Author Archives: JR Stanley

The narrative we are being sold on climate change holds the wrong emphasis. The earth has never been a static place, rather it has been a dynamic place of rapid change, and rapid correction of momentary imbalance. Populations have grown too large, shrunk too small, and species have gone extinct. Species change their form toContinue reading “S2.7 The Ants Go Marching On”

When I was younger I had several misconceptions about health and the human body. The first was an overzealous faith in the state of medical knowledge and the abilities of physicians, the second a belief that taking shelter from the environment was the best way to prevent declines in health.  Death, I initially thought, wasContinue reading “S2.6 Medicine And Movement”

Life keeps going while you are training. Medical training takes a long time; doing a PhD in the middle certainly does not shorten things. Making time for things outside of medicine including family, friends, exercise, and hobbies are critical to success in training, longevity in the medical field, and overall happiness. Degrees do not defineContinue reading “S2.5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Medical School”

“Physician heal thyself” has changed to a plea “Physician don’t kill thyself”. Every year it is estimated that 300-400 physicians commit suicide. To put this in perspective, my graduating medical school class is approximately 200. So every year up to twice the number of my classmates who are entering the workforce, exit the workforce inContinue reading “S2.4 Physician… Don’t Kill Thyself”

  We define ourselves in many ways. People select titles such a “fighter”, “contrarian”, and “creator” and use these terms to define themselves. Dependent identities such as these have the concerning feature of being highly laudable, unspeakably evil, or anywhere in between depending on external factors. In many contexts to be a fighter is aContinue reading “S2.3 Relatively Defining”

Science is a system, a methodology, that is used to approach empiric truth. It is a construct by which we ask questions, search for answers, and attempt to construct working theories of the world and universe around us. Nothing more, nothing less. Perhaps the most important part of being a scientist is curiosity, having anContinue reading “S2.2 Welcoming the Sceptic, Inviting the Questions”

Welcome to Season 2 of the Blog! After the first season we took a break to recalibrate, reimagine, and reorganize. Now we are back and enthusiastic for the start of Season II. Over the next 50 weeks we look forward to exploring medicine, leadership, motivation, and struggle as well as a handful of other topics.Continue reading “S2.Intro: Welcome to Season II”

We have been worried about a global pandemic, something akin to the Spanish flu of 1918, for some time. Whether SARS or Ebola or the new coronavirus, there are always possible pandemics lurking on the horizon. We have dodged the bullet on avian bird flu and swine flu, although that may have had as muchContinue reading “S2.1 Pandemic, the new normal”