I’ve been doing some writing for Slate these days. I wrote a long and profound piece on BCRA and disability here.
Just today, I did a podcast with Jordan Weissmann. I bloviated, but it was fun. I have to raise my podcast game.
The best part was schooling Jordan on BCRA by making analogy to Jay-Z and Rihanna’s relationship woes. Still not sure why he kept laughing when I was trying to make a serious point.
Author: Harold Pollack
Harold Pollack is Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. He has served on three expert committees of the National Academies of Science. His recent research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Public Health. He writes regularly on HIV prevention, crime and drug policy, health reform, and disability policy for American Prospect, tnr.com, and other news outlets. His essay, "Lessons from an Emergency Room Nightmare" was selected for the collection The Best American Medical Writing, 2009. He recently participated, with zero critical acclaim, in the University of Chicago's annual Latke-Hamentaschen debate.
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"A long and profound piece.." Enough with the British self-deprecation! It was sensational – in the horrific, chainsaw massacre sense. Read it.
A minuscule niggle. "Other [harms] are buried within the junk DNA of this 142-page bill." The metaphor is striking but doesn't quite work. IIRC by definition junk DNA is inactive, unless a piece is changed back into an active gene by a mutation, a very unlikely event. Perhaps a better analogy is an oncogene, a piece of nasty DNA that can start a tumour in conjunction with another oncogene or a cancer-promoting chemical. Corrections from the knowledgeable welcome. It's not an exaggeration in terms of the consequences to those affected.