Indiana is known as the crossroads of America. In recent years Indiana has also become the crossroads of multiple deadly epidemics. In 2015 Austin, Indiana was the epicenter of the worst drug fueled HIV outbreak in the history of the United States. Out of a town of 4300 people.

On this episode of the NNLM Discovery podcast, Region 6’s Community Engagement Coordinator, Darlene Kaskie, shares how NNLM is sponsoring a series of talks at public libraries with Dr. William Cooke, a physician and author in rural Austin Indiana. Dr. Cooke wrote a book called Canary in the Coal Mine about being the only doctor in a small town that was hit by twin epidemics of substance abuse and HIV. His story examines the social determinants of health that contribute to poor healthcare and offers hope that communities can come together to make sure that every child born has access and resources and choices that they need to be healthy and prosperous.

NNLM donated hundreds of copies of Dr. Cooke's book to all the libraries that hosted the event. The libraries then distributed the books to community organizations such as faith-based groups, rehab centers, counseling services, and public health departments.
You can view a short video about the story here on the NLM YouTube Channel.

The NNLM is the outreach arm of the National Library of Medicine with the mission to advance the progress of medicine and improve the public health by providing all U.S. health professionals with equal access to biomedical information and improving the public's access to information to enable them to make informed decisions about their health. The seven Health Sciences Libraries function as the Regional Medical Library (RML) for their respective region, with Region 6 consisting of: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. To learn more about Region 6 visit: http://www.nnlm.gov/about/regions/region6.

All of the artwork for this podcast series has been created with a generative AI text-to-image tool! The text prompt for the episode's artwork was " a canary in a coal mine as an abstract painting.”

Join Outreach Services Librarian, Yamila El-Khayat, for new episodes of the NNLM Discovery podcast. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or listen on our website www.nnlm.gov/podcast. Please be sure to like, rate, and review the show!