Mexican states visited: Baja California Norte & Sur, Sinaloa, Durango, Mexico, Puebla
Local stories:
I’ve slacked on this one — mostly because I know I’m going to be in Mexico for so long. I’ve got some books and movies downloaded and ready, so the next post should include more Mexican things. For now, all I’ve got are:
“The Tunnel” (99% Invisible) on a tunnel under the Arizona border, facilitating the drug trade
“Mexico Fights the Fuel Pirates” (Planet Money) on the state’s response to drug cartels now stealing gasoline - We actually recently went to a gas station still being protected by army personnel
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall (BOOK) on the evolutionary anthropology research indicating humans were made to run long distances, and on the remote Tarahumara/Ramamurí tribe in the Mexican Sierra Nevada mountains (as well as some American ultra-runners), who still excel at it. This book is sometimes cringe-worthily “bro”y and leans hard into caricatures, but it’s also interesting, well-researched, and entertaining.
On US politics:
“I Served in Congress Longer Than Anyone. Here’s How to Fix It.” (Atlantic): A remarkably clear-eyed and no-holds-bar set of recommendations from the longest-ever serving member of the House of Representatives, John Dingell. It’s a great future vision for progressives. Favorite line: “I know there are those who genuinely believe in privatizing everything. They are called profiteers.” Most shocking fact: “In 2050, 70 percent of Americans will be living in just 15 states. That 70 percent will then have 30 senators, and the remaining 30 percent of the people, mainly those living in the smallest and poorest states, will have 70 senators.”
“An Itch You Can’t Scratch Off” (Topic): A great look at the perverse incentives implicit in state lotteries — simply put, government coffers are fuller when their citizens are addicted to gambling. The most amazing part of this piece was learning how the state lottery games have changed through time to make the games more addictive. For example, addiction is fed by faster feedback loops, so now games are instant-win, or video drawings can happen every 5 minutes. But to make the economics of such constant games work, entry fees (i.e. buying a lotto ticket) must cost more — up to $50 a pop.
PODCAST: “Is Fixing Campaign Finance As Easy as Giving Everyone $100?” (The Impact): In an effort to give ordinary voters the same power (read: money) as big lobbyists, Seattle sent every resident free “democracy vouchers” worth $100, which could be given to any local campaign of their choice. I don’t want to give away what happened next - just listen. (As a sidenote, I’ve just started listening to The Impact, a podcast series by Vox focusing on public policy. Unfortunately, it’s quite uneven, often overly focusing on emotional responses to interventions, rather than the actual data-driven results.)
On business:
“How Much of the Internet is Fake? Turns Out, A Lot of it, Actually” (NYMag): A thought-provoking piece on the “Inversion”, particularly for anyone in marketing/growth. What happens to metrics, and trust in metrics/facts, when more than half the users, clicks, and maybe even content, are not real?
"Urban Organics Wants to Fix Food” (Outside): Before this piece, I had heard of urban farming, hydroponics, and aquaculture, but I had never heard of its genius combination: aquaponics. In this system, the poop-laden water from fish farming (aquaculture) is fed to plants growing without soil in this water (hydroponics), whose roots suck up the sullied water as fertilizer and purify it to be recirculated as clean water for the fish. It’s a totally closed system with almost no water loss, and can, at least theoretically, be built on large scales even in urban areas, thus reducing the usual carbon footprint in getting food from rural fields to urban centers. But, of course, this is somewhat theoretical — and scaling such solutions in the real world is another matter.
On culture, art, and life:
“My Life at 47 is Back to What it Was When I Was 27” (Medium): This is a terrible title for what is actually a lovely meandering pondering of a woman’s life lived, and what it feels like to be in your (female) 40s with nearly half a century worth of friendships and a stronger sense of self.
“Inside Dau, the Stalinist Truman Show” (Guardian): An incredible piece on a sprawling art/film project that recreated a Soviet town and persona with startling accuracy and violent, sexual fervor. I honestly don’t know what I think of it nor of the ethics of attending one of the shows.
“Where Not to Travel in 2019, or Ever” (The Walrus): I’m not sure I always agree with this piece, and I have pretty nuanced (and mixed) feelings about the ethics of leaving remote tribes isolated vs. bringing them social goods like education and healthcare. But for “adventurous” travelers like me, I do think it raises some points at least worth considering.
PODCAST: “The Fifth Vital Sign” (Invisibilia): What happens when doctors (and people themselves) begin paying more attention to patients’ pain? A very controversial take on chronic “amplified pain” and an even more controversial solution to it. Right after listening, the first words out of my mind were “Well, I’m sure they’re is gonna get plenty of hate mail for this one” (now evidenced by NPR’s response here), but I also think it’s an important listen. That said, I’m very confused about why the producers chose to ignore gender in this story, when all the patients in the treatment program were female.