Helpers share stories from the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s episode artwork

EPISODE · Dec 2, 2025 · 12 MIN

Helpers share stories from the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s

from Crosscurrents · host KALW

December is HIV/AIDS Awareness Month. So we’re going to go back in time to 1988. It was the height of the AIDS crisis. Marcy Fraser and Michelle Francis worked together in hospice care in San Francisco. In this StoryCorps episode from 2015, they look back on the moment their friendship was cemented for life. Then, Karen Van Dine was a prayer counselor in a healing circle at a gay ministry in the Castro. Her personal and professional relationships were steeped in the love and loss that came out of the tragic circumstances of the AIDS epidemic. Karen shared this history with the non-profit My Life, My Stories in 2018. 

December is HIV/AIDS Awareness Month. So we’re going to go back in time to 1988. It was the height of the AIDS crisis. Marcy Fraser and Michelle Francis worked together in hospice care in San Francisco. In this StoryCorps episode from 2015, they look back on the moment their friendship was cemented for life.  Then, Karen Van Dine was a prayer counselor in a healing circle at a gay ministry in the Castro. Her personal and professional relationships were steeped in the love and loss that came out of the tragic circumstances of the AIDS epidemic. Karen shared this history with the non-profit My Life, My Stories in 2018.

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Helpers share stories from the AIDs epidemic of the 1980s

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This episode was published on December 2, 2025.

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December is HIV/AIDS Awareness Month. So we’re going to go back in time to 1988. It was the height of the AIDS crisis. Marcy Fraser and Michelle Francis worked together in hospice care in San Francisco. In this StoryCorps episode from 2015, they...

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