I
Speaker:think I watched that movie while we were
Speaker:in Pennsylvania okay and then we moved
Speaker:here and I remembered she was from
Speaker:Virginia and I wanted to find out more
Speaker:about her and I looked her up and she's
Speaker:from Clover Virginia yeah
Speaker:before she moves to Baltimore Maryland
Speaker:that's she grew up in Clover Virginia
Speaker:she wasn't born there she was born in
Speaker:Roanoke oh okay and they actually just
Speaker:demolished the house before she was born
Speaker:where she was brought she was brought
Speaker:home too okay and she might have been
Speaker:born in the house where I think she was
Speaker:brought home to that house and they
Speaker:actually people tried to save it it was
Speaker:very old and yeah dilapidated but they
Speaker:tried to to save it and they couldn't
Speaker:save it but
Speaker:living here in Virginia now looking up
Speaker:Clover Virginia and I had said to you
Speaker:let's go there and make a video about
Speaker:her and her life and her impact and yeah
Speaker:we drove out three hours to Clover so
Speaker:what was what's the big draw like what
Speaker:is her why don't you tell listeners what
Speaker:her Legacy is because it's when I
Speaker:learned about it I was like oh my God so
Speaker:what's very interesting about Henry
Speaker:lacks when you say what is the big draw
Speaker:it's
Speaker:most people don't know the big drug I
Speaker:had I had zero she has a historic marker
Speaker:but no one knew where her grave was and
Speaker:we'll talk about that some more she
Speaker:should be more well known than she is
Speaker:and that's why that's what her family
Speaker:wants to know yes you know like her her
Speaker:family wants people to know more about
Speaker:her so let me give you kind of a
Speaker:background in the story of Henrietta
Speaker:Lacks
Speaker:lack's town is an ancestral Farm tobacco
Speaker:area in uh for the lacks family and
Speaker:Henrietta Lacks was born Loretta
Speaker:Pleasant August 1st 1920 like I said in
Speaker:Roanoke Virginia and she was born to
Speaker:Eliza Pleasant and John Pleasant
Speaker:her name changed sometime in her younger
Speaker:years to Henrietta and she got the
Speaker:nickname Henny
Speaker:in 1924 when she was four her mother
Speaker:dies giving birth to her 10th child
Speaker:and her father is unable to care for all
Speaker:the children alone so he moves the
Speaker:family back to Clover Virginia where
Speaker:they're from they're both from there
Speaker:okay so that's where they have extended
Speaker:family right and he moves back there to
Speaker:because they have fiesta he has to
Speaker:distribute his children yeah amongst his
Speaker:family amongst his family to take care
Speaker:of them because he can't do that yeah
Speaker:what the ratio of one to ten for kids
Speaker:that's I don't know if that's possible
Speaker:sure and he has to work I'm sure yeah so
Speaker:yeah so he has to go with his family
Speaker:right and Henrietta ended up with her
Speaker:mother's grandfather Thomas
Speaker:um Thomas Henry lacks and it's a
Speaker:two-story Log Cabin that was once a
Speaker:slave Quarters on a plantation that had
Speaker:been owned by henrietta's white
Speaker:great-grandfather so you can unpack that
Speaker:and his last name was lacks yeah so as
Speaker:you can yeah you don't really connect
Speaker:the dots for the viewers on the video
Speaker:you don't tell them like uh this is what
Speaker:happened you just say like well his last
Speaker:name was lacks and he was her great
Speaker:grandfather yes
Speaker:um he was her great grandfather so
Speaker:as most enslaved when they are freed
Speaker:sometimes took their master's last name
Speaker:oh okay in this instance I would say
Speaker:they the last name was
Speaker:more relational sure it was a little bit
Speaker:more of both right yes yeah and that
Speaker:also is not rare with enslaved
Speaker:situations sometimes so Henrietta Lacks
Speaker:is an example of that
Speaker:and so she grows up on this tobacco farm
Speaker:now if you watch the video we stand in
Speaker:the tobacco farm area what we believe is
Speaker:might have been theirs but it was it was
Speaker:definitely tobacco farm we don't we
Speaker:weren't sure if it was theirs but it was
Speaker:that was an Old Farm I'm pretty sure it
Speaker:took us out there the mark some yeah
Speaker:some random GPS I mean we were literally
Speaker:driving in my Forerunner like there was
Speaker:barely a road it was kind of more of
Speaker:dirt track and we stand out there and I
Speaker:talk about Henrietta Lacks there so
Speaker:tobacco farming is basically what is the
Speaker:big
Speaker:industry yeah yeah for for that area and
Speaker:so that's what she does and kind of in
Speaker:that sharecropper kind of idea right
Speaker:where her family is now working the land
Speaker:so she drops out of school in the sixth
Speaker:grade and of course as you can imagine
Speaker:it's probably segregated yeah right so
Speaker:she has to probably walk farther away to
Speaker:school and the family needs help at the
Speaker:farm and money so she drops out and
Speaker:helps support her family
Speaker:they say she had hazel eyes a small way
Speaker:size six shoe she's always wearing red
Speaker:nail polish and a pleated skirt and the
Speaker:few pictures that survive of her she
Speaker:definitely looks like she
Speaker:cares about
Speaker:how she presents herself yeah I mean the
Speaker:the picture that I found when I look her
Speaker:up there's there's they the portrait I
Speaker:think it looks like it was painted I'm
Speaker:not sure so that was painted for the
Speaker:National Gallery right and that's in the
Speaker:Smithsonian the um yes and then and the
Speaker:Smithsonian African-American history
Speaker:right now they take they paint that
Speaker:portrait off a photograph
Speaker:of her yeah and the couple photographs
Speaker:that do survive of her she is very well
Speaker:presented like you can tell she really
Speaker:cares about how she looks and that's
Speaker:great you know good for her like she
Speaker:just looks
Speaker:good you know red nail polish pleated
Speaker:skirt she keeps herself well put
Speaker:together she cares about her how she
Speaker:presents herself in 1935 when she's 14
Speaker:she gives birth to her first child a son
Speaker:so at that house where she lives with
Speaker:her great-grandfather she also lives I
Speaker:think with like her second cousin who
Speaker:will become her husband so he's also
Speaker:there I didn't realize they were like
Speaker:distantly related yes okay and then in
Speaker:1939 she gives birth to a daughter uh
Speaker:her name is Elsie so she has two
Speaker:children before she marries him David
Speaker:lacks in 1941 so she has one child of 14
Speaker:one child at 18 gets married at 20.
Speaker:in Halifax County which is where Clover
Speaker:is so in that county they get married
Speaker:and it's later that year in 1941 that
Speaker:they all moved to Baltimore Maryland and
Speaker:they moved there for opportunity they
Speaker:moved there to escape the racism this is
Speaker:the beginning of the war
Speaker:oh that's right this is right before
Speaker:World War One started so I think they're
Speaker:just trying to get away from
Speaker:the lack of opportunity sure and there's
Speaker:more opportunity up North so they moved
Speaker:to Baltimore I think they have family
Speaker:who had also moved there and said come
Speaker:come here and there's more opportunity
Speaker:here so that's where they go to
Speaker:Baltimore Maryland and she has three
Speaker:more children where they while they live
Speaker:there
Speaker:but it's there her last child is born in
Speaker:November of 1950 and then in January she
Speaker:goes to John Hopkins hospital because
Speaker:that's one of the few places where
Speaker:African Americans can go to be treated
Speaker:it's still segregated it is a segregated
Speaker:Hospital segregated waiting rooms but
Speaker:she has her words are not in her womb
Speaker:she thought it was her pregnancy right
Speaker:she gives birth in November but then in
Speaker:January the knot has not gone away so
Speaker:she goes to John Hopkins University and
Speaker:a doctor Dr Howard
Speaker:John's takes a biopsy and
Speaker:he takes a biopsy of off of a mass in
Speaker:her cervix
Speaker:and
Speaker:the samples were given then to a doctor
Speaker:guy and he's a researcher for John
Speaker:Hopkins now at the time this is a normal
Speaker:thing to do sure they're trying to
Speaker:figure out what's going on so this would
Speaker:happen to a white person or a black
Speaker:person it would take a sample from
Speaker:good healthy cell tissue and cancer cell
Speaker:tissue compare the two they do that
Speaker:nowadays yes so this is not you don't
Speaker:need to give consent to have those
Speaker:samples taken and tested sure I mean
Speaker:you've basically when you come in and
Speaker:you say like I'm signing all the forms
Speaker:to say like yeah I'm not going to sue
Speaker:you if you help me out and you're doing
Speaker:all this stuff like that's what you're
Speaker:signing so it's Dr guy who's the
Speaker:researcher John Hopkins who takes these
Speaker:cells and he's the one who and we'll get
Speaker:into what happens he discovers this cell
Speaker:line and he calls it the Gila cell line
Speaker:yeah now what's unique about her cell
Speaker:line well we'll talk more about that but
Speaker:let me talk more about her life okay
Speaker:sure
Speaker:so Gila is the first two initials of her
Speaker:first name and the person initials of a
Speaker:last name yeah that was a cool that's
Speaker:how they then and that was just a
Speaker:typical way of labeling cell lines it
Speaker:wasn't unique to her this is how they
Speaker:would do everybody's cell line these
Speaker:easy way to classify them
Speaker:uh she goes back to the hospital for
Speaker:severe abdominal pain in August of 1951
Speaker:she stays there and she dies in October
Speaker:October 4th 1951 and she's buried in
Speaker:Clover in an unmarked grave until 2010
Speaker:and she dies at 31 years old yeah so
Speaker:what happens is Dr guy after taking
Speaker:these cells
Speaker:he notices that they not only produce at
Speaker:a high rate but they are they stay alive
Speaker:they don't they don't die
Speaker:so you can keep them alive long enough
Speaker:to examine them to do tests on them
Speaker:which which wasn't normal it's never
Speaker:never been seen before right most cell
Speaker:lines die quickly they can't survive
Speaker:outside the body they don't multiply
Speaker:like that now was it these were like the
Speaker:cells that were already affected by the
Speaker:cancer so
Speaker:they're not sure quite what happened
Speaker:what happens is I think they what I
Speaker:believe when I was reading is they took
Speaker:a cell from the cancer so a mutated
Speaker:malignant cell and he made the cell line
Speaker:from one of those cells so it actually
Speaker:is like a a cell line that has been
Speaker:adapted from her cell line sure sure so
Speaker:it is it quite technically
Speaker:a a healthy Gila right or right cell
Speaker:right it is a cancerous and then it's a
Speaker:line that's been made from that right
Speaker:and they're the first cells that could
Speaker:be divided multiple times without dying
Speaker:and that's why they're called Immortal
Speaker:so that's why it's the immortal
Speaker:Henrietta Lacks and it's not even so
Speaker:much that it's like right cells right
Speaker:there's I'm not I'm not I've never
Speaker:claimed to be good at science right but
Speaker:so you can split a cell I'm assuming
Speaker:tons of times but it's basically it just
Speaker:won't die like this like this to this
Speaker:day right as we are recording it's 2022.
Speaker:her cell line is a lie it's alive it's
Speaker:the one that's been used it's for
Speaker:biomedical research it's the most
Speaker:contemporary used cell line yeah it's
Speaker:just when I heard that one you kind of
Speaker:think like does this woman have like
Speaker:super powers yes it's crazy so that's
Speaker:kind of what we talk about in the video
Speaker:is we I equate her to Wonder Woman yeah
Speaker:I equate her to the closest thing you
Speaker:will ever know to a superhero sure
Speaker:because you know those superheroes those
Speaker:cells regenerate quickly they know they
Speaker:don't die because Wolverines yeah they
Speaker:can heal fast yeah right now it's not
Speaker:quite the same thing but it's the
Speaker:closest thing you'll get to it is
Speaker:because her cell line that one specific
Speaker:cell
Speaker:it repeatedly divides and divides and
Speaker:divides and they can make samples of it
Speaker:and send them off in all the little
Speaker:vials and these have led to huge
Speaker:breakthroughs like the Gila cell line
Speaker:developed the polio vaccine yeah the
Speaker:hela cell line developed
Speaker:um the AIDS we did the AIDS research
Speaker:cancer research it's it's the first cell
Speaker:that was cloned in 1955 and there's 11
Speaker:000 patents that the Gila cell line has
Speaker:developed
Speaker:[Music]
Speaker:and if I remember right when I was
Speaker:making the video and doing you know my
Speaker:little bit of post right what all the
Speaker:research that you do right I'm looking
Speaker:up stuff I mean it actually the the cell
Speaker:kind of got out into the the greater I
Speaker:say medical community around the world
Speaker:pretty quickly oh yes everyone uses it
Speaker:yeah I mean and not just us worldwide
Speaker:worldwide and you so there are companies
Speaker:that you can buy sells from to do
Speaker:research yeah and they mass-produced the
Speaker:hela cell line so it's basically a
Speaker:commercialized cell line yeah it's and
Speaker:so that's where you get into the ethics
Speaker:right of this because so much money has
Speaker:been generated from her cell line right
Speaker:right not even millions billions of
Speaker:dollars yeah easy and so then you have
Speaker:her family she dies at 31 right and she
Speaker:has
Speaker:how many children by that point she has
Speaker:six
Speaker:three which is five five children by
Speaker:that point and they get
Speaker:just you know then they get distributed
Speaker:to family right because she died yeah
Speaker:and they suffer trauma people who didn't
Speaker:want to raise them or weren't very good
Speaker:caregivers and they grew up in relative
Speaker:poverty some of her children can't even
Speaker:afford medical insurance and here her
Speaker:cell line is developing these huge
Speaker:breakthroughs in medical research
Speaker:generating billions of dollars and her
Speaker:family can't get their own medical
Speaker:coverage right so what happens is
Speaker:people don't want to know more about the
Speaker:cell line who are these people who are
Speaker:who's this family that that this selling
Speaker:came from so they would get phone calls
Speaker:through the years oh uh how often were
Speaker:you sick
Speaker:what happened to your family researchers
Speaker:trying to do kind of post whatever
Speaker:follow-up yeah
Speaker:they didn't quite understand what they
Speaker:were being asked and told especially her
Speaker:husband when they said well we have her
Speaker:cell line here he thought is she still
Speaker:alive like what what are you saying I I
Speaker:she died like they didn't quite
Speaker:understand yeah and so not only are they
Speaker:using their mothers and wives cell line
Speaker:but they start to really dig into their
Speaker:medical history sure and so that kind of
Speaker:ethical questions of their medical
Speaker:history being so
Speaker:relatively public I mean even though
Speaker:it's like medical you know HIPAA and all
Speaker:that stuff when there's that many
Speaker:medical laboratories it's hard to say
Speaker:that that's private yes and so that's
Speaker:where more ethics comes into play plus
Speaker:she's African-American so you fall into
Speaker:these other ethical questions the
Speaker:Tuskegee experiment where they gave all
Speaker:these men African-American men syphilis
Speaker:unbeknownst to them to see what it would
Speaker:do to them and that happened in 1950s
Speaker:right you have all these
Speaker:African-American women who were enslaved
Speaker:who were tested on by doctors who became
Speaker:the fathers of gynecology
Speaker:and these women gave no consent and they
Speaker:found out all about women's reproductive
Speaker:Health by testing these enslaved women
Speaker:yeah and these men then get revered
Speaker:as breakthroughs in medical science so
Speaker:yeah there's a lot of questions yeah so
Speaker:that's where Gila Henry lacks falls into
Speaker:that realm yeah so you start to question
Speaker:well are we
Speaker:are we overlooking her rights because
Speaker:she's African-American are we
Speaker:overlooking her rights because she's a
Speaker:woman are we looking at where she comes
Speaker:from so those are the kind of questions
Speaker:so her family when this was all brought
Speaker:to light when they could understand what
Speaker:was happening
Speaker:that's when they kind of pushed back and
Speaker:asked for more say and what happens to
Speaker:herself ask for more just a seat at the
Speaker:table
Speaker:[Music]
Speaker:yeah I mean she didn't have you
Speaker:mentioned it in the video I mean her
Speaker:grave didn't even have a headstone until
Speaker:like a few years ago yeah 2010 and it
Speaker:was Dr Gay and his group from John
Speaker:Hopkins that sponsored that that I
Speaker:didn't realize that they are the ones
Speaker:who paid for it that's actually kind of
Speaker:cool it is I mean they will never they
Speaker:never admitted any wrong during
Speaker:apologized but they would do
Speaker:stuff like that sure right so very aware
Speaker:of what they're doing and saying without
Speaker:saying it yeah I didn't realize that
Speaker:they were the ones who who helped do
Speaker:that yeah and then I think they've also
Speaker:funded like some other family headstones
Speaker:I don't know if it's them but like so
Speaker:what family has written yes so for for
Speaker:at least for for Elsie
Speaker:um who had a hard life because she was
Speaker:born with a mental handicap and then she
Speaker:was institutionalized
Speaker:their family when they knew that
Speaker:Henrietta Lacks was getting a tombstone
Speaker:the family raised money to make sure
Speaker:that she had one as well yeah so that's
Speaker:what that other when you see the two
Speaker:tombstones they look relatively newer
Speaker:yeah and that's why that's if you can
Speaker:find if you can find so that's that was
Speaker:part of our journey yeah absolutely so
Speaker:putting the story together
Speaker:again she should be more revered and
Speaker:more celebrated and when you go to
Speaker:Clover there is a marker to her but that
Speaker:is it and we wanted to find her grave
Speaker:and we really wanted to pay respects to
Speaker:her gray but her grave is unmarked her
Speaker:grade was marked but it's in an unmarked
Speaker:graveyard right well so let me let me
Speaker:kind of paint the larger picture here so
Speaker:here we are driving from Norfolk out to
Speaker:Clover it's about three hours it's three
Speaker:hours yes kids are Troopers right the
Speaker:the marker is pretty easy to find that's
Speaker:the first thing I think that we found
Speaker:it's right off the kind of little main
Speaker:highway freeway there so we we find that
Speaker:you know and then we kind of like you
Speaker:don't your kind of research ahead of
Speaker:time and be like okay I think this is
Speaker:where either her husband's grave might
Speaker:be so we went to find a grave we went to
Speaker:find a grave and find a grave gives you
Speaker:usually gives you like a GPS coordinate
Speaker:yeah and it gave us a GPS coordinate for
Speaker:her for the marker oh on this side of
Speaker:the road yeah and then I usually what I
Speaker:do when I do grave research these are
Speaker:the kind of helpful hints that I give is
Speaker:look up a spouse or a child that's
Speaker:buried close by and sometimes it'll give
Speaker:you that marker yeah and you can find
Speaker:them that way so we did her husband
Speaker:that's why we went over there and for
Speaker:David uh lacks it gave us that that GPS
Speaker:coordinate rate in that tobacco farm
Speaker:area and so to anybody listening I would
Speaker:not recommend trying to drive out to you
Speaker:need a four-wheel drive you need a
Speaker:four-wheel drive vehicle we were driving
Speaker:like off I think there's a sign that's
Speaker:like you're no longer driving in like
Speaker:state-funded roads right it's all of a
Speaker:sudden it was dirt and gravel and you
Speaker:know just kind of we're out there in the
Speaker:boonies so that's why I thought the
Speaker:grave uh the the graveyard was that's
Speaker:worth it it kind of would have kind of
Speaker:would have made sense sure so we looked
Speaker:around couldn't find it and I knew she
Speaker:had a tombstone I knew she had a
Speaker:memorial marker we weren't seeing
Speaker:anything we weren't seeing anything like
Speaker:that so we drove back out and as we're
Speaker:driving out we see a car on the side of
Speaker:the road and I'm I told Scott I'm just
Speaker:gonna ask this person because we're in a
Speaker:small town I grew up in a small town I
Speaker:know small town thank God you did
Speaker:because I am not that person maybe it's
Speaker:just because I'm a guy and I don't want
Speaker:to ask directions but I was like ah we
Speaker:can't find this we're driving back out
Speaker:this is like one little road yeah
Speaker:was it lacks road yeah it lacks yeah Lex
Speaker:Road
Speaker:um Lex family Road
Speaker:lacks Town Road LAX town LAX town road
Speaker:so where we drove in dockstown road all
Speaker:the way till the dirt off the off the
Speaker:Incorporated part of it you know back in
Speaker:the boonies back there I mean Clover
Speaker:Virginia is is pretty remote there might
Speaker:be a town of like maybe a couple hundred
Speaker:people yeah I don't even know if the
Speaker:town's incorporated or if it's an actual
Speaker:town I'm not sure but we're driving back
Speaker:out we're like we're kind of getting
Speaker:frustrated we're hoping we can find it
Speaker:we're looking around we see this truck
Speaker:just kind of looks like someone's
Speaker:waiting for someone to come out of their
Speaker:house sweet Jen's like windows open yeah
Speaker:she's like she's like Scott pulled next
Speaker:to this person I'm gonna ask I was like
Speaker:okay fine so you do and then she just
Speaker:strikes up a conversation yeah I asked
Speaker:that ma'am we're looking for Henrietta
Speaker:lack's grave do you know where it's at
Speaker:she goes oh Henny yeah her grave is back
Speaker:the way you came yeah you're gonna go
Speaker:down the hill and you're gonna see a
Speaker:house on the right a yellow house with
Speaker:the door open it's an old house yeah
Speaker:very country directions yeah it was
Speaker:quite adorable she's like and when you
Speaker:see that house it's just right off right
Speaker:off beside it you'll see a little path
Speaker:and which there's no path it's just
Speaker:grass yeah yeah I mean luckily we were
Speaker:there in winter so it's a little bit
Speaker:easier to see because all the leaves
Speaker:were off the trees and she's like and
Speaker:you just drive up that path and don't
Speaker:worry it looks like you're driving on a
Speaker:lawn but you're not just drive up that
Speaker:path and you'll see it when you get up
Speaker:there and I was like okay so down the
Speaker:hill and she's like yeah just just down
Speaker:the hill don't go back up the hill and I
Speaker:told her we just went over a bridge she
Speaker:goes no don't go that's too far she goes
Speaker:just down the hill you'll see the yellow
Speaker:house with the door open it's open
Speaker:because no one lives there anymore and
Speaker:it's it's an old abandoned house it's an
Speaker:abandoned house she goes and that's
Speaker:where you're gonna it you won't see a
Speaker:road or anything you'll just go right
Speaker:beside it you'll see some grass area
Speaker:drive on that and drive up over that
Speaker:hill and that's and I would say you
Speaker:don't need four-wheel drive to get up
Speaker:there no I wouldn't say that it's it
Speaker:wasn't it wasn't that bad but that those
Speaker:were good directions yeah and you
Speaker:wouldn't we wouldn't be able to find
Speaker:another one there's no sign there's no
Speaker:nothing you can't see it from the road
Speaker:you would think it's someone's lawn yeah
Speaker:so we have GPS locations like precise
Speaker:GPS locations for that you know on our
Speaker:website if you want to look up the
Speaker:episode travel guide for for that
Speaker:particular episode yes and I you know I
Speaker:posted some of this on Facebook finding
Speaker:the grave and I had some people say well
Speaker:maybe their family doesn't want you to
Speaker:know don't want you to see it but the
Speaker:family has explicitly said they want her
Speaker:story told yeah they want her celebrated
Speaker:they want people to know her they want
Speaker:people to celebrate her and respect her
Speaker:so I felt like no I think they want
Speaker:people they're they're pretty public
Speaker:about it I mean when I Googled you know
Speaker:the lacks family and Henrietta Lacks I
Speaker:mean part of the top hits was like some
Speaker:recent lawsuits that they're trying to
Speaker:that they're they're kind of working on
Speaker:again some of these big medical
Speaker:companies that are excuse me um making
Speaker:making money off of this exactly so we
Speaker:we went to the Grave there's there's
Speaker:about 20 Graves yeah easily it's
Speaker:definitely a family yeah it's a family
Speaker:plot yeah plot
Speaker:um and we left our Wonder Woman figurine
Speaker:at her grave and we paid our respects uh
Speaker:her grave looks like a book
Speaker:almost and I think her family wrote the
Speaker:Epitaph okay so I think it was her
Speaker:granddaughters who wrote the Epitaph on
Speaker:the front but it's very respectful she's
Speaker:buried beside her mother
Speaker:and then she has a
Speaker:uh her daughter Elsie on the other side
Speaker:so it's her mother on one side and Elsie
Speaker:on the other side so I think it's a very
Speaker:for me it was just a very important
Speaker:place to be there it looked like a very
Speaker:solemn place and beautiful place I'm
Speaker:happy we found it you never would have
Speaker:been able to find it no no we got we got
Speaker:we got super lucky I think I saw one
Speaker:YouTube video
Speaker:it was like somebody looked like they
Speaker:were in their Jeep showing that they
Speaker:were driving up up to it but it's only
Speaker:because I was specifically Googling you
Speaker:know Henrietta Lacks you know Family
Speaker:Cemetery or something and so I was able
Speaker:to find it and you could see right but
Speaker:he's not really talking it's just kind
Speaker:of him showing driving up that way
Speaker:um but really learning about her in
Speaker:general and then learning the Legacy
Speaker:that she left through
Speaker:medicine and the history there it was
Speaker:quite incredible yeah it
Speaker:here is a person who her life
Speaker:and her cells
Speaker:have made an immeasurable impact on all
Speaker:of us on medicine like there's nobody
Speaker:really who has not been touched by what
Speaker:her cells have been able to produce in
Speaker:the medical world the covid vaccine yeah
Speaker:I mean so it's the work again this is
Speaker:2022 right so if you're listening to
Speaker:this in the future it's 2022 right now
Speaker:the coveted vaccine right they used her
Speaker:cells to develop that so it was just
Speaker:learning all this and making the video
Speaker:was was really pretty neat because here
Speaker:is someone who's
Speaker:I don't know if that she's really taught
Speaker:in in history classes and this that and
Speaker:the other but the impact that she had
Speaker:and she's well enough known that she
Speaker:there was a you know movie made and
Speaker:Oprah was in it and this that and the
Speaker:other but it was pretty incredible so
Speaker:Henrietta Lacks may not have known what
Speaker:her Legacy would be but it's there
Speaker:nonetheless her sales for right or wrong
Speaker:have provided medical breakthroughs that
Speaker:doctors have only dreamed of before the
Speaker:hela cell was named it became widely
Speaker:known and used in medical research
Speaker:so next time you talk to someone who's
Speaker:received a cancer treatment HPV vaccine
Speaker:and vitro fertilization and yes the
Speaker:covid vaccine think of Henrietta Lacks
Speaker:thank you for listening to the talk with
Speaker:History Podcast and please reach out to
Speaker:us at our website talk with history.com
Speaker:but more importantly if you know someone
Speaker:else that might enjoy this podcast
Speaker:please share it with them especially if
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Speaker:because we rely on you our community to
Speaker:grow and we appreciate you all every day
Speaker:thank you Henry relax and thank you to
Speaker:her family we'll talk to you next time
Speaker:foreign
Speaker:[Music]
