Sholem's Bias: Medicine and Other Curiosities

Award-winning Carnegie Mellon health economist Martin Gaynor and Zackary Sholem Berger chat in Yiddish about competition, the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare), and the US healthcare system -- and why it's so expensive. װאָלװיש גײנאָר און שלום בערגער שמועסן װעגן געזונט־עקאָנאָמיק, אָבאַמאַקײר, און װי מתקן צו זײַן אַמעריקעס היפּער־טײַערע געזונט־סיסטעם.

Zackary Sholem Berger talks to Alexander Dickow, a poet, translator, and critic working in both French and English, about navigating countries, languages, and esthetics. With cameo appearances by Dr. Seuss, the Babylonian Talmud, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Here is the text of the poems read by Alexander Dickow on the podcast. To a Politician Your cellophane disguise for a tongue Furiously unbefits the even knavest Of these podium fisted Catilines I hate Whose dim broadcasts encrust With craven abjectives and slick nouns, Whose paramount pronouncements’ Weighty grovel fresh veneers each victim eye, Who gape and crave at limp wealth, Puppets of their own slanted lip And their thin speech as cheap As its callous stakes are ruthless: Our brittle faith, our breath, the truth. Galaxy Measureless and vacant husks Veneer along the pale gaps Kissing the smooth-lit kernels Far across the hesitation Contours Where cycles dip Ebbing forth aromas Of nectar vicinities All gleamed among Their dim stretchings Remote surroundments Hint around lucid cusps And milk-blinkings swerve Over grooved vastnesses Whose lofty gazes Empty to the brim resound Finespun legions Of distant stone pivot Within strange rings And innocent strains Swivel endless and lilt Like hearts wept upon The rings of far-fetched motes Tingling their ancient aubades Galaxie D’incommensurables écorces Enduisent selon les faîtes espacés, Et frémissant le semis d’éclairages, Floue les ourlets tout loin. Arômes qu’émane Un jusant cousus d’oublis, Luisez vos affleurements sourds Et vos proches nectars. Des avant-preuves perlent En glissant partout les orées lucides Où des clins de lait dérapent Pendant des éloignements vastes Dont les grands regards Vides à ras bord résonnent. Des légions respirées En pierre lointaine pivotent Dans des cerclages Et des airs d’innocence Louvoient des vibrements Comme des coeurs pleurés Dessus les anneaux d’improbables noyaux Frissonnant d’antiques aubades.

Zackary Berger reads Chapter 3 of Making Sense of Medicine at Writers Live, Enoch Pratt Library, Baltimore, September 13, 2016.

Zackary Sholem Berger and the culinary ethnographer, cookbook expert, Yiddish teacher and translator, and vegetarian blogger (&c., &c.) Eve Jochnowitz talk at the 2016 Yiddish Vokh about the pre-war vegetarian restauranteur of Vilna, Fania Lewando; translating cookbooks; and her favorite food memories. In Yiddish.

Maggie Dubris is a writer and composer in New York. She has published and performed widely. On Sholem's Bias, I talked to her about her new book, Brokedown Palace. I'll let her describe it: "For 24 years, I was a 911 paramedic at St. Clare’s, a small hospital in Hell’s Kitchen. I worked during the dawn of AIDS, the influx of crack, and the most violent years the city has experienced. My hospital had the highest percentage of homeless patients in the city in the 1980s. In 1985 we established the first AIDS unit on the east coast. Broke-Down Palace is the story of the city as seen through the lens of one poor, unsupervised institution. It begins in 1934 with the founding of the hospital by a penniless Irish nun in the depths of the Great Depression, and follows the course of its existence until 2007, when it was shut down, flipped a few times, and turned into luxury condos. The book is structured as a series of linked poems; a memory palace. In addition to exploring the story of the hospital, I am interested in what happens to memories. What becomes a part of history, and what doesn't? If I took part in historical events, e.g. the AIDS plague, the attack on the World Trade Center, can I turn the historical narrative into one that actually reflects my experiences?"

Zackary Sholem Berger and Spanish essayist, poet, translator and journalist Mercedes Cebrián talk about choosing words, languages, foods, and politicians.

Nurse, advocate, and media expert Barbara Glickstein talks about nurses as overlooked leaders in the fight for equity and compassion in health care.

Eli Mandel, still recovering from ultra-Orthodoxy, talks with Zackary Sholem Berger about raising emotionally healthy children, not caring about God, and shiurim in a language you only half understand. The conversation is in Yiddish.

Zackary Berger reads Chapter 1 of Making Sense of Medicine and answers questions. Recorded August 2, 2016, at The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, Maryland.

Zackary Sholem Berger chats with sociologist Josh Garoon about how older people in Baltimore understand their relationships with people, places, and institutions around them. How does trust, or lack thereof, influence aging, and is trust needed for good health?

Zackary Sholem Berger chats with poet Elinor Nauen about the variegated interests which inform her verse -- baseball, cars, and (perhaps?) snow. Current major league standings are also included.

Zack and Nathaniel Comfort, professor of history at Johns Hopkins and NASA/Library of Congress chair in astrobiology, talk about genetics, eugenics, and present-day medicine.

What does it mean for some diseases to be treated differently from others? Medical anthropologist Adia Benton discusses her work on Ebola and HIV -- and the possible application of these ideas to the Zika phenomenon.

Who is the British Trump, and why did Brexit happen? Check out one of our #Yiddish podcasts with London solicitor Dovid Herskovic. טראָמפּ איז דאָך נאָר אַן אַמעריקאַנער גילגול פֿון אַן אינטערנאַציִאָנאַלן פֿענאָמען. הערט זיך צו צו אַ שמועס מיטן לאָנדאָנער אַדוואָקאַט, און חרדישן ייִד, דוד הערצקאָוויץ וועגן "ברעקסיט" און דעם נאַציאָנאַליזם אין בריטאַניע.

In this new podcast, Zack Berger (known in Yiddish as Sholem) exercises his bias as he interviews people about whatever interests him.