I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is the Sunday Story.
Back in 2023, we brought you a story about the resurgence of black lung disease among coal miners.
The doctor says my lungs started shutting down.
They said it's hardened just like a lump of coal.
It's bad when you walk outside and all that air out there and you can't get nothing in your lungs.
For instance, trying to take a bag of trash out.
Steps and heels.
I can walk up my driveway to check my mailbox.
You get up packing, spitting black and blood.
Coughing to the point of almost throwing up.
That episode, Cole's Deadly Dust, documents failed efforts to prevent this deadly disease
and what those failures have meant for minors, their families, and their communities.
We're gonna die from it.
There's no cure for it.
It's a death sentence.
And knowing that that's coming to you, it's pretty hard to take.
Howard Berkus has been investigating the rise of black lung disease for more than a decade,
first as an NPR correspondent and now as a retired correspondent.
Howard Berkus is joining us again today to bring us a major update.
He's still investigating.