Race without Racism: On Assessing Race as a Risk Factor

Yekki Song

An interview with Yekki Song 

As part of Vital’s series on Racism in Science, we interviewed medical humanities researcher Yekki Song, a 6th year MD-PhD student at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where she studies how society shapes and influences the practice of medicine.

We spoke with her about a newly-published paper she co-authored in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, one that caused her to begin questioning the way in which she and her colleagues had used race as a key predictor of health outcomes 
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Can improv improve healthcare?

Ben Utter

A review of Alan Alda’s If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face?

A 2012 study conducted on behalf of Bosch home appliances found that over 40 percent of Americans admitted to having fought with a family member over the correct way to load a dishwasher. This is not one of our prouder national statistics, but according to Alan Alda, it’s one that probably shouldn’t surprise us. As he explains in his new book, “Pretty much everybody misunderstands everybody else. Maybe not all the time, and not totally, but just enough to seriously mess things up.” Continue reading →

Cyclists Are Out There Making It Easier For You To Park. Here’s How You Can Help Them.

Lesley Curtis and Ben Utter

It’s warm out! And you know what that means—more cyclists! More and more cities have bike rental programs, and cities are increasing the number of bike lanes they provide. It’s great for health and the environment. But drivers need to change their habits to make it safer!

And remember: when we bike, you park more easily. So, start noticing us and think about changing your habits to ensure our safety and yours. The habits of drivers can change how we think of transportation and counter some of the more hateful attitudes against cyclists that have resulted in tragic consequences, as editor Ben Utter discussed last year.

Want to help create a bike-friendly culture? Sure you do.

Here’s how: Continue reading →

Racism in Science?

Ben Utter, Ph.D. and Lesley Curtis, Ph.D.

We at Vital are excited to announce a new series, beginning soon, on Racism in Science.

It might surprise a great many people to learn what social scientists have long maintained, that race has little if any biological basis. If, as Kittles and Benn-Torres explain race has “no clear biological definition yet strong social and cultural meanings,” what does it mean today to study race in science, medicine, and health? Continue reading →

Forbidden Iron

Michael Collins

My Uncle Brian recently tried to describe someone to my father. “He was a tall slender guy, like Michael.” Michael is me.

“Brian, when was the last time you saw Michael?”

“Maybe a year and a half ago . . . why?”

“Why?! Brian, he’s like Arnold Schwarzenegger! He’s busting out of his shirts!’”

I felt my face turn red when my father related this conversation to me. Part of me was pleased—I work hard at the gym. Another part of me, a part I keep hidden, knew I had so much further to go—and that was why I blushed, not because of the compliment. It’s that second part, the secret part, throbbing constantly under everything else, that I want to talk about. The incessant drumbeat inside me that calls out for more, that animates my endeavors at the gym. It feels like an unseemly thing I’d do best to hide. It is a desire that I have hidden, or downplayed, or dressed up in respectable guises.

Well. Time to come out of the closet.

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