The Visible Voices

Delphine Huang and Gyles Morrison on IDEO, Health Design, and Clinical Ux

Health design thinking uses play and experimentation rather than a rigid methodology. It draws on interviews, observations, diagrams, storytelling, physical models, and role playing; design teams focus not on technology but on problems faced by patients and clinicians. Healthcare UX, then, is about the experiences people have with healthcare technology and services. A Healthcare UX designer’s job is to optimise the usability, accessibility and pleasure of healthcare technology and services. Remember, the experiences cannot be guaranteed, but they can be influenced. Clinical UX, a niche within Healthcare UX focused on the experiences clinicians and their patients have with healthcare technology and services.Dr. Delphine Huang is a medical director at IDEO Health. She works closely with design teams to bring impactful and innovative ideas to life. Her projects span from health products, services, systems and strategy design. She is also a practicing emergency medicine physician and loves hiking the California coast, finding the perfect avocado, and continuously learning from her kids.Dr Gyles Morrison is a Clinical UX Strategist with a 10 year history in healthcare. Starting as a doctor in the UK, he now works internationally, helping UX professionals and healthcare companies make products and services that are valued by clinicians and patients. His areas of interest are digital therapeutics, healthcare behaviour change, UX maturity and professional development.             https://drgylesmorrison.medium.com/what-is-healthcare-ux-and-why-is-it-so-important-be21b415e681Health design solutions to improve the care of sickle cell patients with vaso-occlusive crisis in the emergency department https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am5jIA7xKJUhttps://drgylesmorrison.medium.com/how-to-learn-clinical-ux-through-mixed-learning-fbf147a42875TranscriptSUMMARY KEYWORDSdesign, people, Gyles, clinician, healthcare, IDEO, health, ux, moments, patients, thinking, resistance, therapeutics, clinical, digital, working, Delphine, opportunities, shared, projectsSPEAKERSResa Lewiss, Delphine Huang, Gyles MorrisonResa Lewiss  01:12Hi, audience. Thanks so much for joining me. And we're talking about a favorite topic, health design and user experience by two guests or subject matter experts in after balancing a few calendars, a few continents and a few time zones. Here we are. Dr. Delphine Huang is a medical director at IDEO health. She works closely with design teams to bring impactful and innovative ideas to life. She's a practicing emergency physician at San Francisco General in San Francisco, and her projects span from health products, services, systems and strategy design. Dr. Gyles Morrison is a clinical UX strategist. He has a 10 year history in healthcare, and he started as a physician in the UK, yes, the United Kingdom. He now works internationally helping UX professionals and healthcare companies make products and services that are evaluated by clinicians and patients. So each of these physician health designers have websites and have lots of projects. I first met Delphine, when I was reading about design and Health Design, and the work of IDEO. They have some really interesting products, looking at diabetes, looking at breast pumps, looking at artificial intelligence, I first came across Gyles, when we were working on a piece together, he ultimately published this in the European Journal of Emergency Medicine in 2021. He talked about an app for the treatment, the Health Design, and patient centered treatment of sickle cell patients in the emergency department. So before the episode get started, we actually were talking a bit about design. And each of them were sharing when they first realized they were thinking like a design or how they implement design in their daily lives. And in both of their cases, they talked about taking care of patients in their clinical environments. Delfina actually added that she realizes in having two young children, she actually is designing on a daily basis. Okay, let's get to the conversation. What strikes me from what both of you have shared is because I know from working in healthcare is there's a lot of resistance. There's a lot embedded in tradition. Too many times we hear well, this is the way we've always done things. So I am sure that you are used to not just the resistance of human nature and people, but specifically the resistances within healthcare. So I'm wondering if you can share for audience members that really trying to wrap their head around this concept of design, where perhaps there's been a resistance, maybe from a patient, maybe from the healthcare team, maybe from the institution, maybe from the built environment, and how you worked through that resistance. Delphine? Delphine Huang  04:03Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, like whoever you're working with, whether it's a client or a patient, at the end of the gate, the two are also human. Right. So I think there is a, you know, when we talk about design, we talk about being empathetic, putting ourselves into their shoes. And so when you hit these moments of resistance, it's actually taking a time to slow down and actually understand, like, what is driving that? That thought process for that individual. And so, you know, a lot of love and work, I would say in design, there is the actual thing that you're trying to build or design for app or medical device, but it's also about aligning your lining, what could be multiple stakeholders also that are involved in this and so, you know, I think when you have this moment where it feels more I would maybe she A different resistance to feeling, maybe a moment of tension is to actually take a moment to be like, Okay, how can we better understand this moment tension, because within that, you might actually find the path of clarity that you need in order to then move something forward to design something forward. So an example of this would be like, you know, when we're talking to hospital administration, a lot of them are indoctrinated, or come from the theory of like, you know, LEAN improvements, or Sigma Six. And there are a lot of parallels actually, with that with design, I actually think they actually complement each other really well. And so it's about thinking about like, actually, how do you then speak their language? How do you bring in moments that there they are accustomed to and integrating that in order to be like, well, actually, and how do we elevate them through those means the principles of design, great, Resa Lewiss  05:56Gyles, what came to mind? Gyles Morrison  05:58So this is really advice, I would offer not just in healthcare as a way to overcome that resistance. But anytime you're facing resistance from people, I'm not a parent yet, but I've been around a lot of young children, or someone who, for whatever reason is against you. And I think it's that whole advice, the general advice that you would get from David Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People comes to mind. And the first big take home for that is to genuinely be interested in other people, which is something we can take for granted when we're talking about friends and family. But when you genuinely care about someone else's interests, it means that you start trying to read between the lines, and whenever there's doubt to ask explicitly, but over time, because you've built a relationship with that person, you instinctively start doing what's right for them, like my wife doesn't have to ask for peppermint tea in the morning, I just notice what she's gonna want, not just from tradition, but I can sense this is probably what she's gonna want right about now. And I think this can be applied very quickly, even when you are dealing with a stranger. Just having that first genuine interest in seeing how you can help that person, which then should motivate you should guide you to be asking the right questions and observing as well, because especially in design, a lot of what we determine the requirements or satisfy a user's needs, doesn't come from what the user tells us, it can often come from what the user shows us, or better still, what we learn from what the user isn't doing or what they can't do. So it's having that inquiring mind, which still first comes from genuine care about this person's interests. So I found that always worked really, really well in healthcare, I think as well, as a doctor dealing with clinical UX and design and is genuine working in digital health. Being a clinician myself is kind of like a superpower, you kind of get a power up, where when you are speaking to fellow clinicians, and you make it very clear from the outset, you're part of the solution to their problem that you're here to help. And you understand generally, even if you've never worked with them in their department, even in their country, generally, because your clinician like them, that they can trust you and that you're going to understand them because you've got a shared language, shared experiences. And so actually, the easiest conversations I've had in digital health, and clinical UX has always been with fellow doctors, more so than anybody else, followed by all other allied health care professionals, and actually is most difficult at times working with non clinicians, who have a very strong opinion about how things should be done. So again, I have to genuinely care for their interests. Is it money that's motivating them? Is it success of the project that's motivating them? And then see, how does that tie back to what I have to do in my job? What is it linked back to my agenda, and then have that common ground and make sure both of us are happy state communicating about our needs, and then that normally leads to success, it breaks down the wall that people can have, or resistance and build that bridge to connect to so that you can walk across and get stuff done? Resa Lewiss  09:28Thanks, I really like that reframe, rather than resistance perhaps consider it tension, which can be both positive and it does not necessarily have to connote negative. So in the show notes, the audience will be able to read about your respective work your project, Delphi, and I spent quite a bit of time going through your website reading about your projects. And, you know, most interestingly is your role when you're not an emergency physician at SF general is you are a medical director for IDEO some Audience members may not know about audio. And so I'm wondering if you can share a bit about the company, your role. And can you can you let us know what are you working on right now? Yeah, Delphine Huang  10:11Sure. So IDEO is a global design consultancy firm. And we are most like when most people think of IDEO, they think of, you know, products such as Oxo or Apple, I was involved in designing the first Apple mouse, for example. But over the years, besides doing physical products, we also have expanded our services and do a majority of our work in digital experience. And also think about new ventures or new opportunities. So, a lot of times organizations come to us because they have some big question that they're trying to solve. And they're looking for a creative or innovative way to be able to do that. And so, you know, IDEO is a multidisciplinary organization where we were, I think, where our strengths lie, is that we have folks that are spanning from interaction designers, to design researchers, to business designers, to someone like me, who's a clinician, to data scientist engineers, and we believe actually, the collective mind is a lot stronger than the individual mind. And so I think, with that, you know, we are a lot of times given a challenge, and from there, able to explore new avenues that perhaps haven't been thought of yet. In terms of my role, so I am one of the medical directors in our health domain. And my role primarily is to bring in the, the, the perspective of the healthcare ecosystem, and provide that lens of perhaps the different stakeholders that might be a play and the different levers that might be in play when trying to design. And so sometimes I think I think of myself a bit of like, I'm the gut check, of, you know, we can dream all these different different solutions out there. But you know, at the same time, we also have to think about the pragmatism of it, as well, as you know, what is our current state of, you know, our healthcare system. So there's a little bit of my role in terms of projects, and current, I most recently finished a project related to home care services. And I think that this was a you know, in COVID times, you know, this is an area ripe for innovation, you know, we're seeing a lot of movement, healthcare, thinking about what the outside of hospital experience could be like. And especially at home, in our current pandemic. So, you know, I think that, you know, the that this is an area that could be the has a lot of opportunities, because it's actually a lot of patients and families that need, you know, about, I think it's like 70% of patients who use home services or Medicaid beneficiaries. And we actually do see a lot of racial disparities, elder disparities when it comes to outcome and quality of care. So given the one on one nature of home care, I think there are opportunities, one of the things that we explored was, you know, I think they, the key to there a few things that we learned along the way was one, how do we like design and integrate tools, not just for the patient, but actually for the care provider? And what are those opportunities of community interacting patients, even when that provider is not with the patient? So you can build that trust and psychological safety? And second, thinking about how can we design delightful and interactive moments for patients who have a long road of recovery? And so thinking about what is that moments of being able to share progress and build positive feedback so that people are engaged in taking care of their health? So I think, you know, these are some of the projects that we work on. And this is just an example, where design I think, has a lot of can have a lot of tools that can help individuals think through how we can improve a particular situation health. Resa Lewiss  14:11Yeah, Gyles I want to get to you about your current work, but I want to first dovetail off Delphine something you shared about access, equity, health disparities, and sort of trying to raise the level of standard that everybody is getting the same care and particularly Health Design, I think is having its moment because of COVID because of and we can talk about the US and Gyles welcome your examples from the UK and Germany. You know, it basically pulled a scab off of the racial inequities, the racism throughout healthcare, in terms of patients and even in terms of health care trainees, but for you know, for the sake of argument here, we're talking about patients the despair The racial ethnic disparities and the racism. So in, as I said, health design, I think is having its moment. And I would wonder, with your role with IDEO, how have you seen that manifest? Are you just bananas, busy with many, many projects, and many, many consultations, you know, what's been coming your way because of the pandemic? Delphine Huang 15:22Yeah, I mean, I think when it comes to thinking about equity and thinking about health equity, specifically, IDEO, along with many other organizations that we're actually seeing now are grappling with, how do we how do we, as an organization, as a health care system in the US address, some of the some of the disparities that have really been they're always there, but now really exacerbated and highlighted. And during COVID, and in some ways, there's an awareness that we there, where's not even that imperative that we address these issues. And so I think that design itself really has a role to play in that kind of all the things that we've kind of talked about, of why design is a good can be helpful in these scenarios is that, you know, thinking about how we can in a moment where, you know, COVID has really highlighted these gaps in health care, it also has been an opportunity to really bring out Creative Innovations about how health care can be delivered and to whom we're really delivering it. So I think there are these moments where I think thinking about how both the merging of technology, human centered design, and healthcare come together, are at play right now. And I think we're seeing that across all organ, a lot of organizations out there and how they're approaching their work. There's a piece of organizations being wanting to be introspective about their own journey when it comes to equity at this point, Resa Lewiss  16:53Gyles, feel free to jump on that and update us on what you're working on right now. Yes, so Gyles Morrison 16:59I primarily focus on either working independently as a clinical UX strategist. So I primarily work on products in the digital therapeutic space. So any evidence base digital tool that can prevent, manage or treat disease, this can be disease anywhere in the world, on any disease, really. But what I love about that work is that you're suddenly moving the power more towards the individual patient to take more control over their health, because they're in a position to record their data most of the time and digital therapeutics and get feedback on their health in real time, within a forms them of what sort of options that they have to improve their health, or even reassure them if they had any previous concerns, which then feeds into any new treatment plans or seeing their primary care physician, so on and so forth. And what I love about this is that a lot of the issues that we face with health inequalities can be easily overcome through the more encouraged use, encouraged development and use of digital therapeutics. So you know, depending on the statistics that you look at, it can be argued that actually, people are more likely to have access to a mobile phone, then immediate healthcare services. You know, even if it's the back in the day, Nokia 9210, with the snake game that people might remember from the 90s, even those devices still can provide a very sophisticated offering to you. So the example I like to give is M-Pesa which is commonly used across Africa, particularly East Africa, which is a completely digital service to manage your money. So you can access your bank account, just through USSD, which is similar to SMS, but it's that hash, hash key and then few digit stuff that you do in your phone, which then gives you access to your ability to not only draw money as cash from an appropriate store, but for you to even send money to other people. Let's think if that instead of having financial data had medical data, you can give even homeless people the ability to own their own health data when they have a mobile phone because many homeless people, even in very deprived parts of the world have a mobile phone. And this is one of the reasons why I love working in digital therapeutics. As I said before, it can bring that shift of power more towards an individual. So anybody who needs healthcare services at some point is going to have to interact with a professional pharmacist or doctor so on and so forth. But there's many medical problems that we have or medical questions that we have, which can be easily solved on someone's own like we've seen this We've encouraged people to, you know, Google stuff, which isn't always so useful because it doesn't take into full consideration the realities of someone's lived experience and their personal health needs. But people are trying to help themselves. But we don't really have a sophisticated suite of tools and technologies to really allow people to do this properly. So that's why I like focusing on the digital therapeutics, because when we do that, right, we will be able to serve underserved people much more with language barriers. Even confidence with using technology to improve their health, we started to empower these populations. And when we satisfy their needs, everybody else who can take modern technology for granted, their needs are satisfied as well. Resa Lewiss  20:52Do you want to tell the audience briefly about your online course your clinical UX course? Yes. So Gyles Morrison 20:57the clinical UX course, he goes into his second year in January of 2022. So the course is designed to help anybody whether they are new to UX, or experienced in UX, perhaps they've done a recent bootcamp in UX design, or they've even been in UX for 10 years or more, to gain that additional skills, knowledge and experience on working in clinical UX. So how can you change your profession and go into this field, or have it as another string to your bow, so we had nine students graduate this year in 2021. And this is students all over the world, doctors, paramedic psychologists, UX professionals, new and old. And they've loved it. I'm biased, because I taught them. But the feedback has been very, very positive. And students have been able to even get jobs whilst taking the course, because the whole course is taught part time. So it's specifically designed to help people who's in full time education or full time employment, to spend a couple of hours a week on the course, if they're already in digital health or healthcare in general, they can base their coursework on what they do in the day job, or they spend a couple more hours Additionally, in the week, if they're outside of healthcare currently. But it's really to provide people with that experience, and a group of like-minded people globally, who are really passionate about making a difference in health care, food design. Resa Lewiss  22:32Great. I want to give each of you the opportunity to ask each other questions. Delphone, you want to start? Delphine Huang  22:39Sure, I would love to hear more about you teaching about clinical UX. Actually, I'm curious if you know, whether whether things are moments where you see learners or that are taking on this endeavor of clinical UX. moments for them to what are the moments where it's like an aha moment for them? Yeah, yeah. Gyles Morrison 23:08So the most common aha moment, regardless of someone being a clinician or not, is when it's revealed to them the crazy similarities between diagnosing patients and working as a designer, the whole process of there is a problem. So you investigate it. And through your investigations, you might start having ideas of what the solution could be your treatment plan. And so you give it to treatment, but then you still do a check to see you know, you know, an evaluation, further blood test, whatever the investigation that is required, and even still be saved in his life. So here's the treatment, we expect you to get better, but it'd be any problems, come back and see me the same thing you should be doing in design, someone comes with a brief, you gather as much information as possible. And you go through that cycle of understanding the problem, as well as possible, narrowing down to the right problems to solve, exploring potential solutions, testing out improving, and then making sure that if, after someone's been given a solution, they need to make any changes, they can come back to you. And so when conditions in particular, doctors realize that they're like, Wow, I get this, and I care about this. It's, it's not so hard to do is like as much as I need to learn new skills. It's that mindset change that people fit they need to go through as clinicians, we say don't they don't need to change the mindset. The only thing about the mindset that needs to change is to realize that you won't just be now using your medical degree and experiences, there's going to be some additional knowledge you're going to have to have, but otherwise you're in a good place to solve problems in healthcare as a design if you come from a clinical background. And then when the non designers I'm sorry, the designers realize this when the UX to start understanding this as well. They like I now see how Ready got such a common ground with clinicians, I can see how I can start a conversation with them and get them on my side because we've got this shared experience, even if it's seems to be different industries and different problems that's been solved. So that's perhaps the best aha moment that I see. amongst the students. The other one is when they realize how much they can earn, when they stay. That's another one that what okay, I definitely, I really like this whole clinical UX thing. Let's let's go for it, then. Yeah. Resa Lewiss  25:34Gyles, what do you want to ask? Delphine? Gyles Morrison 25:37Um, I'm really keen to know, what advice would you offer your younger self? Because I'm assuming that you weren't involved with design, before medical school? And if you didn't know about design, then would that have changed your your path in life? Delphine Huang 26:03Um, good question. Um, I don't think it would necessarily have changed the path, per se, I think that, at the heart of it, I'm still physician, and I still love the art of medicine. I think that, though, when I, you know, when I think back to folks have come to me and be like, you know, how do I get started on a journey similar to yours, I would say that, that, you know, the path at the end of the day is not clear. Because in medicine, you always have, you kind of have this trajectory that you go on, you go through medical school, and then go to residency become attending. And that path is very clear. But when I think for all of us out here on the call is that is that you have to forge your own path at the end of the day, but that you should take the opportunities as they come because you never know where it will lead you. And it's whether or not it's, you know, helping with a startup just help sit through their UX experience, and you're doing it as maybe something you do as a med student, or going to conferences and meeting different people in the industry, you start hearing some of their pain points, and what they may be struggling with, because a lot of those folks don't have experience in health care, and don't even have a weight of the lens to be able to get it. And so that can be you, right. And so I always tell folks, you know, use the opportunities as you especially as you're going through training, to one learn about the pain points of the industry, but then also learn the pain points of your hospital. Prior to coming out of prior to coming to IDEO. And prior, I had done a fellowship at Stanford called Biodesign. I had never thought about you have this physical product, let's say, let's say a ventilation machine. And then I never thought about who makes that machine? What goes into the design of it. What is components that need to be in there? What is the supply chain from being built in a manufacturer all the way with regulation, with the delivery to and training of an individual to use it, each of those steps, as someone who's early in it, who's working at the hospital had the opportunity to learn and that knowledge is so useful to somebody else in the industry? So I would say that those are the those are the things I would tell folks as they're thinking about either whether it's you know, doing something part time or making the jump fully into industry, that if you're a clinician, you can you can learn those moments and bring that knowledge to others. Resa Lewiss  28:59I know I say this every week, what a great conversation. But seriously, what a great conversation. I think it's obvious to you audience how much Delphine Gyles and I love speaking with each other and love the topic of health design and user experience. Delphine shared that this may have been one of her first podcast recordings, and I'm so glad and feel so lucky to be able to amplify her amplify her leadership as a health designer, and amplify her work. As an ideal Medical Director. Gyles and Delphine are people to watch in the health design and user experience space. You audience have a role in health design, you are designers. Think about your health. Think about health care. Think about health care that can better serve society. See you next week. The visible Voices Podcast amplifies voices both known and unknown, discussing topics of healthcare equity and current trends. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It helps other people find the show. You can listen on whatever platform you subscribe to podcasts. Our team includes Stacy Gatlin and Dr. Giuliano deport you. If you're interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact me resa@visiblevoicespodcast.com. I'm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I'm on Twitter @ResaELewiss. Thank you so much for listening and as always, to be continued

Macalester College President Suzanne M Rivera

Dr. Suzanne Rivera is the President of Macalester College. She also is a Professor of Public Affairs, and her scholarship focuses on research ethics and science policy. Rivera has written numerous journal articles and book chapters, and she co-edited the book Specimen Science. Her research has been supported by the NIH, the NSF, the DHHS Office of Research Integrity, and the Cleveland Foundation. She is engaged in numerous civic and municipal leadership roles, including Chair of the Board of Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R), Appointed Member of the Executive Council for Minnesota’s Young Women’s Initiative, Board Member of the Science Museum of Minnesota, Board Member of College Possible, and Member of the TeenSHARP National Advisory Board. Rivera received a BA in American Civilization from Brown University, an MSW from UC-Berkeley, and a PhD in public policy from UT Dallas.Head Start ProgramsBrown University Undocumented, First-Generation College, and Low-Income Student Center TranscriptSUMMARY KEYWORDSstudents, people, brown, feeling, college, Headstart, Minnesota, Posse, support, low income students, financial aid, St. Paul, sponsored, day, job, brown university, group, Marian Wright Edelman, graduate, phdSPEAKERSResa Lewiss, Sue RiveraResa Lewiss  00:36Hi, listeners. Thanks so much for joining me with today's episode and I'm gonna start with a quote. You can't be what you can't see. One more time, you can't be what you can't see. Now this was said by Marian Wright Edelman. She was the founder of the Children's Defense Fund and was one of the original founders of the Headstart program. She graduated Spelman College and Yale School of Law. Now Marian Wright Edelman is not my guest in today's conversation, however, she was an inspiration for my guest. Today I'm in conversation with Suzanne M. Rivera, PhD MSW. Sue. Dr. Suzanne Rivera is the president of Macalester College in Minneapolis. She's also a Professor of Public Affairs. Her scholarship focuses on research ethics and science policy. She received her BA in American civilization from Brown University, a master's in social work from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in public policy from UT Dallas. Now Sue and I have a few areas of overlap. Number one, we graduated college one year apart. Number two is the Headstart program. Growing up in my small town, Westerly, Rhode Island, I was exposed to the Headstart program through my mother. My mother is an elementary school educator, and she did preschool testing for children. And my knowledge at the time was she helped with evaluating children for learning disabilities, for challenges with speech, sound, and sight. Let's get to the conversation where when we get started, Sue is explaining her ideas about mentorship, and who her mentors were, or at least a few of them. Sue Rivera  02:47I mean, one thing I tell young people all the time is, don't hold your breath waiting for a mentor who shares all of your attributes who can inspire you because especially if you're from a historically excluded or underserved group, the likelihood that there's going to be some inspirational leader who shares all your attributes is pretty small. So the mentors and sponsors who've made the biggest impact in my life have all been men. They've all been white men, they've all been white men who were significantly older than me and much more accomplished, and who came from backgrounds that were, you know, that had a lot more privileged than my own. And yet, we were able to connect on a deep level and they really opened doors for me. So a couple exams for Harry Spector at UC Berkeley was a great mentor is no longer with us. Another great mentor, for me was a guy named Al Gilman, a Nobel Laureate, who, who I worked for at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, opened a lot of doors for me, encouraged me to go back and get my PhD when I was a 35 year old mother of two school aged kids. And once I got it, promoted me and then what, and then once I had a faculty appointment, invited me to co author a chapter for him with him in the kind of most important pharmacology textbook, that he was responsible for publishing, which means My name is forever linked with his in the literature, which is an incredibly generous gift for him to give to me. People like that have sort of stepped in at at moments where, if not for them, I might not have seen in my self potential that was there. Another person I would mention is a professor from my undergraduate days. Greg Elliot at Brown University in the sociology department, who sort of encouraged me to think about my own interests in social inequality and poverty as things that were worth studying things that were worth studying in a rigorous way as a scholar and not just sort of feeling badly about or complaining about or having a personal interest, but really taking them on as an intellectual project. So he sponsored me for a summer research assistantship, he had me serve as a TA in one of his classes. And he sponsored a group independent study project for me and a bunch of other students. And I'm still in touch with him to this day. He's somebody who certainly helped me think about myself as a scholar at a time where I was really thinking, I was just barely holding on, like, hoping I could graduate with a BA, I wasn't imagining that I could go on to become a professor and eventually a college president. Resa Lewiss  05:36People saw in you what maybe you hadn't yet seen for yourself. I was a sociology concentrator, and I took Professor Elliott's class, and I remember him reading from Kurt Vonnegut Mother Night, and it was really moving, he sort of cut to the punch line of we are who we pretend to be, so we must be very careful who we pretend to be. And that stuck with me. And that also launched a whole lollapalooza of reading Kurt Vonnegut. Sue Rivera  06:07Yeah, actually, this is one of the beautiful things about a liberal arts education, I think is that you know, so you became a physician after being a sociology undergraduate concentrator. I dabbled in a lot of different things as an undergrad did not imagine I would eventually become an academic, but I feel like the tools I got, from that degree have served me really well, moving between jobs. You know, I originally went to go work for the federal government thinking I was going to do policy work. Eventually, I worked in higher education administration, then I went back and got a PhD in public policy. But, you know, all along as I was making career changes, the tools I got as an undergraduate to think critically and communicate effectively and, you know, think in an interdisciplinary way work with people who have really different perspectives than I have. All of that is just priceless. I mean, so so incredibly valuable. Resa Lewiss  07:02Speaking of liberal arts education, let's jump right in and talk about Macalester for audience members that aren't familiar with the college. Tell us about the college and tell us about how it's been to be President. Sue Rivera  07:14Well, it's a wonderful college. It's it's almost 150 years old, and it's a originally was founded by Presbyterians and although still Presbyterian affiliated his is a secular liberal arts college, a small private liberal arts college in St. Paul, Minnesota. It has a deep history of being committed to social justice. It was the first college in the United States to fly the United Nations flag, which is still flying outside my window in my office here. And in fact, Kofi Annan was a graduate of Macalester the four pillars of a Macalester education as they're currently described, our academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism and service to society. And I think the character of this place actually is not that dissimilar from the brown that you and I know, in the sense that social justice is really important part of the character read institution, but it also attracts people who dispositional li are attracted to activism, to wanting to make a more just and peaceful world who think about their education in a sense as not only a privilege, but also an obligation to go out and make things better. And so the students we attract at Macalester are really sparky, in the sense that they, they, they're, you know, they're really passionate. They all come with it, let's just set aside that they're really academically talented because they all are so that no longer is a distinguishing characteristic once they get here because they're all academically talented. So what distinguishes them when they get here is all the other stuff in addition to being bright, you know, they're, they're committed athlete, they're a poet. They're a weaver. They're a dancer, they're, they're an aspiring politician involved in political campaigns mean that they're all just how they're debater, you know. So whenever I meet students, one of the first things I say to them is, well, what are you really loving right now? Or, you know, what's keeping you really busy right now, instead of saying, you know, what are you taking? Or what's your major, I'm much less interested in what their major is. And I'm much more interested in like, you know, what's got them really jazzed? What are they spending their time on? What's what's so exciting that they're staying up into the middle of the night working on it, Resa Lewiss  09:40The timing of your start.  There was an overlap with the murder of Mr. George Floyd. And I'm wondering if you can share with the audience how that sort of set a tone and set an inspiration for your work. Sue Rivera  09:55Yeah, it was a really difficult time I actually accepted the job. On January 31, of 2020. So at that time, if you can remember back to the before times, none of us had ever heard of COVID. And the board of trustees who offered me the job, were saying, this is going to be a turnkey operation for you, the previous president had been here for 17 years, smooth sailing, really easy transition, you know, easy peasy. And three weeks later, you know, every college in America started closing because of COVID. And I realized, wow, this job is about to get a lot more challenging. I was in Cleveland, Ohio at the time at Case Western Reserve University. And I was sort of watching as the news was unfolding, but also doing my job at another higher ed institution. So I could anticipate how it was going to get more difficult to come to McAllister, then literally on the day that I got in my car to drive to Cleveland, to drive to St. Paul from Cleveland to take this job was the day that George Floyd was murdered. So as I was driving all day, north of Michigan, and then across the up of Michigan, going west to St. Paul, I would drive all day and then turn on the TV at night and watch the news. And as we approached St. Paul, the city was deeper and deeper in grief and righteous anger and fear National Guard troops were coming in, there were fires all over the place. In fact, I was supposed to start the job on a Monday and arrive on a Saturday and I got a call on that Saturday while I was on the road saying don't try and come into the city because we've got a curfew. And it's not feeling safe right now. Just get in a hotel outside of the city and try and come in tomorrow. So I arrived really on Sunday in St. Paul to start the job on Monday. And I and I recognize that my first day was going to be very different than what any of us had imagined. Because what the, what the moment called for was to name the pain and grief and anger everyone was feeling. And to try to address people's grief in a way that was honest about the challenges offer some comfort, but also a call to action about how we could be how we could be of help how we could be of service. So you know, the first couple things I did that week were one was I attended a silent vigil that was organized by the black clergy of St. Paul from various different faith, faith communities, I also attended a food and hygiene drive that was organized by our students, you know, it's just a lot, you know, we stood up a mutual aid fundraising drive, within the first couple of weeks, it was just a lot of attending to the immediate needs of the community. And also, all of this was complicated by having to do almost everything by zoom, you know, so, you know, Zoom is good for a lot of things. But when people are crying when people are scared when people, you know, our international students, many of them couldn't go home, because of COVID. So they were staying over the summer, it was just very, very complicated and didn't look anything like what we thought it was going to look like. And what I didn't have was a reservoir of trust built up with this community. And the only way I could talk to people was on a computer screen, which doesn't give the full benefit of body language. It doesn't give all you know, everything you learned from being in a room with somebody. The various facial expressions, the way the way that when you talk to a roomful of people, you see two people make eye contact after you've said something and you recognize you have to go follow up with them and see what that was all about. You know, none of that is possible on Zoom. And, and it was just it was just an impossible summer. It was very, very difficult. I was trying to introduce myself at a time where I also had to deliver a lot of bad news to people. You know, we were having to take all sorts of difficult decisions about keeping the residence halls densifying the residence halls by telling some people they couldn't move back in August that was disappointing for them taking decisions related to the college's finances, like suspending contributions to employees retirement accounts for six months until we could understand how we were going to do financially. arranging for testing COVID testing was incredibly expensive and something we hadn't budgeted for figuring out where to put hand sanitizer and plexiglass and what our masking policy should be. I mean, really, it was like being a full time disaster management person not being a college president. And in many ways, the whole first year was was not being a college president. It was it was just one really challenging, ethical or logistical decision after another all year long. Resa Lewiss  14:50According to my reading in 1991, you delivered your graduation class orration and I'm wondering if you can fill us in on about what you spoke Sue Rivera  15:04well, I, you know, I basically I talked about my unlikely journey to being an Ivy League graduate and what that could mean for all of us about the possibilities of you know pathbreaking of moving into uncharted territory. When I, when I went to college, we didn't have the expression first gen, and we didn't have really a sense of pride around being a financial aid student to the contrary, my experience at an elite institution was that if you were there on financial aid, and came from a low income background, that you tried to hide it as much as possible in order to fit in, you know, back then Brown had a policy of limiting financial aid students to 30% of the student population. And that meant even just students who only had loans and got no grant awards. So just imagine an environment it's not like that anymore, I should clarify, Brown is not like that anymore. But back then 70% of the student body were full pay, meaning their parents could write the whole check. And just imagine what that means when the tuition is significantly more than the, you know, median income for a family of four in this country. It means you're, you're in a really elite and I daresay elitist environment. So what that meant if you were a student on financial aid was that it was kind of a scary place, it was kind of an alienating place. And when I arrived there, I really felt like a fish out of water. I thought about transferring, had a job in the Ratty in the dining hall. You know, my work study job, where I was sort of serving other students and feeling I don't know if I would say inferior but definitely had a sense of imposter syndrome. Like you know, one of these days somebody is going to figure out I don't really belong here. And the turning point for me was that in in the spring semester of that first year for me, a chaplain, Reverend Flora Kashagian who I don't know if that's a name, you know, but she offered like a discussion group, she and Beth Zwick, who was the head of the Women's Center offered a discussion group for students struggling with money issues. So I opened the school newspaper one day, and there's an ad in there. That's like, I don't even remember what it said. But it was something like are you struggling with money issues? Are you on financial aid, you know, are things tough at home, and you don't know how to talk about it come to this discussion. And let's rap about it. And for whatever reason, that spoke to me and I, I went, and there were like, 11 or 12 people in the room for this discussion group. But it was like the Island of Misfit Toys. Do you remember that, that that Christmas cartoon where like, every toy is broken in some kind of way, but they all have their gifts, right? Every student who showed up for that thing had a different non traditional path to get to brown and we were all broken in some kind of weird way. You know, for me, I had grown up in an immigrant home on was on public assistance, food stamps, free lunch, you know, you name it. I was there on a on a Pell Grant, which are, you know, the neediest students. And there were other people in the room who came from really different environments. I grew up in New York City, but there were other people who were like, from a rural farm family, or, you know, I mean, just all everybody had different reasons for why they came to that discussion group. But it was magical because we all saw each other in a really like, pure and non judgmental way. And we could all be real with each other. As it turns out, one of the other 11 people was the person who would eventually become my spouse. And other people in the room that day are lifelong friends. I mean, we really bonded, we ended up forming a club called sofa students on financial aid. We even have little T shirts made up that said, so far, so good. And it had like a picture of a couch that was all ripped and torn on on the front. And by making it a student club, that got incorporated by the student government, we kind of created legitimacy for ourselves on campus, and started to create a way of talking about being from a low income background that didn't feel shameful, that felt prideful, not prideful, in the sense of hubris, but in the sense of like, acknowledging the distance traveled was great that we were not born on third base. And yet we were here sort of competing with people who had every advantage in the world and having a sense of deserving to be there or belonging there. So by the time I was a senior and I got selected to give the one of the two oratory addresses at graduation, the theme for me really was one of triumph of having overcome all of those hurdles and feeling like finally I feel like I deserve at this place. I earned my spot here. Resa Lewiss  19:57In my freshman unit, there was a woman with whom I'm still very, very close. She is an attorney. She's an LA county judge. And she transferred from Brown for some of the reasons that you considered transferring. And she to this day says that it's one of her biggest regrets. And also she really feels if they were more visible vocal support for first gen students than she thinks it would have made a huge difference for her. Sue Rivera  20:29Yeah, no doubt and and Brown has come a long way. In this regard. I consider them a real leader. Now they have this you fly center. It's like it's an actual center on campus for people who are undocumented first gen or low income. And they get extra support. They have a dedicated Dean, they have programming. I think it's a real testament to the seriousness with which Brown has taken the unique challenges that face low income students going to a place like that. It also helped a lot that between Vartan, Gregorian and roof Simmons, two presidents, who I greatly admire from Brown, they were able to raise the money to provide financial aid to students who need it, but also to go need blind. So I told you that at the time that I went there, they limited the number of students on financial aid to 30% of the student body, that's no longer true. Now, when you apply to brown, you are admitted without regard to ability to pay and they commit to meet full need. So I think it's a much more socio economically diverse student body today. And I think Brown has really been a leader in how to increase access and support low income students when they get there, because I think it's a two part problem. You know, just letting people in. But allowing them to sink or swim is really not helpful. You need to increase access, but then also provide the support necessary so that the that educational opportunity is a ladder to economic mobility, people have to actually be able to finish, you know, complete the degree, and then go off and have a career afterwards in order for the opportunity to really, you know, fulfill that promise. Resa Lewiss  22:16Yeah, it reminds me a bit of what you described with the Headstart program of not just, you know, supporting this one individual child, but it's actually the system in place. So similar, like it's one thing to get in, but you have to help the student, succeed, thrive. Be healthy in that environment. I believe I've read that you that you're actually doing work to increase access and admission of students that may have fewer resources in the state. Can you talk a little bit about that initiative? Sue Rivera  22:47Yeah, I'd love to. So when I arrived at Macalester again, just like a little over a year ago, Macalester already had a relationship with the quest Bridge Program, which is one way to recruit first gen and low income students. But of course, we take those from all over the country. We also had other cohort programs like the Bonner Scholars Program and the Mellon Mays program. But after the murder of George Floyd, one thing that I heard a lot from people on campus was that while Macalester had done a great job recruiting a diverse student body from not only all over the country, but also all over the world. We have a very international student body that we hadn't done as much to focus on students from right here in Minnesota, especially talented students from historically excluded groups from right here in Minnesota. So we did two things last year. One was that we established a new fund called the Minnesota Opportunity Scholarship Fund, which is an effort to raise scholarship dollars that will be targeted specifically to talented students from Minnesota. And the second thing we did was that we joined forces with the Posse Foundation to sign on as a posse school, whereby Macalester will become recipients of the first posse from the state of Minnesota. I don't know if you're that familiar with posse, but that's a program that's 30 plus years old, that that's based on the Really clever idea that that their founder Debbie Bial had, which is that if you pluck one student from an under resourced High School, and you send them across the country to a private liberal arts college, they may feel like a fish out of water. But if you cultivate a cohort of students from a city, and you give them in high school leadership training and other kinds of support, and you foster trust and friendship among them, and then you take a group or a posse, if you will, and you take those 10 students and send them all to the same liberal arts college, the chances are, that they're going to be better equipped to persist and complete because they have each other you know, they don't have that feeling of walking into the dining hall and not seeing any familiar face. We're not having anybody who knows what it's like in their home city neighborhood. You know, the same feeling I had when I walked into that room and I saw the other Misfit Toys sitting around in a circle. The posse already formed a trusting cohort that can keep each other company and offer support through the four year experience of college. So we are adding posse to our other cohort programs here on campus. But we've specified that the posses gotta come from here in Minnesota, they will come from the Twin Cities, either Minneapolis public schools or St. Paul Public Schools. And we're going to get our first group of 10 in September, and we will give them all full tuition scholarships. It's really exciting. Yeah. Resa Lewiss  25:47Wow. What a conversation and honestly, I could have kept speaking with Sue for quite a while. I think she enjoyed the conversation too, regarding my friend that I referred to in the conversation. Attorney judge Serena Murillo. As I said, we're still friends, and she knows that I had tipped her during this episode. And all I can say is, listen to your heart. Listen to your brain. Have a growth mindset and know that your professional path is not linear. Thanks for joining and see you next week. The visible Voices Podcast amplifies voices both known and unknown, discussing topics of healthcare equity and current trends. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It helps other people find the show. You can listen on whatever platform you subscribe to podcasts. Our team includes Stacey Gitlin and Dr. Giuliano Di Portu. If you're interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact me resa@thevisiblevoicespodcast.com. I'm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I'm on Twitter @ResaELewiss. Thank you so much for listening and as always, to be continued

Carol Bernstein and Corey Feist On Stigma and Health Care Worker Mental Health

Carol A. Bernstein, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women’s Health at the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  She is also a Senior Scholar in the Department of Education and Organizational Development for the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Wellbeing and a Past President of the American Psychiatric Association.J. Corey Feist, JD, MBA is a health care executive with over 20 years of experience. Corey is the Co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation and Corey currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the University of Virginia Physicians Group, the medical group practice of UVA Health comprised of 1200+ physicians and advanced practice providers. Corey also holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the UVA Darden School of Business where he recently taught a course entitled “Managing in a Pandemic: The Challenge of COVID-19″. Corey is also the Chair of the Board of the Charlottesville Free Clinic. Corey holds his Masters in Business Administration from the UVA Darden School of Business, his Juris Doctorate from Penn State Dickinson School of Law and his Bachelors degree from Hamilton CollegeThe Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, (S. 610  and HR 1667) which unanimously passed the US Senate on August 6, 2021, the Health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on October 26, 2021 and the full Energy and Commerce Committee on November 17, 2021 aims to reduce and prevent suicide, burnout, and mental and behavioral health conditions among health care professionals. Health care professionals have long experienced high levels of stress and burnout, and COVID-19 has only exacerbated the problem. While helping their patients fight for their lives, many health care professionals are coping with their own trauma of losing patients and colleagues and fear for their own health and safety. This bill helps promote mental and behavioral health among those working on the frontlines of the pandemic. It also supports suicide and burnout prevention training in health professional training programs and increases awareness and education about suicide and mental health concerns among health care professionals.Further reading:https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/610?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22S.+610%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=1https://drlornabreen.org/about-the-legislation/A Key Differential Diagnosis for Physicians-Major Depression or Burnout?

Selwyn Rogers and Everett Lyn on Gun Violence as a Public Health Crisis

Selwyn O. Rogers MD is the Dr. James E. Bowman Jr. Professor of Surgery (first James E Bowman professorship), Chief, Section of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Founding Director, Trauma Center and Executive Vice President, Community Health Engagement University of Chicago Medicine  March 2021 Senate Judiciary CommitteeSelwyn O. RogersSolutions for prevention and treatment of gun violence: 1. Re-frame gun violence as a public health crisis 2. Allocate $1 billion to fund research to prevent gun violence commensurate with the burden on society. Given the $43 billion NIH budget for research, a significant amount of dollars should be allocated to gun violence prevention research since this has been lacking for decades. 3. Develop and fund primary prevention strategiesA. Invest economically in high-risk communities of color that have a disproportionate burden of intentional gun violence to build jobs, increase earning capacity, provide housing and give people hopeB. Educate and counsel people on safe firearm storageC. Screen people at risk for firearm injury or deathD. Engage communities on social determinants of disease, such as poverty, and connect them with social services through hospitals and health-care systems 4. Victims of violence are known to be at very high risk to be involved in repeated episodes of violence.4 Target this high-risk population and develop and fund secondary violence prevention programs: A. Fund street outreach programs that prevent retaliatory violenceB. Fund programs for those at the highest risk of recidivism that provides transitional jobs and cognitive behavioral therapy. Everett T Lyn MD is the Former Clinical Director and Director of Faculty Affairs and Development Brigham and Women's Hospital. Former Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine North Shore Medical Center  Former Chief Medical Officer Dignity Health Care and Former Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School.

Niny Rao and Mark Shapiro on The Science and Taste of Coffee

Niny Rao, PhD is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the Undergraduate Chemistry and Biochemistry Program at Thomas Jefferson University College of Life Sciences. She received her bachelor degree in chemical engineering from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in NYC and went on to pursuit a PhD in physical chemistry at Florida State University. A computational chemist by training and an enthusiast of artisanal food and beverages, she has expanded her research into food chemistry. She co-authored numerous research articles on the impact of brewing, roasting, and bean origin on the chemical composition of cold brew coffees. Dr. Rao has been an educator since 2007 and is an advocate of Jefferson’s undergraduate research program, mentoring undergraduate researchers in chemistry. Her students have presented their research in both regional and national conferences on topics ranging from the computational study of zirconium methyl amide to the chemistry of ready-to-drink coffee beverages.Mark Shapiro, MD is the creator, producer & host of Explore The Space Podcast, a show focused on bringing those who provide healthcare and those who seek healthcare closer together through conversations with leaders from across the spectrum. He is also a TEDx speaker, delivering his first TEDx in March, 2021, and is a co-author of the “Covid-19 CV Matrix”  as seen in the Journal of Hospital Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dr. Shapiro has been in full-time clinical practice as a Hospitalist since 2006. He earned a BA in history at University of California-Los Angeles, attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency at University of California-San Diego. Dr. Shapiro is an active voice on social media and can be followed on Twitter at @ETSshow & Instagram @explorethespaceshow.References: Physiochemical Characteristics of Hot and Cold Brew Coffee Chemistry: The Effects of Roast Level and Brewing Temperature on Compound ExtractionReady, Drink! Chemical Characterization of Ready-to-Drink Cold Brew Coffee Productshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzv4t0M6o7Ihttps://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Niny-Z-Rao-2136487068https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/ready-drink-chemical-characterization-of-readytodrink-cold-brew-coffee-productshttps://www.foodandwine.com/news/hot-and-cold-brew-coffee-difference-scienceTranscriptSUMMARY KEYWORDScoffee, beans, drink, taste, roasted, cold brew, grind, people, flavor, extraction, extract, acidity, bit, caffeine, brew, podcast, cold brew coffee, buy, acids, compoundsSPEAKERSResa Lewiss, Mark Shapiro, Niny RaoNiny Rao  00:01So when you have a low temperature, a lot of the bitter, larger chemical compounds are not soluble in water at low lower temperature so they're not coming out very often. They're the one responsible for the bitter kind of exchanging taste that we taste in coffee. So what we are tasting in cold brew, it's probably the lack of bitter acids, as they call it, and then we give you that little bit better, smoother taste. Resa Lewiss  00:25This is the visible Voices Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Resa Lewiss. Before we get started, here's a word from the creators of the voices Unheard podcast. 00:35Hello, listeners. This is Dr. Pringle Miller. And I'm joined by Dr. Melissa Blaker voices our podcast recently launched and we are very excited. three episodes are now available for you to download on Apple podcast and Spotify. When you go there, be sure to hit subscribe voices on heard as a podcast production of physician just equity. Resa Lewiss  00:56Hi, listeners. Thanks so much for joining and I'm really excited to bring you today's topic. Coffee. I love coffee. Okay, my subject matter expert is Dr. Niny Rao. She's an associate professor of chemistry and the director of the Undergraduate Chemistry and Biochemistry program at Thomas Jefferson University, College of Life Sciences. She came across my radar when I read a food and wine magazine article where they quoted her and her work on cold brew coffee in her lab and with her students, many studies, cold brew and hot brew coffee, the temperature of the water you should use grind of the bean and roasted the bean all with an eye towards health and other extractive effects. I just made that word up extractive. My guest conversationalist is a serious coffee hobbyist. Dr. Mark Shapiro, you may know is the creator, producer and host of explore the space podcast. He focuses in his conversation on bringing those who provide health care, and those who seek health care closer together. So as a little bit of background, Nene shared that in the morning, she likes to drink coffee. That's a pour over Mark likes to work on his skills with the AeroPress and me, I like to pull shots of espresso and make believe that I'm a barista. So a little background regarding Resa and coffee. Growing up I wasn't allowed to drink it, I was told that it would stunt my growth. Now at the tall height of five foot two inches, we can just say that there really wasn't any science to that. Nonetheless, I sidestepped the rules by definitely eating coffee I screen, selecting coffee flavored hard candies, and drinking coffee milk. Now if you attended Rhode Island Public Schools, you will know that when you bought milk, you had the option of milk, chocolate milk, or coffee milk. I don't think there was anything natural or anything coffee really in there. However, it definitely tasted good. And with that, let's get to the episode. Now nidi get us started cold brew versus hot brew. Niny Rao  03:00So we are, we were looking at how, at the time the corporate coffee was becoming very popular, you go to any coffee shop, but they have all these extravagant setups about the color corporate coffee. And I looked into a little bit more about cocoa coffee, it just turns out that for COBRA coffee, you're brewing coffee at room temperature were lower. So you use cold water, you let the grind feed for a long period of time, by often overnight 24 hours, some people do 48 hours, and then you enjoy the X extract, filter it and then the extract is what we call cold brew coffee very often needs to be diluted with water. So that's we in we stumbled on this topic because I always like to think I could make it myself. I could do it in my kitchen and do it myself. And it turns out it didn't turn out correctly. It was too strong too. Not much of a flavor. And I was wondering if I did something wrong. So I looked into the brewing methods a little bit more and I convinced my colleague to join me to do some chemical analysis on COBRA coffee, it turns out there was nothing to compare to and that's how we started. And that's how we started looking into the extraction mechanism as well as the kinetics like how long does it take for the coffee to be extracted? And we looked at two specific compounds chlorogenic acid, which is an antioxidant, and the caffeine which everybody who drink coffee says okay, what is the caffeine content? Right? So, so as we were studying this, we realize that this is there's it's a great opportunity for us to fill in some void in the coffee region. Most of European coffee maker brewers as well as a South American coffee, kind of source they pride themselves on Drinking hot brew coffee, espresso, filtered, mocha. And Kobo seems to be very popular in North America. And we want and then people started talking about, oh, he has like low acidity, he has smooth flavor and another cup, and texture. And we just wanted to give some metrics to the audience to the consumer about what they can like exactly what these words mean. And we were able to that started the whole thing. And the first one we looked at was the kinetics of extraction. How long did it take for the chemicals to come out of the grind? And it turns out, the way we're doing it seven hours is more than enough. And then the other one we were trying to decipher was, was, is there a difference between roast and versus in cold brew coffee, and the first one we thought there was something by turns out, it was a little bit more inconclusive. Our latest study actually deciphered that aspect of cold brew coffee a little bit better, we actually roasted our own coffee, we bought a roaster, we started doing like, we made sure that we had the same sorts of beings, and we roasted two different types of three different temperature to see some of the characteristics change. And then we found interesting stuff. So yeah, Resa Lewiss  06:27so I want to go into some of the specifics of the science and I think our audience is probably and health minded audience, Mark, if you had to pick light rose versus dark roast, which one would you go with, Mark Shapiro  06:40like, Resa Lewiss  06:41always like, and cold brew versus hot brew. Mark Shapiro  06:44So I've done my own cold brew a couple of times couple of different ways, the flavor is fine, the flavor profiles are fine. I feel like the flavor profiles I get when I do a lighter roast. And when I when I say light roast, I'm talking about specifically just after what's known as first crack in the home roasting process. So when the silver skin blows off the temperatures at about 400 degrees for the bean. Second crack, for me is a no fly zone. That's what is known in the commercial marketplace is dark roasted coffee. But that's when you've taken all of the fun, interesting heterogeneous properties of the bean away and just turn it into a homogeneous, Dark Roasted taste that we're all pretty used to and that is readily available. So you can take different beans, put them all together, roast them to that degree and they're all going to taste the same. But if you're doing a single origin to go that far, you're kind of obliterating all of the good stuff. When you do a cold root when I do a cold brew. I find that I can't get the flavors that I seek to really be emphasized and to do cold brew properly. For me, it uses a lot of beans. I don't feel like I get enough bang for my buck with it. I have unfortunately the couple times I've done it as well I feel like I've kind of over extracted it and it gets a little bit of a little bit of a bitter taste that definitely washes out the stuff that I want I'm comfortable getting with my roaster I'm pretty tuned I can identify first crack the gap is there a stop at a cool it I let it sit a grind a drink it and I am I'm in heaven daily so I'm perfectly content there. Resa Lewiss  08:12Mark are you at all like me? When the medical literature puts out articles on coffee you look at the results. Oh my gosh, yes. I'm more productive. Oh my gosh, less depression less prevalence of dementia Do you do you care at all about the medical or it's all about pure taste? Mark Shapiro  08:26i It's not that I don't care about it. I do. I feel like a lot of those things are released in a manner where they land on me it's just being clickbait. I don't feel like we have something to say that. Absolute Yes. Absolute No. All things in moderation. I don't drink extraordinary amounts of coffee. I enjoy one cup in the morning, I might have a second cup in the afternoon. I enjoy sort of what's available if I'm at work, and I don't overthink it. I enjoy it and I don't need a lot of it. So I don't really per separate too much on what one or more studies show. They are always on the top of a crawler whatever feature on New York Times Twitter, it's always there. It always just feels kind of clickbait to me. All things in moderation. Enjoy what you like and go forward. Resa Lewiss  09:11Yeah, meaning what? What are the facts regarding the health effects of coffee? Niny Rao  09:16Well, I there are a lot of one of the things that the most common ones that we know is that caffeine actually is a stimulant, and is one of the key like legal stimulant that you can use, like accessible over the counter and then you have a U shape right? So you were talking about the benefits, you know increases as you consume moderate amount as you drink more and more and then it becomes actually not beneficial to you anymore. And this same thing with acidity in coffee in the beginning that the nice flavor the small acids like the citric acid and whatnot, gives you a nice flavor in your mouth and you enjoy it and then you can drink too. much you may upset your stomach because the large amount of acid that you're, you're drinking so these are some of the ones that I've seen over and over again in literature saying like the acidity as well as the stimulant effect of coffee. It's the most prevalent in coffee drinkers. It's like most important to a lot of coffee drinkers. Resa Lewiss  10:23You mentioned in one of your posts, or perhaps it was one of the podcast discussions I listened to that the science is still not robust on pH and stomach and people that have gastritis, gastric reflux, reflux and the acidity of coffee. What do we know about this? Niny Rao  10:43So um, if you depend on how coffee is prepared, you will end up with a different acidity in coffee. Origin of coffee will also impact the acidity of coffee slightly, but there is a variation of acids that that can be extracted roast is a huge factor in terms of what kind of what kind of coffee you produce in terms of acidity. Our last study we did a being single origin beans from Colombia, and we roasted at three different degrees. One is right before right about the first class one is a little bit more than, like between the first and the second mark, I know you're talking, you know exactly I'm talking about and the third one, we roasted beyond the second crack to the point where the beans eject automatically before it turns into carbon. Because we wanted to show the spread, right. And you can definitely see the acidity change. And the more believe or not the lower acidity ones actually are the ones that are dark roast, because you actually roast all the chemicals out of it. Right. And then the higher acidity ones are the one that's medium and that's the one that most people enjoy. And, and also, we found that Cobra definitely has a lower acidity then hopper. Again, the extraction is when you when you extract anything with a high energy fluids like boiling water, we also did it with at the extreme we use boiling water which you never do when brewing coffee. And you actually get a lot of acids out of the beans good or bad. And you do have that metallic taste that that and then the strong acid taste when you're extracting coffee using boiling water so you do see the acid change from one to another we're getting a little bit better understanding in terms of how pH and acids are changing in different brewing methods. So in terms of acid reflux versus drinking coffee, still there, they're not. There's no definitive correlation yet I have not seen a paper saying like there is a correlation if you should. Everybody tells you to drink in moderation, but there is no definitive evidence saying drinking less coffee or drinking more coffee will either negatively or positively impact your app, the effect of acid reflux. Resa Lewiss  13:14I do know that when I drink cold brew, it tastes smooth to me it's easier to drink, it doesn't burn my stomach as much it am I drinking and sensing the fact that the pH is higher meaning it's less acidic or is that not the right correlation. Oh, Niny Rao  13:32there is some to that. And then we also think that the because it's extracted a low temperature some of a lot of the compounds are sensitive to temperature will come to extraction, so we'll call solubility. So when you have a low temperature, a lot of the bitter larger chemical compounds are not soluble in water at low lower temperature so they're not coming out. Very often. They're the one responsible for the bitter kind of like astringent taste that we taste in coffee. So what we are tasting in Cobra is probably the lack of bitter acids as they call it and then we give you that little bit better, smoother taste. I as much as I drink. Like I study Kobo, I don't drink coffee or coffee. I drink coffee or coffee. Yeah Resa Lewiss  14:22ninny. I want to ask a little bit about Grindr the bean because that's also been part of your research tell us about how that affects antioxidants extraction taste. Niny Rao  14:32It's mostly about extraction process. The larger the particle, right there are few things going on in in. So I'm gonna start about size. The larger the particle, the easier it is for the chemicals to leach out when you let it soak for a long period of time. So basically extraction is nothing but to take the chemicals from the grinds and put it in water and we drink the solution that is infused with chemicals. So on If you have a larger particle size, very often you will have less extraction in the same amount of time. Because you can't take a while for some larger molecules to migrate through. This is what we've seen we in terms of caffeine, caffeine is a fairly large molecule. And if you have a larger grain size, and you it will take a little while for the caffeine to reach equilibrium, as we call it, like saturation point, so forth. And then so if you have a finer Brian's that the powders in the bottom, like when you drink coffee, and you these, these powder will continue extract if they're left in the in the solution. So this is why I don't drink coffee who set for a long time, because you see them look, you know, in the bottom, and that's and that makes the coffee bitter because it's over, it's already extracted, because you let it sit for a long time and then all this good or bad they are all the stuff are coming out and then it's not it's not great tasting. So that's number one number two roast has something to do as well. As you continue to roast the beans, you are cooking the beans. By cooking the beans, you are changing the cellular structure of the beans become make more brittle. So darker rows tend to be easier broken into smaller parts. As a result, you have more fine and a little bit that bitter kind of like Mark said a taste. Right? So you are you're also depleting the depleting some of the chemicals as well. So roasted will also have the effect the size affects the extraction process of the beans and then I drink medium roast beans. And I if I were to do it my way, I'll actually sip the coffee before I make a brew the coffee. But I don't have time. Yeah, have you Mark Shapiro  17:03ever put beans that you've under roasted a little bit through your grinder and have your grinder bind up because that's a fun experience. You're hearing normal and suddenly, it'll hit a bean rare, you haven't depleted the matrix enough. And the burble will bind up and it goes into just start screaming. So if you want to really scare the dog, the kids, your partner, that's a great way to do it. Niny Rao  17:26I have not encountered that yet. And I do know that we did purposely underwrote some beans in the in previously and then I read it and one of the colleagues who did the coffee research on grinding is put the beans in the freezer before he went he will reduce the chance of binding happening. Also make the make the grind size a little bit more uniform. And that was and then somebody else told me that if you're doing really under roasted beans, like almost green beans, you freeze it with liquid nitrogen and then grind it that will make sure you grind the whole process into whatever size are you looking. Yeah. Mark Shapiro  18:14Can I ask you about the So can I ask you to validate or or rebut what I I'm asked a lot about how do I optimize my cup of coffee? What tech should I buy? What equipment should I buy? And I always tell people, whatever resources you have, put them into your grinder and get a burr grinder not a blade because like you said you want a nice consistent grind. But you want to get one that doesn't generate heat or generate excess heat while grinding because that excess heat will actually you've spent 18 bucks on 12 ounces of you know delicious beans from wherever. If you put those through a burr grinder that's grinding and efficiently in generating heat. You're actually going to scorch your beans as they go through your grinder Am I Am I on track as I give people that counsel Niny Rao  19:00you are you are on track you the grinding does generate heat but then my point has been when you depend on how much you grind at a time. If you're doing just like a one or two servings, okay, four servings in my household in the morning, you're going to be okay because you're all only grinding for about 10 seconds or even like 15 seconds at a time you're not going to generate that much. But if you're talking about batch processing the entire pounder so absolutely you don't have to worry about especially the heat generates later stage. So the part that the top layer that are falling onto the container that you're storing the coffee it's likely to be the one that's a little bit more roasted compared to the freshly the first couple seconds where it's still nice and cold. And in grinding it should be not It shouldn't it should be minimal at the time but I still believe like freezing the beans would probably be a better way of go Mark Shapiro  19:58to go tricks of the trade I'm totally trying that. Absolutely. Resa Lewiss  20:01For people that aren't as versed as this current group of convert conversions. And what might surprise people geographically about coffees of the world, where they are, where they come from. Niny Rao  20:15So we whenever we talk about coffee, Mark, like we talked about the big regions like Brazil, Colombia, and then the little bit more petite, Ethiopia, a lot of the coffee actually grown specially Robusta coffee, which is very often used in like instant coffee or not grown in Vienna. And India also produced coffee. And these are the areas that we do not think of coffee producers, yet they produce. I think Vietnam is the second largest, if not the first largest, robust producer in the world. So they that's one of their cash crops, because they are, they're located in this what they call the coffee belt, where around the equator region. And then they, I'm sure there are smaller farms that produce artisanal coffee that we don't, it's underappreciated. Resa Lewiss  21:14And for people that don't know what robust is Niny Rao  21:17so robust it is. So there are two types of coffee that's popular grown robust versus Arabica. Arabica tend to be grown at a higher altitude, and a little bit more as a smaller, lower, smaller production, little bit more fruity, and then less coffee. But it's the taste that we're going after the coffee tastes are going after, whereas robust is more disease resistant, easy maintenance, it can be grown like a low altitude Bush, like and then huge production. And, and then they, they, they have lots of coffee. And so very often Robusto are used to produce instant coffee, because you're not really going after the taste, you're going after the generic coffee, flavor, and then the coffee. So Mark Shapiro  22:05here's what I would say as far as regions, and superiority of one region or another. Coffee, as we all know, right? This is a multibillion dollar enterprise, all of these things that we have come to understand as being one region is good one region is not as good one region is the best. This is all marketing, it is all marketing, it's done by large entities that have been doing it for years to try to draw you to their product, it is not based. In fact, coffee, the best coffee is the one that you like the most, they are all available, go and try them. And then remember this to coffee, like any other product is seasonal. So there will be times of the year where the place that you like your coffee from, it won't be available. And if you get it from that region at that time of year, it will be suboptimal. It's like buying peaches in the wintertime, they will not be the ideal peach that you will get in the summertime. Is that that is the mathematic that when people ask me about the coffee because I look I love talking about it. That's what I always encourage people just go try them, go to coffee shops, pick the single origin. So you can say okay, this is what this is Rwanda, this is Guatemala, try them the one that you like, that's the best one. It doesn't matter if it says Colombia is the best or coffee from Yemen is the best or coffee. That is all marketing. Pick the one that you like, taste it, enjoy it, recognize the seasonality of it and be versatile. In the wintertime, I'm going here in the summertime, I'm going here, you'll get better prices, you'll have a much better experience and you'll be drinking the stuff that you love. Niny Rao  23:43It's always I always tell people, the one you're just like you said the one you like is the one you know, that's the best coffee. It doesn't have to be some people say Oh, this coffee is like 3040 $50 a pound. And the one I can taste the difference between that and my $15 pound or even $8 a pound coffee. You know, I enjoyed that one, it's accessible to me and I know I could have a chemical consistent product like an extraction out of it. And it's not only the product, it's not only the beans itself is also the extraction. Like you can ruin an expensive bag of coffee by roasting over roasting it or seeing it or you can ruin it by pouring boiling water into it and then basically over extract the coffee and then you were like well this. I paid this much but it doesn't taste like what I expect it to be. It's probably because of water temperature, the water the quality of the water, the deep the presence of minerals in the water. A lot of factors influence the taste of coffee influence the extraction of coffee, so I don't want people to get flustered. traded when the first time they brew coffee in there like it doesn't taste much, tweak a little bit, try it again, you know, and then you will find that sweet spot that you like. It's not nobody else's coffee is yours, right. Mark Shapiro  25:11And remember to the keeping the circuit through which you get bean to cup, as simple as possible. And as clean as possible. Oftentimes people will buy very fancy equipment, lots of bells and whistles, impossible to keep clean coffee leaves residue, wherever you use the term muck, perfect, I'm going to adopt it, but I'm going to give you credit, it leaves muck everywhere. And so if you have a complex circuit with lots of turns, small diameter tubing, you'll never be able to keep it clean. And that muck, the flavor from that will extrude into your brew. My favorite is pour over single cup, or AeroPress super simple system is easy to keep clean. I mean, it's just, it's clean. But that if you have a system that you can't keep clean, that will absolutely permeate your $25 Delicious executive coffee and it will spoil it. Resa Lewiss  26:04Dini, what's upcoming in your research, what should we look for, Niny Rao  26:08we're looking into a couple other compounds in corporate coffee that has been seldomly mentioned, mostly related to flavor. So one of the group of compounds of fluorescent, they are related to flavor. And they are a lot some of them are generated during the roasting process. So just one of the things we wanted to look at just to definitively to say that, Oh, cobras in the coal extraction method, you don't really get a lot of the compound out, compared to the heart extraction method, just one of those things we wanted to be able to provide data to is nothing like complex, but kind of COVID Stop that altogether, and now have to go buy additional beans, because I'm pretty sure the green beans I have right now are sale because they're not stored in, you know, airtight containers. They're in my lab, and it's been there for over a year. So that's one thing. And the other one, I was hoping to this is this may or may not be published, I was hoping to help a local things Indonesia, one of the family, friends, new farmer, coffee grower in Indonesia, and then they are just calling regular Arabica beans and then they wanted to kind of have the antioxidant and acidity tested to kind of give them an idea of how their beans compared to other beans, like from a very chemical analysis perspective, and not talking about copying at all. So I wanted to help them out on that one. And then hopefully, if I could have a couple undergraduate students who are interested in these kinds of things that we could probably publish a little small paper and just to just, you know, to encourage local growth of like support local growers and then give people an idea of different smaller, smaller farms, even within different regions will perform, produce very different coffee. And again, support the idea what you like to drink is the best. Resa Lewiss  28:16What a fun and informative conversation. So here are the take home points. Drink what you want to drink, whatever tastes good to you is what tastes good, hot brew cold brew, know that you're getting some antioxidants, some caffeine. And from my perspective, it definitely makes you more productive. Thanks for joining, and we'll see you next time. The visible Voices Podcast amplifies voices both known and unknown, discussing topics of healthcare equity and current trends. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review us on Apple podcasts. It helps other people find the show. You can listen on whatever platform you subscribe to podcasts. Our team includes Stacey Gatlin and Dr. Giuliano deport you. If you're interested in sponsoring an episode, please contact me Resa at the visible voices podcast.com. I'm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and I'm on Twitter at Resa e Lewis. Thank you so much for listening and as always, to be continued

”The Codebreaker” Documentary

Hilary Klotz Steinman is an Emmy award winning independent documentary filmmaker. In 2020, Hilary established Napatree Films to produce independent projects that explore forgotten or overlooked histories and illuminate the experiences of women and girls in America and globally. She produced, The Codebreaker, a PBS documentary and part of the series American Experience . It tells the story of Elizebeth Friedman, a pioneering codebreaker who thwarted organized crime gangs during Prohibition, hunted Nazi spies during World War II and helped develop the science of cryptography in America. Her story was buried for more than half a century. For more about Elizabeth, read Jason Fagone's The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies.  Review by the Wall Street Journal.​​Jordana J. Haber, MD, MACM, FACEP is an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at (UNLV). Following emergency medicine residency, Dr. Haber completed a fellowship in medical education at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, and received a Master in Academic Medicine through University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. She is a regular contributor and assistant editor to the Book Club for Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM). She has co-authored the monthly column “Mindful EM” for Emergency Medicine News. She is a public speaker on topics of medical education, narrative medicine, and leadership.  She was a speaker at FIX 2019.  Follow Jordana on Twitter @JordanaHaber

Amie Varley Sara Fung and Gina Lopez On Violence in the Health Care Workspace

Episode 54 Amie Varley, Sara Fung, and Gina Lopez on Violence in the Health Care WorkspaceThe Gritty nurse podcastAmie Varley, RN, BN, MScN- CP Women's Health, received her Bachelor's degree from the University of New Brunswick in Nursing and her Masters Degree in Nursing from the University of Toronto (U of T). She also completed a collaborative Masters Degree program with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health  at U of T in Women's Health. Amie is a dynamic speaker, advocate and activist for nursing as a profession, mental health, health equity, Womxn's health and Womxn's rights. Her Master's degree focused on the mental health of postpartum Womxn and transgender medicine.  She has worked as a nurse in many roles; Labour and Delivery Nurse, Maternal Child Nurse, Educator, Professional Practice Clinician, College/University Faculty and in Quality Improvement.Sara Fung, RN, BScN, MN,  received her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing from Western University and her Master's of Nursing from the University of Toronto.  Her expertise is in maternal child health, with clinical experience in obstetrics and the NICU. She has worked in both academic and community hospitals and home health as a bedside nurse, educator, advanced practice nurse and professional practice specialist. In addition to working full time, she is also a mother of 2, resume writer/interview coach, and podcaster!Sara is passionate about issues such as bullying and incivility, diversity and inclusion, and helping nurses find their career paths in a profession with so many opportunities!Gina Lopez, MD, MPH received her Bachelor’s of Science from the City College of New York and graduated from Albany Medical College as a Doctor of Medicine. She completed her Master of Public Health with a concentration in operations management from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a practicing board certified Emergency Physician working at Boston Medical Center, which is the busiest provider of trauma and emergency services in New England. As an assistant professor at Boston University School of Medicine, she has special interests in trauma, team dynamics, work-life integration and resilience as well as diversity and inclusion. She is the director of workplace safety for the emergency department and active in policy and procedures development and training related to workplace violence and management of escalation. Clinically, she strives to be an empathic listener and holistic care provider and personally, she is an involved mother of three and supportive wife.Emergency Nurses Association Workplace ViolenceViolence in the Emergency Department: Resources for a Safer Workplace Emergency Doctors and Nurses Team Up on No Silence on ED Violence CampaignACEP PoliciesProtection from Violence in the Emergency DepartmentThe American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) believes that workplace violence is a preventable and significant public health problem and that optimal patient care can be achieved only when patients, health care workers, and all other persons in the emergency department are protected against violent acts occurring within the department. Emergency Department Violence: An Overview and Compilation of Resources 

Healthcare Advocates: Lash Nolen and Alister Martin

LaShyra “Lash” Nolen is a Harvard Medical School student where she is serving as student council president of her class. She is the first documented black woman to hold this leadership position. She is a published author and fervent advocate for social justice with commentary published in the Boston Globe, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, and HuffPost. Lash is a Foster Scholar in Health Policy, Advocacy, and Media at the MGH Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation and a co-host for the Clinical Problem Solvers Anti-Racism in Medicine podcast. Most recently she founded https://www.wegotusproject.org/, a grassroots community empowerment project with the goal of bringing vaccine education and access to Black communities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has earned her the honor of becoming the 2020 National Minority Quality Forum’s youngest “40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health”, named a “2020 Young Futurist” by The Root Magazine, and the 2021 recipient of the American Medical Student Association's Racial Justice in Medicine Award.  Follow Lash on Twitter @LashNolenAlister Martin MD MPP is faculty at the MGH Center for Social Justice and Health Equity  at Harvard  Medical School and Founder of Get Waivered, a campaign aimed at transforming emergency departments nationwide into the front door for recovery for patients with opioid addiction. This work serves as a  national model at the NIH with several state partnerships including Get Waivered Texas and Get Waivered Nebraska. Alister trained at Harvard after working in state health policy and after getting an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School  of Government where he was a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. In 2013, he accepted a position  as a Health Policy Aide to Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont given that state's ongoing transition to a single payer system at the time. Over the subsequent year, he led a team in the Governor’s office responsible for building the communications plan for Vermont’s proposed single payer plan called Green Mountain Care.  Alister previously served as Chief Resident at MGH/Brigham Hospital. He now leverages his background in politics, healthcare policy, and the field of behavioral economics to use the ED as a place to build programs that serve the needs of vulnerable patients. He leads a program which offers patients who are unregistered voters the opportunity to register to vote through a program called VotER.  Follow Alister on Twitter @AlisterFMartin

Nina Jacobson on Color Force and the Film Industry

Nina R. Jacobson is the founder and president of Color Force productions.Nina Jacobson built an impressive career as a senior film executive at three major motion picture studios before founding the independent company Color Force in 2007.  Jacobson has produced The Hunger Games franchise, grossing $2.9 billion worldwide, the groundbreaking feature Crazy Rich Asians, and the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.  Jacobson and her partner Brad Simpson have executive produced The People V OJ Simpson: American Crime Story and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, which received two Emmys and two Golden Globes. Color Force recently wrapped production on Impeachment: American Crime Story and Y: The Last Man.Timeline of Nina's professional roles:—1988: Jacobson joins Silver Pictures as director of feature entertainment—1993: Jacobson moves to the role of Senior Vice President of Production at Universal Studios, where she oversees the development and production of ‘90s gems like Dazed and Confused, 12 Monkeys, and many more—1995: Jacobson comes on as a senior executive at DreamWorks, where she helped shepherd films such as Antz and The Sixth Sense—1995: Jacobson and producer Bruce Cohen establish Out There, a collective of gay and lesbian entertainment industry activists, formalizing their colleagues’ efforts to raise the visibility, awareness and collective power of queer filmmakers—1998: She begins her role as a senior exec at Disney, overseeing film production and developing scripts for Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group. It’s during this period she would help helm gigantic properties like the Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia and Princess Diaries franchises—2003: Jacobson wins a Women in Film Crystal Award—2005: Forbes includes the power player in its list of 100 “Most Powerful Women,” as the business world takes note of the influence Jacobson has had both on the industry and the world at large—2007: Jacobson makes the move from studio exec to producer when she founds Color Force with partner Brad Simpson. The shingle quickly emerges as an incubator for the wonderful projects she’s helped usher in during the past decade—2009: Jacobson and Color Force acquire the film rights to The Hunger Games book series, a property that would spawn four films and go on to become an enormous worldwide success. The Hunger Games becomes another shining example of how you can build a blockbuster franchise (almost $3 billion in combined revenue) around someone other than a male—2016: Color Force takes on the small screen as their production of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story premieres on FX and is met with immediate acclaim and a slew of awards—2018: Jacobson and Color Force release the feature adaptation Crazy Rich Asians, which — spoilers — is also a huge success and underscores how vital, fun and profitable stories of underrepresented communities can be on the big screenSelected articles and interviews—https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/hunger-games-producer-nina-jacobson-interview-300719/—https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/nina-jacobson-sundance-producers-brunch-keynote-speech-1202038685/—https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/crazy-rich-asians-producer-nina-jacobson-inclusion-hollywood-timeline-successful-career-1167199/—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27L2NnO2LRc—https://deadline.com/2019/01/sundance-usc-annenberg-inclusion-initiative-stacy-l-smith-angela-robinson-nina-jacobson-karim-ahmad-diversity-inclusion-representation-1202541675/—https://www.latinheat.com/everything-related-to-film/film/nina-jacobson-to-speak-at-hollywood-networking-breakfast/—https://brownbears.com/news/2019/3/20/diversity-and-inclusion-womens-history-month-2019-nina-jacobson-87-film-executive.aspx—https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/fashion/nina-jacobson-hollywood-diversity-hunger-games-american-crime-story.html—https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/style/residence-nina-jacobson-382231/

Matt Carrano and Barb Natterson-Horowitz Chat Dinosaurs

Matthew Carrano always wanted to be a paleontologist and is still somewhat amazed that he actually is one. He is currently the Curator of Dinosauria at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, where he studies dinosaur evolution and paleobiology. Most recently, he served as lead curator for the museum’s new paleontology exhibition, Deep Time, which opened in 2019. Matthew graduated from Brown University in 1991 with a B.S. in Geology-Biology, and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. Originally from Branford, Connecticut, he now lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Diana and son, Max.B. Natterson Horowitz, MD, is a New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning books Zoobiquity  (Twitter) and Wildhood. A cardiologist and evolutionary biologist on the faculty of Harvard and UCLA, Dr. Natterson Horowitz studies animals in their natural settings to find solutions for human health challenges.