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It’s often said that if you go looking for something, you’re bound to find it. And if you view the world through a particular lens, you’ll spot that ‘thing’ everywhere. After watching Netflix’s His and Hers over the weekend, we couldn’t miss the clear connection between pop culture and public health literacy. Our game, Health Whiz exists for conversations exactly like this.
In Netflix’s new limited series, His and Hers, the show follows a series of mysterious, targeted murders in a small town in Georgia. At first, the prime suspects appear to be either the protagonist, played by Tessa Thompson, or her husband. By the final reveal, however, viewers learn that the true perpetrator is Thompson’s aging mother (Grandma), who went on her killing spree unassumingly because she had ‘dementia’. The chain of events in the series was set into motion by the death of Thompson’s infant daughter, who passed away while in Grandma’s care. The death is diagnosed as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and referred to on the show using the colloquial term “crib death.”
The ‘SIDS’ playing card in our game, Health Whiz
SIDS is the sudden, unexplained death of an apparently healthy infant under one year of age, usually during sleep. It is a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning it is only determined after a thorough investigation, including an autopsy, review of medical history, and a scene examination that fails to identify another cause. Research suggests it may be linked to abnormalities in the part of the brain that controls breathing and arousal from sleep. Perhaps the most devastating aspect of SIDS is the uncertainty it leaves behind. Without a clear explanation, families are often left with overwhelming confusion, guilt, and unanswered questions.
Possible Causes and Risk Factors
- Brain abnormalities, environmental triggers & physical stressors
- Unsafe sleep positions and environments, especially stomach or side sleeping, or loose bedding
Prevention
- Always place infants on their backs to sleep and keep head uncovered
- Use a firm, safety-approved mattress with a fitted sheet
After the loss, Thompson’s character spirals and her marriage suffers as blame festers toward her husband, who had reassured her that their baby would be fine, even though she was shown to be restless before being left with Grandma. Coupled with the infant’s loss and discovering a traumatic event that happened 20 years ago, fuel is added to the fire to ignite Grandma’s violent acts, in an attempt to capture Thompson’s attention and lure her back home to reconcile.
Many viewers might identify dementia as the central public health issue in the series, and while that is certainly present, Grandma was not formally diagnosed with dementia. Rather, she deliberately performed the behaviors associated with it, exploiting a common understanding of its symptoms. By convincingly feigning confusion, memory loss, and nighttime wandering, she created both cover and credibility for her actions. This calculated performance underscores how health literacy itself becomes part of the plot; her knowledge of dementia and how it is perceived allowed her to weaponize the diagnosis to trick viewers and her own family.
The show’s use of the term “crib death” is a reminder of how people naturally talk about health events in everyday language, even when the medical terminology exists. This gap between formal definitions and lived experience is exactly the space Health Whiz was created to address. Health Whiz is a card game designed to make public health concepts engaging and accessible for people of all ages. It has 200 cards with 6 different categories: Public Health 101, Organizations and Influencers, Body Battles & Bugs, Healthy Planet Healthy Plate, Mind & Body Wellness (Sexual and Mental Health), and Prevent & Cure.
Health Whiz recognizes that people understand and engage with health information differently. Whether someone says “crib death” or SIDS, “the flu” or influenza, or “whooping cough” or pertussis, these terms represent real experiences and remind us that health literacy isn’t built on terminology alone, but on our ability to make sense of the moments that affect us all.
#publichealth #Netflix #HisandHers #Dementia #CribDeath #SIDS #HealthWhiz #HealthLiteracy