Having lived in the US for many years and now another 20 years in Israel I have a perspective on the differences in how healthcare is viewed in both countries. I now believe that it’s important to view healthcare as a service that the government should provide or pay for rather than as insurance one needs to purchase in case something goes wrong.

Some links:

US Health Care System Ranks Last Overall Among Other High-Income Countries

$2 million device to replace MRI scanner broken by negligent cleaner

Overview of Israeli Healthcare System

After all that talk in the first episode about buying and then procrastinating setting up the microphone, I dumped the whole setup this week and just talked into my phone. Find out why.

I also talked about the advantages of having conversations via voice messages on WhatsApp. Sometimes it’s better and more effective to be able to process what the other person is saying before responding.

After I did the podcast I found a couple of articles on the subject. Apparently voice notes are quite the rage. WhatsApp handled about 7 billion a day as of 2022!

See below:

Why I hate texting, and why I love voice memoshttps://dailyfreepress.com/2022/12/06/why-i-hate-texting-and-why-i-love-voice-memos/

To my horror, gen X is turning to voice notes – I don’t want to hear your mini-podcasthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/29/gen-x-voice-notes-podcast-phone-message

I was deeply troubled by the invective and discrimination that the Trump campaign hurled at transgender people leading up the election. I understand that treatment, especially with regard to adolescents, is controversial even among medical professionals, but people’s mental health and welfare should not be the stuff of political point-scoring fodder.

Here, I try to imagine a future world where things could be different. I may be totally off-base and would appreciate feedback as to why. Please know that my intent is not to hurt anyone.

An example of an anti-transgender Trump campaign ad.https://youtube.com/shorts/VVU7pYq3WHw?si=-KpUTrfjWsgZXemn

A New York Times article that takes a deep dive into the issue.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/health/puberty-blockers-transgender.html