When a Minnesota couple decided to adopt a baby from the wreckage of Ceaucescu’s Romania it seemed like a beautiful thing. But then HIV turned their lives upside down.

Lindsey Nagel, the adopted child, spent about two years on AZT, suffering excruciating side effects. Now Lindsey is an adult, has been free of AIDS drugs (and all pharmaceuticals) for 17 years, and her story has emerged in Brent Leung’s film “House of Numbers”, with Lindsey and her parents participating in panel discussions at several screenings, including at the RA 2009 conference. In this episode you will hear parents Steve and Cheryl, along with Lindsey, discuss their experiences in more detail than ever before with co-hosts Celia Farber and David Crowe along with guest host Terry Michael.

For more details visit Steve Nagel’s website aztsucks.com.

Tommy Morrison was on top of the world in 1996. World heavyweight boxing champion, star of Rocky V with Sylvester Stallone, winner of almost every fight…his life was turned upside down when he tested positive for HIV antibodies just before a fight.

In 2006 he re-tested and was negative and has tested negative many times since then. Celia Farber and David Crowe join guest host Terry Michael in this exclusive interview.

For more information see Morrison’s website at http://tommythedukemorrison.com

Christine Maggiore’s sudden death in December 2008 was a shock to rethinkers around the world, as well as her family and many friends. Loved for her caring personality, respected for her commitment, admired for her drive and desire for dialog, she is deeply missed.

Celia and David at “How Positive Are You” miss her for all those reasons and also because she founded this podcast, and we know how much it meant to her. This podcast includes some of the speeches from her memorial service on January ¹⁷ 2009 in Northridge, California, speeches delivered by some of her close friends and allies.

Co-hosts David Crowe and Celia Farber discuss the history of Luc Montagnier’s admission that HIV was never purified, his attempts to explore “co-factor” models of HIV, his bold admissions over the years about “long term survivors,” the punishments he received, and finally, the political uses he came to serve for the AIDS orthodoxy, which finally decided that even a quasi-denialist is preferable to Gallo’s rotting-to-the-point-of-implosion reputation.  They even took the Glasnost esprit far enough that the great AIDS scientist was “allowed to talk about fermented papaya,” which he is apparently very excited about as a cure for oxidative stress, which he (like the Perth Group) thinks is closely associated with AIDS. Heresy!

In this week’s podcast, the first full podcast with Celia Farber as co-host, we interview longstanding activist, cultural critic, and incidental AIDS historian Jim Fouratt who reveals the shocking truth about what really killed artist Keith Haring. Was it AIDS?

We also talk to Mr. Fouratt about how and why early AIDS activism morphed into pharmaceutical and scientific fascism– and how the early values of the Gay Liberation movement–chiefly freedom of speech and the freedom to be different–were destroyed in the process.

This is the last full episode that Christine Maggiore participated in, taped on December 2, 2008. In it, experienced LA journalist Bob Navarro describes the firestorm of criticism when he published US government statistics noting a decline in AIDS cases. “Not allowed!” screamed the AIDS dogmatists. Christine also expresses, both overtly and implicitly, how much the “How Positive Are You?” podcast meant to her.

WBAI, a New York radio station, interviews Liam Scheff and others about the ICC scandal, triggered by the recent release of a report from the VERA Institute. The report was hampered by the refusal of the New York Department of Health to provide medical records, and the refusal of VERA to approach parents of children in the clinical trial.

Dr. Jocelyn Dee is an AIDS specialist at USC’s Rand Schrader Clinic where poor, uneducated, uninsured, often illiterate, sometimes homeless, and frequently drug addicted HIV positives can receive medical care regardless of ability to pay. She also serves as an advisor for fictional television programs that feature real life medical issues in their story lines. It was in this advisory capacity that Dr. Dee worked on the recent Law & Order SVU episode, “Retro,” which took on the topic of “AIDS denialism.” According to Dr. Dee, a combination of ignorance of biomedical facts about AIDS and guilt over testing HIV positive is usually at the root of her patients’ denial, a problem she says she deals with “on a daily basis.” In a lively and informative conversation, our hosts tread carefully through a minefield of remarks about “AIDS denialism”–including the need for psychiatric evaluation of the more seriously afflicted–with an obviously smart and sincere doctor who has no idea she’s talking to “those people.” The discussion gets really interesting when our hosts ask about the difference between ignorance, guilt and educated inquiry; the specific qualities that make someone a “denialist,” and when Christine reads Dr. Dee an official synopsis of the Law & Order program that acknowledges “Retro” was based on her life. News items include “Man Loses Penis Power Over Septrin,” microchipping HIV positives in Indonesia, a new announcement of the old claim that “one million Americans are HIV positive and 20% [still] don’t know it, and revelations from a recent LA County epidemiology survey on AIDS that show more than half of all AIDS diagnoses are given to people with no clinical illness.

Sarah Breidenbach was a highly regarded social worker who specialized in assisting people diagnosed HIV positive or with AIDS. For Sarah, this position was far more than a job, it was an opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of her clients, and she approached her work with great dedication and conviction. She felt very strongly that by encouraging compliance with AIDS drug treatments and discouraging skepticism about the causal link between HIV and AIDS she was offering HIV positives their best possible chances for staying alive.  But after more than half a decade of a professional and personal life that revolved around AIDS from the mainstream perspective, Sarah very reluctantly agreed to watch the documentary film, The Other Side of AIDS, and something remarkable happened as a result: she began to question the basis for her staunchly held views, and ultimately the direction and meaning of her life’s work. Listen in as David and Christine speak with Sarah about her journey from certainty into the unknown, an experience she recounts with intelligence, grace and unusual honesty. News items include a Ugandan drug trial testing the idea of “reduced transmission” a proposed HIV prevention drug combo in the UK, and the criminalization of HIV in a growing number of countries.