A one-bag minimalist sprint for interview season

First of all, the itinerary:

• 1/9 AM - travel to NYC from by bus
• 1/9 PM - interview social for Hospital #1
• 1/10 PM - interview at Hospital #1
• 1/10 PM - travel to Boston by bus, sleep at home
• 1/11 AM - interview at Hospital #2
• 1/11 PM - interview social for Hospital #2, sleep at home
• 1/12 AM - travel to California by plane
• 1/12 PM - interview social for Hospital #3
• 1/13 AM - interview at Hospital #3
• 1/13 PM - travel to parents' house by car, sleep at home
• 1/14-15 - sleep at home
• 1/16 PM - travel to LA by plane
• 1/17 - Hospital #4 interview and interview social
• 1/18 AM - travel to NYC by plane
• 1/18 PM - interview social at Hospital #5
• 1/19 PM - interview at Hospital #5
• 1/20 AM - travel to ABQ by plane
• 1/21 PM - interview social for Hospital #6
• 1/22 AM - interview at Hospital #6
• 1/23 - sleep all day in ABQ
• 1/24 AM - travel to PHX by plane
• 1/24 PM - interview social for Hospital #7
• 1/25 AM - interview at Hospital #7
• 1/25 PM - red eye flight back to Boston

And now, what I packed:

• Suit
• Blouse
• Grey dress
• Black wool shirt
• Grey Uniqlo heat-tech shirt
• Grey t-shirt
• Black gym shorts
• Black tights
• Nude tights
• Heels
• Black ankle boots
• Navy blue Uniqlo ultra-light puffy jacket
• Watch
• Black Fossil handbag

...and necessaries like underwear, computer, Kindle, chargers, toiletries, chocolate. Surprisingly everything fit comfortably and the bag was always accepted for United Basic Economy, whose luggage restrictions are one single item that can fit under the seat in front. I am very proud of being able to make the trip with such lean, lightweight luggage. In fact, I think such a trip would have been bearable only with such little burden.

Why did I do this to begin with? Mostly to save money and save the hassle of keeping track of all my stuff, at the cost of having a perpetually wrinkled suit. Some of it was a challenge in seeing if I could do it, kind of prideful, I admit. The bottom line: I did it, and it was convenient. And now it's done. This two weeks of travel coincided with a nasty upper (eventually lower) respiratory infection for the same duration, complicated by sore throat and very diminished voice in the beginning.

And now it's done, and I get to rest and agonize over my future.

I wrote this post in February and it stewed in my drafts for all this time. I matched into orthopedic surgery! I'm going to be an orthopedic surgeon! I'll find out where on Friday, but for now, I'm just happy happy happy that I've fulfilled a dream of almost eight years. More coming soon!

Spring into summer update

View of the green, green Colorado River from the South Kaibab trail

None of these pictures are in order. I think my dad took most of these. But since I'm probably going to take an eternity writing up a post about the Grand Canyon hike itself, here are some pictures.

Hello from third year of medical school. I'm starting on OB/Gyn and like it so far. Still waiting nervously for my Step 1 score and having catastrophic thoughts of not scoring high enough for my dream specialty. Felt all kinds of sadness and guilt and inadequacy when my research attending and some of the ortho residents I worked with last year said hello to me on the day I thought I would get my score back (they're delayed and I have to wait longer). Felt something similar when the resident who mentored me since first year called me volunteering advice for my surgical rotation (and then gave me some advice as a new parent whose wife delivered her baby on the floor I'm working on right now). Keeping an open mind is surprisingly not hard, since OB/Gyn is really cool, but it's also not hard to remember how happy and excited and home I felt in orthopedics.

I'm learning some things about myself. I'm getting better at talking to patients. I like our patient population (safety net hospital, non-white, non-rich, many immigrants, many complications). I have more role models now: two gynecological oncologists whose patients trust and adore them. Gyn-onc doc #1 speaks fluent English and Spanish, and proficient Haitian Creole and Cape Verdean/Portuguese Creole. Gyn-onc doc #2 speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Mandarin. About 1/3 of the patients that go through our hospital don't speak English (most common languages Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cape Verdean, Vietnamese...I would have lost my fucking mind if I had heard Doc #1 speaking Vietnamese). I don't think I'll go into OB/Gyn, but I do think I'll eventually work somewhere where I'll need to speak Spanish on the regular. Eventually I'll find my way.

My Spanish is getting good. I thought it was good until I heard Doc #2 speaking with perfect, perfect grammar. Subjunctive tense, correct yo forms of irregular verbs in all tenses, correct conjugation of mandates and everything. The feedback that I treasured most from last week was when a patient I interviewed asked me where I was born and raised, and if my parents were from Latin America. Like everything in third year, I'll get better at the things I want to improve on if I actively seek out opportunities to try. So on I go.

I'm moving into my new apartment at the end of the month, and I'm doing it slowly over the next few weeks. Always kind of been into ~~~minimalism~~~, but I've accumulated some junk during my first two years in Boston and am downsizing. Namely, I'm giving away some of my plants, since I propagated too many of them.

Lastly, I was really affected by Anthony Bourdain's suicide. I loved his shows, and his overall attitude and approach to life. He, too, spent some of his formative years in Massachusetts, and I'll spare the details so you read Kitchen Confidential. Part of this was because it came after the death of one of my friends and mentors from the free clinic I was part of in college. The O was the coolest almost-octogenarian I've met. He helped me find my feet when I was struggling with new leadership and more responsibilities in the running of the clinic. He gave me lots of solicited and unsolicited advice. I owe a lot to him, more than he knew. Wouldn't be in med school if it weren't for him, wouldn't have even wanted to become a doctor if it weren't for him. He said he'd thought he'd die in his 20s, then in his 40s, then went quietly a few days after a stroke pushing 80, surrounded by friends. I wish I could have seen him again.

Late autumn updates

Do I even live in New England if I don't post pictures of the foliage? Autumn came and is on its way out. We got a tiny moment of snow last night. It is starting to get cold. We're making another turn around the sun.

Clothing, cosmetics, personal finance, and minimalism

Clothing

I bought another flannel from L.L. Bean, and plan on revisiting my review of it from last year, now that I have a brand new one to compare to a year-old one. I have plans to buy another pair of professional-looking trousers, but am waiting for sales. I also have some socks and underwear to replace. This means Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping, which I have deliberately avoided for years. I am possibly also deferring my black leather shoe (or boot) purchase for another year. I just haven't found one that I really like.

How do I build my professional wardrobe while keeping consumerism in check? As much as I try to limit myself in how much money I spend or how many items I buy, it's also important to limit how much time I spend thinking about or planning what I'm going to buy. On the other hand, isn't having a plan better than not having one? Either way, I am not satisfied with the amount of mental space I routinely use thinking about purchasing stuff. There's got to be some kind of a balance (obviously I haven't found it yet).

I also finally (finally) washed my jeans that I bought in January. It sounds disgusting, but I wore them only in <50F weather, freeze them on the weekends, and they held up well. Raw denim cult, my friends. I'll write something about them soon.

So here's something a little disappointing: my friend group talks about shopping a lot. They really love Uniqlo, and as someone who owns a lot of Uniqlo clothing, this normally doesn't bother me. And it really is a minor annoyance, but they incessantly talk about sales at Uniqlo, make multiple orders a month on Uniqlo, and joke about lacking self-control from buying at Uniqlo. I only noticed this recently because they went crazy over a specific scarf that one of them had. Two others bought the scarf immediately. Something about that makes me uncomfortable, despite how many Uniqlo garments I personally own.

Cosmetics

I'm getting back into makeup again. My goal is to have a bare bones makeup kit of items that I love and use regularly. Currently, I have holes in some parts of my kit (skincare, base), and excess in others (eyeshadow). It makes me feel more professional and put together. I will be patient in editing what I have, adding and subtracting, until it is perfect. It is 100% consistent with my personality that I am hyper-focused on what I look like. What I mean: I love my face without makeup, but if I do wear makeup, I am extremely critical about how it looks when I put it on, and how it wears throughout the day. I must still look like myself. I use very little makeup, but what I use must matter.

Personal finance and minimalism

I fell down the rabbit hole of personal finance and financial independence blogs, especially those written by residents and attending physicians. This is something I must learn.

Regarding minimalism: I'm trying. More now than ever, I realize I need to get my perspective in check before I go about trying to 'minimize' any other part of my life. I recently went to talk to one of the deans about how hassled I was by people gossiping about me (mostly my research) and he repeatedly asked me why I cared. Why did it bother me so much? I don't think I had an answer. He told me to read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (because I told him my sibling told me to read it years ago), talk to my friends and family, and keep doing what I'm doing. If there are people gossiping about my work, then I must be doing something right.

In other fronts, I'm working on reducing waste in my life. Still trying to go low waste, it's hard. But this is important to me so I'll work harder at it.

Step 1

This is the first part of the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) that will determine whether or not orthopedic surgery is magical thinking or a real option for my future. So I am studying. I am doing better in school than last year, studying better, but there is still so much room for me to improve.

I've been thinking of potential vacations to go on after I take the exam in May. The dream vacation is to do a rim-to-rim hike of the Grand Canyon, but that is a far reach of a vacation. More realistically is Katahdin in Maine.

Research and scholarly pursuits

We're finally writing the manuscript. Our project won a prize at a hospital poster session. I'm glad that something I worked hard on since this time last year is finally coming to fruition. And now, I'm looking for more research projects. I want to continue working with my same mentor, and I feel more and more strongly about orthopedic surgery.

At the same time, I am more and more curious about general surgery as well.

..speaking of my mentor and orthopedic surgery, I shadowed him in clinic this week and it was awesome. It was a lot more fast paced than the surgical oncology clinic I normally go to, but I really like his style. Straightforward, to the point, but super comprehensive about all the options a patient could have, non-operative and operative alike. Orthopedic trauma has truly a crazy spread of patients, from little old ladies to a guy my age shot several times over a basketball game, joggers hit by cars, custodians falling from ladders, etc, etc. Vastly different patients with vastly different injuries, needs, goals, and lives. More than learning about how to care for fracture patients, I have another role model for how to talk to patients, how to listen to patients, and how to identify when they have questions, reservations, or things they don't understand.

Recreational reading

I took Thanksgiving break to read as many books as I could. Sabriel (Garth Nix); The Two Towers, The Children of Hurin, and part of The Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien); and The Hot Zone (Richard Preston) are all great. I'm not a book reviewer, but I can recommend all of the above.

Thanksgiving

I have a lot to be thankful for

• my family loves me and supports me in every way: emotionally, financially, in small ways, in big ways
• I am exactly where I want to be doing exactly what I want to do
• I have great friends, old and new
• I am healthy and happy
• I have great mentors that push me to do strong work and let me see and do cool things
• I am finding time for creative pursuits and personal enrichment

Mt. Monadnock | New Hampshire

I realized that since coming to Boston, I have blogged very little about the city of Boston, ye, the state of Massachusetts. Instead, a good portion of my content has been excursions to Vermont and New Hampshire. Here is another one of those adventures from earlier this month.

Mt. Monadnock is one of the only geological points of interest in New England that I knew about prior to moving to New England. It has featured in the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and (quite curiously) H.P. Lovecraft. While internet sources disagree about precisely how many people climb Mt. Monadnock each year, it is generally agreed that it is one of the most summited mountains in the world, trailing Mt. Fuji.

We took the White Dot Trail up to the summit. It's a 3.8 mile loop with an elevation gain of 1771 ft, to the summit at 3165 ft. Mt. Monadnock is not a particularly tall mountain, but it is the most distinguished feature of the landscape by far.

I very wisely wore many layers and my fancy hiking boots. The hike begins with very modest uphills, and then very abruptly transitions to some steep scrambling over boulders. We kept a brisk pace because the clouds looked ominous and we definitely did not want to be caught in the rain during the ascent. I personally really enjoy scrambling and thrive on steep, steep uphills...but rain would have made the ascent very precarious. I'd say that this hike is one where good traction and ankle support are especially important.

We hiked up in short, fast bursts on major uphill sections, taking in the rolling New Hampshire valleys under threat of rainfall with each break. Because I use my iPhone for all my pictures and generally go nuts editing on VSCO, I am prone to sort of amateurish landscape photography. I'm also not used to taking pictures under such ominous clouds and mercurial sunshine (or lack thereof), so please forgive the visuals.

The second major snack break

There are two major stretches of steep scrambles, and at the end of the first was where we had a major snack break. This stretch of flat was perfect for boulder hopping, looking at all the trees growing between rocks, and stretching out. We rested a bit and then made our last push to the summit, which was a bit farther than we had initially thought.

Looking for stunted trees at the second major snack break

Lunch at the summit, which was ridiculously crowded but still very enjoyable. I can see why Mt. Monadnock is one of the most-climbed mountains in the world: it's very close to Boston, it's fairly accessible to novice hikers, and they pay-off is wonderful, both in the summit itself and the feeling of digging in to get there. I don't know if any of my photos can express how steep it was in some sections, but it took real effort, perhaps more than any of the hikes I've documented here so far.

Getting ready for the final push to the summit, which was farther than we thought

We didn't spend quite as much time at the summit as I had wanted, but it began to drizzle and we wanted to get some of the steep, scrambly descent behind us before it poured. It never did quite pour but the rocks were at some points completely covered with rain, and some of our party did slip. The descent is more anxiety-inducing, and my joints did take a beating...but luckily, I didn't fall.

Some trees on the way up. I tend to write before I edit photos, and am still not great at spacing things out. Here, the text describes the descent and I haven't even gotten to the summit pictures yet!

All in all, we left Boston at around 9 AM, stopped at McDonald's, got to the mountain and hiked up and down, went to Taco Bell, and returned to Boston at around 5 PM. I chipped in $7 for the rental car, bought hash browns for $1, bought a honeydew for $3 near Taco Bell, and mooched off some of the junk food that someone was too full to finish.

The summit

• Location: Mt. Monadnock, in Mt. Monadnock State Park in New Hampshire
• Distance/duration: 3.8 miles loop, about 2 hours to the summit
• Elevation gain: 1771 ft
• Difficulty: moderately strenuous thanks to the really steep, really fun scrambles; could be harder in rain or winter or hotter weather
• Points of interest: that sweet, sweet view
• Overall: this was a really fun, satisfying hike. The scrambling was tough, but entirely worth the pain. I can see why this place is so popular, but at the same time, the trail and summit are very crowded.

By the time I got around to editing the photos and finishing the honeydew (I froze some of it), I realized that my first year of medical school was just about over. How do I describe this first year? I can't articulate it well in this addendum to a blog post about hiking up a mountain, but here are a few thoughts about this year and the summer to come.

My first year of medical school was a lot of things. It was an affirmation in that I know more than I began that I am where I want to be doing exactly what I want to do. It was a challenge, academically and professionally, but I learn best in challenges and in failure. I made some good friends, and had more fun than I am used to having. I also found mentors: a resident who wants me to succeed, an assistant dean who let me cry in her office twice and then helped me find my courage again, a preceptor and role model who taught me not just about surgery and how to care for patients, but how to be more confident and capable.

I think I always had an impression of Boston being some kind of intellectual ivory tower of medicine, and it kind of is. However, our hospital is decidedly blue collar, safety net, and deeply concerned with the intersection of medicine and social good. I was lucky to have found and stayed on the same research project since the autumn, and will work harder at it this summer. It's about both medicine and social justice; orthopedic surgery and opioids. The opioid epidemic in New England (and the Rust Belt and Appalachia and small town America) runs deep. It's systemic and demands policy at all levels of government. It's a fight I have been waiting to enter.

As far as Lord of Three Realms goes, I have a few posts waiting in the wings. I also realized that I have half of my Germany posts from last summer yet to be written. I hadn't expected my blog to turn into New England day hike report central when I first started medical school, but I do have some hiking planned this summer, and I will take pictures and write about them. More recreational reading, and more excursions out of my culinary comfort zone (I have recipes to try).

Last thing: I'm thinking about working on the blog itself...like actually adding headings and categorizing things reasonably.

And that's it.

Scenes from a blizzard in Boston

Weather report: we've had a mild winter. Most days from December until now have hovered in the high 20s-low 40s F range, with several days of rain, sleet, and snow. Last week, we had a blizzard that really showed me what New England is capable of -- the snow from that Thursday is still hanging around.

I guess the point of this post is to share some pictures I took from a foolhardy trek from school to the Charles River during this very blizzard, but also to share a few thoughts that have stuck with me recently. Read on for thoughts on winter gear and medicine so far.

Winter

All season, I've been waiting for the perfect time to photograph our charming campus under snowfall, but this was not what I expected. This particular day was not terribly cold, but windy, which can be worse. The only way to navigate this kind of weather successfully is with ski goggles, wool socks, base layers, and snow boots.

We walked about two miles in total to the river and back, buffeted by wind and taking pictures along the way. The pain of revascularizing frost-nipped fingers is no joke! We helped push a car that got stuck, which was pretty fun.

Oh, yes. The Sunday before was Super Bowl Sunday, and later that week (and before the blizzard), Tom Brady took to social media to proclaim a day of rest in Boston. Well, Mayor Marty Walsh declared a snow emergency when it became clear that this nor'easter was going to be a rough one, all the public schools closed, and finally on the morning of, our classes were cancelled as well.

I shadowed orthopedics call on the Saturday after the blizzard and got some startling facts: on the very icy blizzard-eve (Wednesday), there were 70 ortho consults from the emergency department for ice-related injuries. While I was there, we saw five patients with fractures (four related to ice, one related to ice hockey).

School and research

After a disastrous exam in January, things are looking up. I did very well on my last set of exams, but my academic counselor warned me not to be complacent, but also not to take on too many other things. Those other things are research things, and after a stumble regarding authorship order on an abstract I wrote, I think things are looking up. I will be continuing my project through this summer, working on a manuscript and another conference abstract, and starting two other projects with the same attending surgeon. Research and research acquisition are still mysteries to me, and I fully recognize that I got what I have by emailing the right person at the right time, and by leveling up in "networking" and playing a game whose rules I'm just learning. And, of course, the importance of a paper trail.

I'm pretty lucky to have a mentor who has my back and introduces me favorably to faculty. My next steps are to get funding for the summer, work on the manuscript, and crunch more numbers.

A good surgeon

We have begun our second semester of our clinical medicine class, which now places us under individual mentorship of a doctor affiliated with the school. My preceptor is exactly the kind of surgeon I hope to become, and though I have been practicing my physical exam skills at his clinic, the true value of my time there is in watching him and learning how he interacts with patients.

His patients trust and like him, for one. For those who have been his patients for a long time, he remembers their kids' names and asks how the spouses are doing. When a patient is self-deprecating or despairing, he knows what to say to make them smile. He was able to recognize far before I could that a new patient with many tics and anxieties and worries was not a "difficult" patient, but one with a long history of physical abuse that he needed to (and successfully) gained the trust of. He knew what to say to a family whose patriarch was going to die. He only speaks English, but knows just enough phrases in Spanish or French to make patients laugh. He sketches out surgeries and knows what questions patients have but won't outright ask.

To be fair, I think a lot of his demeanor has to do with the fact that he is older, white, tall, wears a sharp suit to clinic, and looks like a politician. But I've learned a lot so far and know that he is exactly the kind of doctor I want to be.

And, of course, he makes me want to be a surgeon.

Strong women

Earlier this week, we had a dinner panel talk with several female doctors, mostly surgeons. It's too much to describe, but the energy was great, the speakers were all engaging and hilarious, and I felt very empowered. The night eventually became a call to arms for women supporting women in surgery, fighting the patriarchy, and becoming good doctors.

Anyhow, this is something one of the speakers, our favorite trauma surgeon said:

Keep fighting the fight. Fight it in yourself. Fight it in others. Fight it any place you can. Fight it in every place you can.

 Will do.

Dr. Samuel Shem

Consider me starstruck -- Samuel Shem came to speak at surgical grand rounds! The lecture was open to medical students as well and I got there early to make sure I got a seat.

Samuel Shem is the pen name of Dr. Stephen Bergman, the author of The House of God, which has provoked discussion and reflection within medicine for almost thirty years. Though considered satire, The House of God revealed the mistreatment and hardship that medical residents saw in training, and is practically required reading for medical students and interns.

It's rare that I get to hear the author's opinions on their own work. But really, this talk was about a great many things, with an overarching theme of retaining humanity in medicine. A few pearls from the talk:

• The House of God is about:
• the fight against injustice
• the danger of isolation
• the healing power of good connections
• medicine is a hierarchy and the group in power is not doctors, but insurance executives and corporations
• medical students are at the bottom of this hierarchy, but have strength in numbers
• the only threat to the group in power in a hierarchy is the quality of connections of the subordinate group
• the only sustainable model of health care delivery in a large, industrialized country is a national health care plan; a private market can only work if it is highly, highly regulated
• relate to patients as people
• the best thing about the Trump presidency is the incredible grassroots resistance against it

This was an exceedingly long post, but I had a lot on my mind

My friends demonstrating the depth of snow. It looks like they're holding hands, but I assure you they aren't

An update and some late autumn hiking

I am neck deep in our neuroscience module now and have two exams on Friday, after which I will go directly to the airport and fly back to San Francisco. Where did this semester even go?

I have a few updates I'd like to mention in this post, some important and some not. This post, of course, is also to share some photos I took of a recent hike in Middlesex Fells Reservation, which I visited in the early autumn. Taking pictures of the outdoors and fiddling around on VSCO is one of my favorite hobbies nowadays.

I also realize that I've included a potentially graphic story of a surgery I saw, so be warned.

I lost my LL Bean flannel on this very hike, actually. It was a bit warm so I put it in my backpack and fell out somewhere along the way. When I realized it was gone, we had already gone seven labyrinthine miles through the park and I was certain I could not find it again. I usually take pretty good care of my things so I was very annoyed and disappointed at myself, but I eventually did repurchase the same shirt. I liked it quite a lot and have realized that there is no way I can survive a Boston winter short on long sleeves. That's how I justified it.

School is going pretty well. I realized that I never wrote a summary or reflection post about gross anatomy, which is probably one of the most unique aspects of medical school, and one of the oldest and most arcane parts of medicine. I have time during winter break and should really do that. I also recently went to two talks: one about the history of surgery as told through advances in anatomy, anesthesia, and antisepsis; the other about the ethical transgressions in medicine and anatomy during the Third Reich. I have more research to do in both those topics.

My actual research is going well. I have a plan, a good mentor, a pile of work to do, and an abstract to revise. The project is something very important to me, and is in orthopedics, a specialty that I have long wanted to enter. I have shadowed the residents on call a few times and like the culture, like the work they do, and like their perspective. Of course, the surgery itself is cool beyond my wildest dreams.

I wrote back in the springtime about being utterly starstruck and sick with dreams after attending an orthopedics conference. I felt similarly after observing a trauma case that went to the OR. Long story short, a man in his 30s presented with a proximal and open distal femur fracture, a proximal tibia fracture, and lateral compartment syndrome. I'll spare the details for another post, but I was completely absorbed into the scene, the jagged ends of the femur sticking out of his bloody thigh, bits of plastic and glass removed, the red and yawning gash in his calf from the fasciotomy, the methodical placement of all the rods and pins and spacers to externally fix the limb...if this is bread and butter orthopedic surgery, I am all in. I've retold the story a dozen times and still go over the details. It was some parts carpentry, some parts butchery, all surgery. I want to see more.

For next semester's clinical skills class, I was placed with a general surgeon at our hospital. General surgery is second on my list for specialties and I am very excited to meet my preceptor.

Last week, some friends and I won a prize in our school's gingerbread house contest. A few hours later, some of more of us began our first Dungeons & Dragons campaign of medical school. We spent the week reading the player's handbook, building our characters, and telling each other how excited we were. Having a regular board game group has been great fun, but D&D will be even better.

Lastly, good luck on exams if you are taking them, and have safe travels if you are going somewhere.

Three documentaries, two books, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Now for a break from your regular Lord of Three Realms programming...a smattering of reviews of some recent brain food.

Three Documentaries

Staying Woke 101: watch a documentary and find discourse

Before the Flood - highly recommend

Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary about climate change is a sincere and ethos-laden warning siren about climate change. While Before the Flood does not cover much new ground, it brings the discussion of climate change once again to the mainstream, complete with interviews with heads of state, diplomats, scientists, and laypeople who recognize the dire consequences of the anthropocene. Indeed, it updates the narrative and turns the lens towards many aspects of the global ecological crisis, not just rising temperatures and sea levels, melting ice caps, or the ozone hole. This is a somber and comprehensive documentary with footage from Leo's UN appearance and the Paris Conference. Leo begins with a comparison to Hieronymous Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights and delivers through it a bleak message: capitalism and overconsumption will lay waste to the planet, and we must mobilize as a society to confront these systemic evils.

The True Cost - recommend

This one's been out for awhile and I feel that a lot of folks have heard of it. Fast fashion is one arm of global capitalism that has had tremendous ecological, economic, and mortal consequences. The Rana Plaza collapse, King Cotton abroad, pollution and emissions, and the ethical murkiness of sweat shop labor are all covered. I don't have much psychology or sociology book learning so some of the consumer behavior stuff was new to me, but I suppose this film will prompt many people to seriously consider their own consumption and relationship with objects. The documentary got the message out, but at times it does seem naively optimistic. I preferred Before the Flood much more.

Escape Fire - recommend

We watched this documentary for our public health class and it essentially lays out the status of health care in the United States today, and how unsustainable and costly it is. A few key points are how lack of primary care, exploitative private insurers and pharmaceutical executives, and the fee for service model is contributing to high-cost, poor-outcome care. I liked this film, though the narratives were fairly scattered and generally glossed over many structural flaws in American society that directly influence health care, but are not immediately obvious. I highly recommend this documentary as an introduction to medicine in the USA, with the caveat that there is much, much more to read and see.

Two books

All Souls - recommend; highly recommend for Bostonians and those interested in urban health, poverty and crime, and community activism

Before medical school, my knowledge of Southie predominantly came from Good Will Hunting, The Depahted, that one Anthony Bourdain episode, and Black Mass; I knew of Whitey and Billy Bulger, the desegregation riots, the Irish Mafia, etc. All Souls is one man's personal tragedy, and the community's long tragedy, that resulted from poverty and crime Bulger's drug trade. It is a story of the people of South Boston and their identity, and how it loved and feared, protected and was harmed by organized crime. All Souls is deeply moving memoir of growing up poor in South Boston, tragic and difficult to read, but an important perspective. One of the first patients I interviewed was an old lady who lived her entire life in Southie who, thinking back now, had been referencing some of the messages All Souls was trying to convey. South Boston has changed now, but All Souls was still an important read, especially for a newcomer who must learn a thing or two about Boston.

Also, our hospital features a few times in this book; if violent crime happens in Boston, chances are it will come through this trauma bay.

Hot Lights, Cold Steel - highly recommend

This is probably one of my favorite memoirs of all time. Dr. Collins write with great humor and thoughtfulness about his four years as an orthopedic surgery resident at the Mayo Clinic. From an impostor syndrome-afflicted intern to an admirable chief resident, Dr. Collins shows the highs and lows of surgery, the work ethic and discipline demanded of a resident at the Mayo at a time before the 80-hr/week cap. The graphic descriptions of surgeries are intense, gory, and left this wannabe future orthopod starry-eyed. Some cases are tremendously sad, and generally, I felt exhausted and overwhelmed reading about his life...orthopedic surgery resident, rural ER moonlighter, and father to one, then two, three, four, and more children during residency. I read this book in two sittings and didn't want it to end.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - recommend, but watch Moana or Arrival in theaters instead

This movie was a pretty indulgent visual feast with a perplexing lack of direction. I loved this movie, am confused by the direction of the Harry Potter franchise, and will probably throw money at the wizarding world for the sake of nostalgia. Eddie Redmayne plays a charmingly eccentric Newt Scamander, who I hope will star in the next movies instead of Johnny Depp. It was a fun romp through the wizarding world and roaring 20s New York, but had a loose plot with flat characters and poor sense of mood. However, I liked it quite a bit and will probably not watch the next one in theaters.