Essays Without the Noise
These essays are written with one goal in mind: more signal, less noise. Here you will find historical perspective, medical and policy analysis, and measured commentary on the presidency, healthcare, medicine, and public life—written to illuminate rather than inflame.
From Civil Rights to DEI: and the Power of Individual Responsibility
For more than sixty years, Americans have pursued fairness through civil rights legislation, affirmative action, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The progress has been remarkable, yet fundamental disagreements about fairness, merit, and opportunity remain. This essay examines what we've accomplished, where we've fallen short, and why building a fairer society may ultimately depend as much on our everyday decisions as on the institutions we've created.
The Tool Is New. The Responsibility Is Not.
Artificial intelligence is already entering clinical medicine, but the most useful way to understand it may be as augmented intelligence: a tool that helps physicians search, organize, and synthesize information more quickly while leaving the final judgment with the physician. From Index Medicus to MEDLINE, PalmPilots, UpToDate, and now AI, the tools have evolved. The responsibility to the patient has not.
Signalbrief: AI Doomsday – What Can We Really Know About the Risks?
Artificial intelligence has been extraordinarily useful for research, writing, medicine, and other forms of augmentation. So why are leading AI researchers and executives now warning about loss of control, catastrophic risk, and even human extinction? The answer may lie in distinguishing the AI most of us use today from increasingly autonomous frontier systems that few outsiders can independently evaluate.
What Happened to Higher Education?
Universities increasingly must justify their cost, intellectual culture, standards, and stewardship of the learning environment. From tuition and student debt to ideological conformity, campus protests, antisemitism, and academic rigor, the larger question is simple: do students leave better able to think independently, continue learning, and contribute meaningfully? And does the University nurture the conditions for everyone to feel safe and learn.
An Interlude On Dolly Parton and the Choice to Get Better
A chance encounter with a Dolly Parton quote about reading became something much more personal: a reflection on lifelong learning, intellectual humility, and why I write. Education does not end with a diploma. We can keep questioning what we think we know, getting better, and passing what we learn along.