100 WVIA Way
Pittston, PA 18640

Phone: 570-826-6144
Fax: 570-655-1180

Copyright © 2025 WVIA, all rights reserved. WVIA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

The Rise of Eugenics in America

Season 1 Episode 1 | 5m 54s

By the early 1900s, many white protestant Americans came to fear they were about to be outnumbered and outbred by immigrants and their offspring. They embraced a new pseudo-science born in Britain, called eugenics. It falsely claimed you could eliminate everything from poverty and prostitution to disabilities if you stopped the individuals they dismissed as “socially defective” from reproducing.

Corporate funding provided by Bank of America. Major funding provided by David M. Rubenstein; the Park Foundation; the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation; Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling; The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations; and by the following members of The Better Angels Society: Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine; Jan and Rick Cohen; Allan and Shelley Holt; the Koret Foundation; David and Susan Kreisman; Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder; Blavatnik Family Foundation; Crown Family Philanthropies, honoring the Crown and Goodman Families; the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund; Dr. Georgette Bennett and Dr. Leonard Polonsky; The Russell Berrie Foundation; Diane and Hal Brierley; John and Catherine Debs; and Leah Joy Zell and the Joy Foundation. Funding was also provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by public television viewers.
Extras
Asking if the U.S. has a responsibility to intervene in humanitarian crises.
Asking what individuals can do when governments fail to act.
Asking how we as a society can learn from the past.
Asking what it means to be a land of immigrants.
Los Aliados liberan los campos Alemanes y el público ve la magnitud del Holocausto.
It is impossible to tally how many thousands the board saved, directly or indirectly.
Holocaust survivor Eva Geiringer reflects on life in Auschwitz.
As the Allies liberate German camps, the public sees the sheer scale of the Holocaust.
People assume every Jew died in a camp or gas chamber. But that’s only part of the story.
En la guerra, algunos estadounidenses ayudan a los refugiados; otros son indiferentes.
Latest Episodes
Los Aliados liberan los campos Alemanes y el público ve la magnitud del Holocausto.
As the Allies liberate German camps, the public sees the sheer scale of the Holocaust.
En la guerra, algunos estadounidenses ayudan a los refugiados; otros son indiferentes.
As war begins, some Americans work tirelessly to help refugees; others remain indifferent.
Una reacción xenófoba lleva al Congreso a restringir la inmigración.
Reversing open borders, a xenophobic backlash prompts Congress to restrict immigration.