When people hear that I'm an emergency physician, they often ask, "What's the craziest thing you've ever seen?" TV shows frequently show ER doctors and nurses heroically saving people on the verge of death. Then there are news reports about...
The pastor’s phone rang in the midnight darkness. A man’s voice rasped: “My wife left me and I’ve got a shotgun in my mouth. Give me one reason why I shouldn’t pull the trigger.” The Rev. Matt Brogli, a...
BEHIND a half-century of policies to promote child development, there lies an assumption: that children are essentially equally affected by the environments they grow up in, and that positive interventions like preschool education should...
Portland’s Old Chinatown district, dotted with bars and nightclubs and full of alcohol-fueled revelry and accompanying police sirens on any given night, is an unlikely place to find a good night’s sleep. But just steps from the...
a Saturday night in the winter of 2012, W.P., a freshman at Princeton, was alone in his dorm room and couldn’t stop crying. He’d just had a conversation with his girlfriend that made him feel distant from her, and from everyone. He...
History may or may not repeat itself, but crisis-stricken politicians certainly do. Two weeks ago, Governor Jay Nixon, of Missouri, announced the swearing in of sixteen members of a commission to examine police procedures and community...
“Exploring Protective Factors Among Homeless Youth: The Role of Natural Mentors.” Michelle T. Dang, Katherine J. Conger, Joshua Breslau and Elizabeth Miller. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 25, No. 3 (August...
The Case for Police Reform Is Much Bigger Than Michael Brown [TheAltantic.com] There are clearer, more persuasive illustrations of law-enforcement misbehavior and the need to rein it in. [To read this story by Conor Friedersdorf, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...ichael-brown/383210/ ] What It Felt Like to Be a ‘Suspicious’ Black Teenager [Online.WSJ.com] Ferguson reminds a Journal reporter of times in his youth when he was singled out by police. [To...
“If you give them any money, they’ll only spend it on drugs." Nearly every city-dweller has heard this argument against giving money to panhandlers. But now, a new European magazine actually aims to do just that. Called Illegal!,...
I admit it. I am an overachiever. It's a side of me that's hard to ignore. It shows up everywhere--in personality tests, self-assessments, my astrological sign, and even in tarot card readings! To make matters worse, I'm the product of a...
Call centers are not, typically, very happy places—especially around the holidays. Workers have quotas to make, and often sit in bleak cubicles, headsets on, plowing through calls from stressed shoppers, as they count down the minutes...
William Hite had not even started his first day as superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia in August 2012 when he called for changes in climate in the system’s classrooms and corridors. At a principals' summit that month,...
It’s taken 14 years and a lot of suffering by adoptive parents to get here—but in July 2014, a new United States law came into effect that requires all U.S. adoption agencies to be federally reviewed and accredited in order to help...
Mental illness is one of the leading causes of disability around the world – and has been for at least the last 25 years. While many communicable diseases have been shrinking in terms of the number of people they affect over the last two...
It’s Saturday night, it’s The X Factor – the popular talent show which spawned pop superstars One Direction and Leona Lewis. Watched by millions of teenagers every week, its power to influence legions of young fans is...