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How a Faulty CDC Study Led to Bad Journalism, False Panic, and Bad Legislation
A Center for Disease Control report on farmers and suicide turns out to be bad dataHere in the United States, we rely on research from many organizations, both private and governmental, to inform us on public health issues and guide our legislators in crafting laws to benefit the public good. This can mean anything from local bans on hydrogenated oils to wider-scale regulation like tobacco labeling requirements. These laws are…
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“Affirmation”
Such a positive title for a very difficult truthWhen Donald Hall, the 14th Poet Laureate of the United States, died this summer at age 89, he left behind a body of work preoccupied with death, loss and senescence — a beautiful word for the not-so-pretty process of deterioration with age. The speaker in his poem “Affirmation” seems, like the cantankerous side of his…
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Andy Warhol’s “Death and Disaster” Series
The loosely connected works employ repetition to convey our desensitization to death and disasterAndy Warhol is without a doubt one of the more popular and well-known 20th century artists. Most people associate Warhol with his repetitive, advertisement-based art such as the “Campbell’s Soup Cans” piece. Warhol frequently employed the use of repetition to drive home a particular idea. He used this technique with a wide variety of subjects,…
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What Is Recompose? (Interview)
An interview with Katrina Spade, Founder and CEO of Recompose, a Benefit Corporation , Part TwoToday SevenPonds presents the second in a two part interview with Katrina Spade, the founder and CEO of Recompose. Katrina has been an entrepreneur and designer since 2002. She has over 15 years of experience in project management, finance and architecture, with a focus on human-centered, ecological solutions. While earning her Masters of Architecture, Katrina invented a system to transform…
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“The Nurse with the Purple Hair”
An inspiring documentary about hospice by a director famous for his horror films“The Nurse with the Purple Hair” is a heartwarming documentary about what it’s like to be a hospice worker and care for people at the end of their lives. Directed by Sean Cunningham of “Friday the 13th” fame, its “star” is hospice nurse Michele Lasota, R.N., a Philadelphia native who — true to the film’s…
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Stories of Generosity and Triumph from the 2018 Transplant Games
The Transplant Games of America celebrate life while raising awareness about organ and tissue donationSalt Lake City was recently the site of a six-day event known as the 2018 Transplant Games. From August 2nd through the 7th, over 6,000 transplant recipients, donors and families gathered to celebrate the gift of life through competition and to highlight the need for organ, eye, and tissue donors. There are currently more than 114,000…
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Halloween and the Celtic Festival of Samhain
An ancient tradition tied to modern day HalloweenIn modern-day America, most of us think of Halloween as a fun holiday — a time when kids of all ages get to shed their everyday personas and dress up as anything from a witch or a monster to a character in their favorite TV show. We carve jack-o-lanterns and proudly display them on the…
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Man With Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Has “Died” Nine Times
Jamie Poole suffers from a heart condition that causes sudden cardiac arrestA 29-year-old Australian man living in London has died nine times. Well, to be more truthful, he’s endured nine cardiac arrests in which his heart suddenly stops beating. Jamie Poole has dealt with these sudden heart stops on a relatively regular basis since he turned 20. He suffers from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He’s been able to…
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It’s Time to Change our Language Around Illness and Death
The words we use to describe the experience matter more than we thinkRecently I read a blog post titled, “On Dying, Mothers and Fighting for Your Ideas,” which had been recommended to me by a friend. Written in 2012 by Jon Morrow, the CEO of Smart Blogger, it’s a story about a mom who refused to give up on her child. At first, it seemed inspiring, and…
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