Type of Submission: Health Story

René (Video Oficial)

This 7-minute music video tells Rene's (Residente) story of growing up "lower middle class" but secure in Puerto Rico. Describes happiness, sadness and the fragility of being a famous rapper and how he uses alcohol to deal with powerful feelings: loneliness, fear, grief - but music and baseball are more stable healing forces. The video has accurate subtitles in both Spanish and English and moves quite slowly (and can be slowed even further). Many scenes and details of Puerto Rican culture, excellent illustration of dialect features. Could be used to discuss alcoholism, addiction, grief in an upper intermediate or higher Spanish course.

Wake Me up When September Ends

The hit single "Wake Me up When September Ends" was written by Billie Joe Armstrong about his father who died from esophageal cancer when Armstrong was 10 years old. This popular song illustrates a health storyline that is likely overlooked by many casual listeners. Listening to the song, paying close attention to the words, could open discussion of grief and loss.

BDD, Fighting the Voice of Imposter Syndrome, and an Act of Power

This 47 minute podcast discusses how three generations of Koreans have experienced mental illness. Joanne details her elders' PTSD and depression, then moves into her own story. Initially, she ignores the little voice in her head, comparing her struggles with her grandparents'. Later, on her honeymoon, she realizes that she is losing a fight with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Joanne describes an up and down journey toward body acceptance. As media become saturated with unrealistic beauty standards, this podcast would fit well in an undergraduate class to discuss how students face body image issues.

Film can help us look disability in the eye.

This editorial (2 pages plus 4 links to videos) argues that US Americans are uncomfortable with disabilities and that filmmaking can make it easier for them to do so. The author tells his story of being misunderstood and having awkward interactions many times because of his condition (medical name not given) that he calls "whale eyes:" misalignment of his eyes so people can't tell where he's looking. He started by making a film his senior year in college to show his family how the world looks to him and how he works around his condition to read, write, cook, and navigate the world. From there he started making more films with disabled people - one with face blindness, another going blind, a stutterer - so they could tell their stories in similar ways. Videos linked to the article are 8-12 minutes long and all focus on "experiencing" the disability: See what the face-blind person experiences (recognizable faces are shown upside down and sure enough, you can't identify them). Listen to the stutterer actively filtering out their fluency issues with an imaginary machine called a "Listenometer." Useful as insight into non-medically focused stories of disabilities, or as examples for a digital storytelling activity.

Unmasked: Illustrating Covid-19 in Okoboji

Emily Mendenhall wrote a book, "Unmasked: Covid, community, and the case of Okoboji" based on 87 interviews with people in her hometown of Lake Okoboji, Iowa in 2020. This graphic narrative, illustrated by another native of Lake Okoboji, condenses that scientific/cultural report into full-color panels of comic strip interspersed with description and analysis. Much more compelling for most undergrads than a chapter of the book would be, it focuses on "cultural squabbles and social complexities of the first pandemic year in ...a tourist town in northwest Iowa." Could also illustrate the work of a medical anthropologist within her own community rather than in an exotic location.

The internet still thinks I’m pregnant.

This is both a podcast and a print version. Author downloads an app as soon as she finds out she's pregnant, enters personal information (due date, last menstrual period), and enjoys the pictures and info that come along every week. Then she miscarries and deletes the app, but personal information has been sold to various other companies so she receives marketing as though she's still pregnant and even a box of formula samples just before her due date. She finds a way to laugh at this and take early miscarriage in stride, but muses on the irony of her pregnancy being such public property when she had told almost no one before she lost it. Useful for reflecting on the various audiences and media for our health narratives: the story we tell close friends and family interpersonally, but also the "story" that is revealed by apps and purchases. Although the author ends on a humorous note, the essay does also include details of pregnancy disclosure and health care for miscarriage.

When the Uber Driver Asks, Do You Have Any Kids?

Prompted by the Uber driver's small talk, this disabled author reflects on how an alternative self, who is not disabled, might answer--or would not have to answer, because her life would be different. Telling the story of the alternative self and life is a means of revealing some of the ways her Stargardt disease (a rare genetic eye condition) has affected the author. The story speaks to non-apparent disabilities, cultural assumptions (about women, about able-bodied-ness), stigma, and disability.

Art + Medicine | Speaking of Race

This one hour PBS broadcast features voices of many physicians of color at the University of Minnesota. Each physician talks about instances of race impacting their practice as well as the care that patients of color receive. It begins discussion of why race is important to talk about in health care and ends on each provider's favorite aspect of teaching and medicine.

The Nocturnists

Podcast series created by physician Emily Silverman that focuses on humanizing medical practice through healthcare workers' storytelling. Some topics: interview with author of a book on forced sterilization, "Black Voices in Healthcare" and "Post-Roe America". Episodes run 35-55 minutes.

The Weight of the Soul

"The Weight of the Soul" is a poem written by physician and poet Jack Coulehan. It refers to an experiment run in 1901 to measure the weight of the human soul by weighing a body before and after death to conclude that the departed soul weighed 21 grams. Coulehan concludes that it is humbling to hold less than an ounce of soul, and he hopes that it is enough in the end. This poem prompts reflection on the meaning of life and death, what can be known from scientific data and what cannot.