Greetings from the University of New Hampshire! I tagged along with a group from the Student Organization for Health Leadership (SOHL), the student org for my department, to volunteer this past Friday at the New Hampshire Food Bank. We spent the morning dry rubbing 500 pounds of pork and chopping enough onions to feed a small country, amongst other things. The folks at the Food Bank made it easy for us to jump in on simple tasks and even fed us some sloppy joes at lunch time. As we were leaving, one of the supervising chefs was telling us how many hundreds of meals we had contributed to. This was a really great event and way for the students (and me) to bond outside of the classroom. I look forward to going with future classes.
So some big news here - we officially placed all of our juniors into internships for the summer. They will all be going to high quality, paid experiences. This was one of my goals since taking over the program - to ensure that the placements would give them a meaningful experience (which we have always done pretty well), but also to make sure that they were paid. Historically only 50-60% of our students were paid on their internships. This year I believe is the first time we have hit 100% paid, so I am very excited about that!
It’s hard to believe next week is the last full week of classes for the semester. In fact, a week from Monday is the last day of classes, and then we go into finals. My seniors have their commencement on Sunday, May 22, so they have exactly 3 weeks left from today before they are done. It’s been a strange couple of years for the class of ‘22, but I am glad they get to have an in-person commencement and I look forward to our first senior banquet since 2019!
Speaking of banquets, I made this fantastic shredded beef chili con carne recipe for a crowd on Saturday. I’m a chili fan, but the wife is not much on crumbled ground beef in sauces, so I thought I would try pulling beef. It came out great! Definitely will make it again. I served it with homemade cornbread.
Willing good for all of you, I present you with the links!
Read
What: American Purpose, Francis Fukuyama, Why Ukraine Will Win
https://www.americanpurpose.com/articles/why-ukraine-will-win/
Why: Hopeful article from Francis “End of History” Fukuyama. I am a big fan and love his book The End of History and the Last Man, which gets a lot of criticism from people who haven’t actually read it because they think he says that history has actually ended with the advent of liberal democracy, instead of saying that history culminates with liberal democracy - two different things. His book, Political Order and Political Decay is also powerful if you want to think about what makes societies hold together and what make them collapse.
Anyway, I am rooting for Fukuyama to be right on this one. The Ukrainian army is proving that an army built on Western principles of decentralized decision making is more effective than one run centrally, and that is another powerful lesson from this crisis.
**
What: NYT, interview with Yascha Mounk, Is American Democracy Built to Last?
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/us/politics/us-democracy.html?smid=url-share
Why: Thanks to reader and friend PG for sharing this story. You may need to set up a free account to read it. The miracle of the United States is it has been a multi-ethnic, multi-racial society from its founding. Imperfectly so, and tragically so in some cases, but nevertheless, the deep code for tolerance was programmed into the operating system of the Constitution to move toward greater tolerance. Mounk points out that this is not to be taken for granted, and it is being abused by both parties’ extremists.
I don’t want to live in a country in which I can walk down the street, look at the color of somebody’s skin and know with a high degree of certainty whom they’re voting for.
If you like this article, I am a fan of Mounk’s podcast and newsletter and recommend them both to you.
**
What: Quillette, Jim Rutt, Musk and Moderation
https://quillette.com/2022/04/27/musk-and-moderation/
Why: By now everyone in the world probably knows that Musk has bought Twitter. You might not be on Twitter and you might be tempted to say, “So what?” I think you should care. I have an account on Twitter, but I rarely use it. I post links to this newsletter and my podcast, for example, but otherwise I don’t do much. I find when I go on and start scrolling, my blood pressure rises rapidly and I start getting angry. So that’s the main reason I don’t go on. However, the site is used almost constantly by journalists of all stripes and persuasions to posture, virtue signal, and fight amongst themselves. In this sense, the site is a playground for elite culture, which is why most normal people don’t pay much attention to it. However, because this is where elites pose and refine their public positions, it has an out-sized effect on culture. Even if you aren’t on it yourself, you are consuming output from people who are influenced by it.
Rutt proposes a taxonomy and some suggestions for making Twitter a better public square that embraces free speech without tilting so obviously toward one political viewpoint in its moderation.
He talks about moderation as being focused on decorum (how you talk), content (what you say), and point of view (your perspective). There is more and it is interesting throughout. The questions of moderation apply to other sites you (like me) might actually be interested in, like LinkedIn or Facebook.
**
Watch
What: TED Talk, Melissa J. Moore, The breakthrough science of mRNA medicine (18 min)
https://www.ted.com/talks/melissa_j_moore_the_breakthrough_science_of_mrna_medicine
Why: I was absolutely thrilled to get the Moderna mRNA vaccine when it was first released, mostly because I saw it as a pass to return to normal life. But I was also thrilled to be part of what I think will be a medical revolution, with the COVID vaccine being one of the first expressions of this paradigm-shifting science. mRNA science may be the key to curing cancer, and that would be one of the great moments in human history.
**
Listen
What: Uncommon Knowledge: The Importance of Being Ethical, with Jordan Peterson (62 min)
https://uncommonknowledgehoover.podbean.com/e/the-importance-of-being-ethical-with-jordan-peterson/
Why: Wide-ranging discussion with author and psychologist Jordan Peterson. His theme is the divine sovereign individual. If you are not familiar with Peterson, you should check out this conversation.
**
What: Gastropod, The Way the Cookie Crumbles (52 min)
https://gastropod.com/the-way-the-cookie-crumbles/
Why: This is mostly just for fun. A history of cookies, or biscuits as they are known in Europe. How does the cookie intertwine with history? It’s actually really fascinating.
I baked some raspberry thumbprint cookies on Saturday from Anne Byrn’s American Cookie which I bought a couple of weeks ago. Her book is a fun mix of cookbook and history lesson. She takes recipes from history and updates them for a modern kitchen and explains their origins and significance. So coming across this pod linked up nicely with my latest cooking adventures.
Thanks for reading and see you next week! If you come across any interesting stories, won't you send them my way? I'd love to hear what you think of these suggestions, and I'd love to get suggestions from you. Feel free to drop me a line at mark.bonica@unh.edu , or you can tweet to me at @mbonica .
If you’re looking for a searchable archive, you can see my draft folder here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jwGLdjsb1WKtgH_2C-_3VvrYCtqLplFO?usp=sharing
Finally, if you find these links interesting, won’t you tell a friend? They can subscribe here: https://markbonica.substack.com/welcome
See you next week!
Mark
Mark J. Bonica, Ph.D., MBA, MS
Associate Professor
Department of Health Management and Policy
University of New Hampshire
(603) 862-0598
mark.bonica@unh.edu
Health Leader Forge Podcast:
http://healthleaderforge.org
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” – Pablo Picaso