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There are sports stories that feel enormous because of the score. There are sports stories that feel enormous because of the standings. And then there are sports stories that land quietly, without a buzzer-beater or a ranking shake-up, and remind everyone that the entire spectacle rests on the shoulders of very real, very mortal people. This is one of those stories. On Monday, Bill Self , the longtime head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks , received medical treatment and did not travel with the team to Boulder for a Big 12 road game against Colorado Buffaloes . The university said he felt under the weather, was taken to LMH Health as a precaution, received IV fluids, and was doing better. That was it. No melodrama. No cryptic language. No spinning it into something else. Just a pause. And for a fan base trained to dissect rotation minutes, officiating tendencies, and February road records as if they were matters of national security, that pause landed with unusual clarity. Because whe...

Let’s talk about health care. Yeah, I know — the topic everybody avoids because it’s either depressing, infuriating, or so expensive that your blood pressure spikes just thinking about it, which ironically means you now need health care, which causes more stress, which raises your blood pressure again, and suddenly you’re stuck in an infinite loop of medical bills and existential dread. Welcome to America, land of the free and home of the $7,000 MRI. And suddenly Maine — the land of trees, lobster, and winter misery so brutal even polar bears look around and go “nah, too cold” — is out here producing doctors, nurses, and hospital leaders who are actually saying something that makes sense: “Hey, maybe everyone should just have health care.” You know, something radical. Like sanity. But before we get into that, let’s take a moment to explore why our entire system feels like it was designed by raccoons wearing tiny suits and carrying briefcases full of shredded paper. Because it’...

If geopolitics had a medical chart, Türkiye’s entry under “Treatment Plan for Global Influence” would include: one state-of-the-art hospital, a handful of dedicated surgeons, a healthy dose of diplomacy, and an aftertaste of subtle empire-building. Welcome to Mogadishu’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Training and Research Hospital , where the scalpel is mightier than the sword — and the soft power drip never runs dry. 1. From Ottomans to Operating Rooms Once upon a time, the Ottoman Empire sent soldiers and scholars. Now, Türkiye sends doctors and dialysis machines — the 21st-century version of “We come in peace (and PPE).” Opened in 2015, the Erdoğan Hospital looks less like a colonial outpost and more like a gleaming metaphor for Ankara’s favorite foreign policy formula: charity plus strategy equals influence. This isn’t just any hospital. It’s a 250-bed, multi-specialty diplomatic statement , complete with burn units, operating theaters, and the kind of intensive care ward where even g...

Ah, JABSOM—the John A. Burns School of Medicine. A place where future doctors learn how to perform life-saving procedures while simultaneously Googling symptoms like the rest of us. And now, in their hallowed halls, a new high priestess of footnotes has arrived: Carolyn Dennison, freshly anointed as the Director of the Library. Yes, that’s right. It’s not just any library. It’s the library. The sacred shrine where medical students pretend to study but really scroll TikTok until their scrubs reek of stress and instant ramen. And now, Carolyn is here to keep them all in line, making sure no one leaves without citing at least three peer-reviewed articles and a condescending “per my last email.” Let’s unpack this announcement, shall we? Because if there’s one thing academia loves more than grant money, it’s overhyping routine staffing changes like the Second Coming. The Myth of the “New Era” So JABSOM issued a proud announcement: “JABSOM Welcomes New Library Director, Carolyn Dennis...

Let’s all take a collective deep breath (but not too deep, because someone here is going to try to diagnose your lung capacity). Seton Hall University has decided to launch what can only be described as “Summer Camp: Hospital Edition,” a nine-day immersion experience where high school students get to play doctor without risking malpractice lawsuits. Think of it as Grey’s Anatomy meets summer enrichment, except the “patients” are plastic and nobody’s dating McDreamy in the supply closet. This is the inaugural Pre-College Health Professions Immersion Program, the brainchild of the School of Health and Medical Sciences (SHMS) and the Department of Continuing Education and Professional Studies. Translation: they gave teenagers a three-credit crash course in five different healthcare disciplines: Speech-Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant training, and Athletic Training. Basically, everything short of letting them scrub into open heart surgery. Y...

Let’s be real: the American health care system is a beautiful mess. Imagine a $4 trillion industry duct-taped together by exhausted interns, fax machines from 1998, and a software interface that looks like it was designed by your drunk uncle using MS Paint. Enter stage left: Artificial Intelligence. Not the Skynet kind (yet), but the good kind—at least according to the American Medical Association’s latest AMA Update episode, where they practically wet themselves over Sutter Health’s new romance with GE HealthCare. Yes, it’s 2025, and AI is apparently going to fix everything. Clogged imaging departments? AI will unclog them. Overworked radiologists? AI will rub their shoulders and whisper sweet, diagnostic nothings in their ears. A shortage of technologists? AI says, “Hold my pixelated beer.” Let’s unpack this medical AI lovefest, shall we? The Setup: AMA + GE + Sutter = Corporate Polyamory This episode’s guest, Dr. Jason Wiesner, is basically the Beyoncé of medical imaging at Sut...

Ah, the sacred atrium of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Richmond. A place where, once a month, Virginia Commonwealth University’s preclinical medical students descend from their ivory tower of textbooks to bestow blood pressure checks, glucose readings, and earnest eye contact upon the “vulnerable” masses. Welcome to health care’s most wholesomely awkward cosplay: The Benevolent Med Student Outreach Clinic™. Let’s be clear: the students mean well. And that’s part of what makes this both beautiful and hilariously ripe for commentary. It’s a heartwarming story, sure—but it’s also the kind of story that screams, “Late-stage capitalism needs a hug and some insulin.” Medicine Meets Ministry: Or, How to Diagnose a Systemic Collapse With a Glucometer The Emmaus Lunch Ministry is doing God’s work, literally and metaphorically. Free hot meals, social service referrals, and donated items all flow freely at St. Paul’s. And now, thanks to SFMA (Student Family Medicine Association), so...