2023.7.16 Sunday Reading List

This week's reads that stuck with me:

Reproductive healthcare behind bars was dismal even before Roe ended (The Marshal Project): A doula friend of mine who serves a prison population recently opened my eyes to the impacts of Dobbs on a population we rarely talk about- incarcerated women. Please take a few minutes to read The Life Inside series - each essay is under 5 min read.

When so many people think hovering is what good parents do, how do you stop? (The Atlantic): A regular topic of conversation is how different expectations are from when we were kids and this quote from the article sums it up:

The resulting encroachment of childhood freedom has had a snowball effect. As kids do less on their own, many of us have come to think of them as less capable of managing on their own, Brussoni said. And with each generation, it becomes harder to imagine that kids can do the sort of things they might have a century ago, because fewer and fewer parents have any memory of having done those things themselves. That’s resulted in a pervasive belief that children require constant supervision into at least their tweens.

Thousands of people are trying to leave QAnon but it's almost impossible (Cosmo): I am fascinated by QAnon followers, and developed a new level of compassion for people who fall into this after I gave birth and found more support from Facebook groups than from the failing systems that are supposed to support moms.

The ‘Infamous 96’ Know Firsthand What Happens When Affirmative Action Is Banned (Time): What happened in the UC system when they banned affirmative action (96/5,0000 freshman students were Black, and 37% of incoming freshman class was under-represented minorities compared to the 56% that graduated HS in the state). I also like how this article breaks down what affirmative action enabled :

The concept is called holistic admissions. It requires or calls on schools to consider more than a student’s grades and ACT and SAT scores. Research has shown that these standardized tests do not accurately predict college performance but closely reflect the education and wealth of a student’s parents and a student’s access to test-prep tools. And an admissions system that depends on them alone disadvantages Black and Latino students, those who come from poor families, and those who are among the first in their families to go to college or trying to navigate the higher-ed system without some kind of experience or guide. Holistic admissions require a school to consider academic performance but also who a student is, what they have tried to learn or do inside and outside of school, what they have had to manage or opted to take on, the context in which they grew up, what interests and hobbies they have developed, how they have contributed to their communities and what all of this together suggests about a student’s potential to contribute to campus life and to the communities where they live after graduation.

6 Science-backed ways to improve your emotional well-being at work (HBR): An interesting take on "emotional fitness".

ICYMI:

An Actual Useful Men's Pants Review

Shorts for People with Butts, Thighs, Hips

Using AI to find the best breast pump (and get it covered by insurance)