reader. writer.

Thanks to some extra time on the treadmill, and it’s true that I am glad I got on there after I’m done with the workout, I caught up on a new podcast called America Dissected with Abdul El-Sayed.

He has released three episodes so far, the first on modern quackery, and my main takeaway point was that some website named Goop is bat*&^%crazy (so I immediately warned my children, since I don’t think I’m the target demographic), and it’s a good reminder that one should not trust any celebrity who wants to sell you something. The next episode on Anti-vaxxers had a helpful insight to remember that the victims swept up by the anti-vax movement are motivated by fear and the desire to keep their children healthy. But since I am old-fashioned enough to think it is good when people don’t die of preventable diseases, I especially liked his statement that refusing to vaccinate is a lot like choosing to drive drunk—you are not just putting yourself at risk.

Warning, I am about to vent a little, so avert your gaze, if you’ve had enough venting this week. But anyway, I inexplicably chose to read some of the reviews of the anti-vax podcast, which is like reading comments on Twitter, (i.e. don’t), but it did expose me to the term “the vaccine-injured,” which turns out to be as effective a red flag as a mention of Hunter Biden to identify the speaker as a conspiracy theorist. I appreciate these little red flags, though in the latter case, it’s also a red flag of “the ethically-injured” because they are trying to ignore alarming factually-supported crimes by focusing on fabricated rumors, which, oddly enough, don’t erase the existence of the actual crimes. But hey, that’s what it means to be an American, I guess—just ignore everything we learned through massive research and heartbreak about what might protect us all from harm in order to embrace random *&^% so that a handful of the ethically-injured can make a quick buck.

Anyway, back to the podcast: his third episode was lit, and I rate it as a must listen because he unpacks the way pharmaceutical companies jack up prices for products literally made possible by tax payer funding.