Medical School Headquarters

Essay Editing on Sale Right Now! Learn More!

<

Highlight & Takeaways

Original Article: Recess Rehash: Poor: a deadly diagnosis in America, ft. Sarah Smarsh

A look at the people valued more as functioning machines than as people

[We had an interview show lined up for this week’s show, but sucky winter weather intervened to ruin our guest’s travel plans.  C’est la vie!  We’ll be back next week with a new show, so stay frosty.]

This past week, the Carver College of Medicine hosted its 12th annual Examined Life Conference.  Our featured presenter, journalist and memoirist Sarah Smarsh, grew up in a family of farmers and teen mothers in Kansas.  Her family, laborers trapped in a cycle of poverty, made the kinds of choices that poor people must make in rural America–whether to eat or seek medical attention, for instance.  Decades of inattention–and scorn–from politicians and the media have widened this class divide, and have sent the inexorable message that their voices don’t matter.  Ms. Smarsh’s recent book, Heartland: A Memoir of working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, tells the tales of her family’s struggles with poverty, addiction, workplace injuries, and family violence that many economic and political elites don’t have the background or will to truly understand.

Though Ms. Smarsh has managed to escape the cycle, she has retained her citizenship in–and love for–that largely unexplored country, and offers a deep look at what it’s like to be poor in the wealthiest and most powerful society on the planet. Our executive producer Jason T. Lewis, Rob Humble, Gabe Conley, Teneme Konne, and Christopher Portero Paff talk with Ms. Smarsh about what the working poor are facing, how our willful lack of understanding shapes our perceptions of their struggles, and why it’s crucial that medicine encourages and welcomes them as providers.

Subscribe for Free

Subscribe in iTunes Google Play Music Subscribe to RSS

Listen to Other Episodes

[smart_podcast_player url=”https://medicalschoolhq.libsyn.com/rss” color=”004075″ show_name=”The Premed Years” ]

Leave us a Review and Rating!

Just like Yelp reviews or IMDB ratings help you choose your next restaurant or movie, leaving a 5 star rating and/or a written review is very valuable to The Premed Years. It allows us to be able to share our information with more people than ever before.

I am so incredibly thankful to those who have recently gone into our listing in iTunes to provide a five start rating and a written review of The Premed Years.

Subscribe and Download

iOS/Mac/Windows – You can subscribe to the show in iTunes. Or you could manually add the RSS feed to your aggregator. Android/Mac/Windows – You can download DoubleTwist and use that to manage all of our past and future episodes

Please help us spread the word!

If you like the show, will you please take a moment to leave a comment on iTunes? This really helps us get the word out!

 

You might also like

loading

15 Med School Acceptances: A Student-Athlete’s Road to Med School

Session 598 From the thrill of the field to the rush of the emergency room,...

First-Gen Fearless: How Rosemary Built Her Own Pathway to Med School

Session 597 (00:01) – Journey to Becoming a Physician (13:41) – Navigating the Pre-Medical Journey...

Advice MS3 Would Give Her Stressed-Out Premed Self

Session 596 (00:01) – Pre-Med Journey and Clinical Experience (12:42) – McAt Preparation and Application...

Premed Without a Plan: How Emily Found Medicine Late and Made It Work

Session 595 Emily’s journey into medicine started with a simple passion for sports and healthcare,...

Never miss an episode!

Watch this video to learn how to subscribe to our Meded Podcasts.

Apple Podcast
Spotify

What our listeners are saying

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit