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A promotional image for WOUB's "Who Lies Beneath: The Asylum" podcast. The image is of an aged headstone in a grassy graveyard with the podcast's title superimposed over it.

“WHO Lies Beneath: The Asylum” Episode 2: Viola Rapp


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With the help of voice-actor Jan Hodson, Viola Rapp tells her own story as a young mother in the late 1920s when she admitted to The Old Athens Lunatic Asylum. Rapp was likely placed in the Asylum after suffering from postpartum depression. Her story is one that started with childhood tragedy and the continuation of tragedy into adulthood which eventually lead to her time at the asylum. Cheri Russo and Doug McCabe talk with Ohio University History of Medicine Professor Jackie Wolf about the history of women’s mental health treatment and Viola’s Granddaughter Nancy Morris about how locating Viola in the Asylum Cemeteries and learning her life story helped their family find peace.