Dichen Lachman and Adam Scott in Severance, Season 2, Episode 7 (“Chikhai Bardo”), Streaming on AppleTV+. In the top image, the pre-severed Scouts talk shop while grading papers; in the lower image, Gemma writes thank-you notes in an eternal Christmas scenario. The AppleTV+ show Severance, which explores the lived reality of people who work…
Category: Science, Technology and Medicine
Book Review: Flood by Christine Kalafus
At the heart of Christine Kalafus’ upcoming memoir Flood (2025) is a powerful image: a rush of water, not a deluge from the skies but a slow rising from below, invisibly soaking through the porous foundations of an old house until, before you know it, you are wading ankle deep in what was the solid…
Book Review: Inspired and Outraged by Alice Rothchild
“[T]he analyst who points us out from our classmates and announced (disapprovingly)/ You women are taking the place of a productive male…You are here because of your Unresolved Penis Envy” (pp 166-7). These are the attitudes which Dr. Alice Rothchild, obstetrician and gynecologist at Beth Israel Hospital, Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology…
Measuring Humanity in Medicine, One Multiple-choice Question at a Time
The day after the U.S. presidential election, I sat for my hospice and palliative medicine board exam along with a colleague, one of my partners. During one long day, we worked our way through 240 questions over a 10-hour timeframe. During a break, my partner observed: “It’s unsatisfying to test our skills in multiple-choice format.”…
When Medicine Met Diplomacy (Part I): “American Medicine” and Its Ambition in East Asia (early 20th century)
How was medical exchange intertwined with diplomacy between Japan and the United States in the early 20th century?
Playing the Percentages in Healthcare Education: The Absolutism of Grief
After he dies, I take tests for my family doctor. The first one measures how much my grief affects my life. I score 74.4%. That’s really high, my doctor says. See, I want to say, it really is this bad (Lin 7). Recently, I attended an intensive board review course to prepare for my first…
How to Feed the Sick: Hospital Meal and Patient Care in Modern Japan (part II: from the 1950s onward)
How has hospital meal changed in postwar Japan? What do the changes tell us about the hospital-patient relationship and patient care in Japan?
After Yang and Posthumanist Care
After Yang and Posthumanist Care “So if you don’t mind, we’re just gonna do a full check-up, and we’re gonna restore Yang as best we can… It won’t help with his ‘off’ state, but it should help with his preservation.” One family’s search for the ultimate “fix” is the central conflict in filmmaker Kogonada’s 2021…
Book Review: I Cannot Control Everything Forever by Emily Bloom
Spidersilk Towards the end of her memoir, I Cannot Control Everything Forever, Emily Bloom evokes the image of a spider as a way to reflect upon the duality of motherhood. Moving from Ovid’s myth of Arachne through Louise Bourgeois’ giant spider sculpture “Mother of All,” Bloom lands on an investigation into how spiders in nature…
How to Feed the Sick: Hospital Meal and Patient Care in Modern Japan (part I: till 1950s)
How did hospital meal come into being in modern Japan? Why did it become a compulsory part of patient care at hospitals?