Laura Rothenberg spent most of her life knowing she was going to die young.
She had cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that affects the lungs. When she was born, the life expectancy for people with CF was around 18 years. (It's more than double that now.) Laura liked to say she went through her mid-life crisis when she was a teenager.
I met Laura when she was 19. I gave her a tape recorder. And for two years, she kept an audio diary of her battle with cystic fibrosis and her attempts to live a normal life - with lungs that often betrayed her.
The Longest Game
Rumble Strip: Finn and the Bell
The Almost Astronaut
The General Slocum
The End of Smallpox
The Story of Jane
The Greatest Songwriter You've Never Heard Of
Identical Strangers
Sofia's Choice: A Ukrainian Diary
The Forgotten Story of Clinton Melton
Claudette Colvin: Making Trouble Then and Now
A Voicemail Valentine
Diary of a Saudi Girl: Then & Now
A Museum of Sound
A Real Life West Side Story
A Guitar, A Cello, and the Day that Changed Music
A Wrench in the Works
My Iron Lung
When Borders Move
The Two Lives of Asa Carter
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It is Free
Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace