by Steven Merahn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 10, 2021
An intensive, mindful critique of modern health care that confronts its flaws and proposes solutions.
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A report on the complex social and economic issues that are hindering significant patient health care reforms.
Physician and former chief medical officer for Centria Healthcare Merahn’s collection of insightful essays focuses on his view that improvements to health care networks should be a “social imperative” in order to sustain educational and economic progress and avoid systemic inequities. The source of Merahn’s frustration stems from inaction from decision-makers and medical professionals to embrace patient-focused methods of care delivery. He sees health care as a critical necessity—one that’s battered by the forces of economic instability, racial injustice, unconscious bias, politics, and free market capitalist dynamics. Merahn’s research discovered many health care professionals who felt disconnected from their peers and lacking strategies to repair the devaluation of their occupation. The author takes a broad view of his subject, astutely examining the history of American health care and how it’s been incrementally destabilized by “those with less selfless and less generous agendas”; he also addresses how it’s been defined by revenue economics rather than by a philosophy of delivering quality communitywide care. The author writes that although the Covid-19 pandemic has successfully and swiftly mobilized crisis teams across the globe and, in most cases, amply supplied them with the resources they need, it’s also exposed a glaring lack of equitable access to care due in part to systemic racism. He notes that the crisis has also alarmingly revealed a distinct population with “deficient scientific literacy.”
Driven by what he perceives to be glaring systemic inadequacies, Merahn intelligently outlines an evolutionary plan that includes fundamental improvements in clinicians’ financial stability, an organizational restructuring of the care delivery system, and a revised vision of the kind of coverage and support that the American system should be providing. The author leaves little room for doubt that quality health care is urgently needed by everyone and that the system’s goals have, over time, become derailed by the desire for profit and are in need of a remedy that isn’t solely based on “how we pay for care" and is "more about how we plan for care.” Merahn advocates for increased human connection and noncategorical approaches to illness that, in his view, would “transcend diagnoses and acknowledge the power of emotion in influencing interactions in relationships.” Improved attention to patient dignity, integrity, and privacy are also key to this restructuring, he notes. The major thrust of his argument is based on the belief that health care should be free of doubt and confusion; because it’s become mired in these states, there needs to be a redesign and focused return to a “whole-person” frame of mind. Although the author’s medical industry rhetoric and densely rationalized arguments may sometimes be difficult for readers outside of clinical settings to grasp, his impassioned demands for change are unwaveringly convincing. Merahn’s persuasive call for action advocates for no less than an overhaul—one that redirects attention away from “networks of self-interest embedded throughout the healthcare ecosystem.”
An intensive, mindful critique of modern health care that confronts its flaws and proposes solutions.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7359415-2-3
Page Count: 149
Publisher: Conversation Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Timothy Snyder ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2024
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.
An examination of how the U.S. can revitalize its commitment to freedom.
In this ambitious study, Snyder, author of On Tyranny, The Road to Unfreedom, and other books, explores how American freedom might be reconceived not simply in negative terms—as freedom from coercion, especially by the state—but positive ones: the freedom to develop our human potential within sustaining communal structures. The author blends extensive personal reflections on his own evolving understanding of liberty with definitions of the concept by a range of philosophers, historians, politicians, and social activists. Americans, he explains, often wrongly assume that freedom simply means the removal of some barrier: “An individual is free, we think, when the government is out of the way. Negative freedom is our common sense.” In his careful and impassioned description of the profound implications of this conceptual limitation, Snyder provides a compelling account of the circumstances necessary for the realization of positive freedom, along with a set of detailed recommendations for specific sociopolitical reforms and policy initiatives. “We have to see freedom as positive, as beginning from virtues, as shared among people, and as built into institutions,” he writes. The author argues that it’s absurd to think of government as the enemy of freedom; instead, we ought to reimagine how a strong government might focus on creating the appropriate conditions for human flourishing and genuine liberty. Another essential and overlooked element of freedom is the fostering of a culture of solidarity, in which an awareness of and concern for the disadvantaged becomes a guiding virtue. Particularly striking and persuasive are the sections devoted to eviscerating the false promises of libertarianism, exposing the brutal injustices of the nation’s penitentiaries, and documenting the wide-ranging pathologies that flow from a tax system favoring the ultrawealthy.
An incisive, urgently relevant analysis of—and call to action on—America’s foundational ideal.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9780593728727
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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by Action Bronson ; photographed by Bonnie Stephens ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 20, 2021
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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