#5SmartReads - August 24, 2022

Hitha on apprenticeships, the Lost Cause, and the women of IndyCar

August 24, 2022

Getting the private sector to invest in and scale apprenticeship programs was something the Trump administration focused on, and did very well. I’m happy to see it be continued by the current administration and that they’re ramping back up, and into new fields.

"We have allowed college admissions officers to become the gatekeepers of access to the best jobs in the labor market," says Blair. And that's "despite the fact there's not a correlation between academics and job performance, despite the fact that colleges themselves have not been doing a great job on equity or cost on the people that go through that system," he adds.

A dignified job (with the salary and benefits to match) should be accessible to everyone. Apprenticeships are a proven option for these jobs, and go beyond trade careers. From a political perspective, it also has solid bipartisan support, so I hope any sort of student loan reform also includes increased investment in apprenticeship programs.

I’m a sucker for a daily vlogs, motivating podcasts, and to not feel bloated.

Siffat Haider delivers superbly on both of these things - I love the vlogs she posts to her Instagram, and I love Arrae’s bloat supplements (they really, really work). And her podcast - Dream Bigger - is a great listen.

I envy her morning routine so much (the idea of heading out for a walk first thing sounds absolutely glorious and also impossible with my kids), but I also found nuggets that I can absolutely incorporate into my chaotic mornings.

Highly recommend reading more about her morning routine, and following her on all the platforms/subscribing to her podcast/trying Arrae. I’m very picky about my supplements, but these are effective and the packaging makes taking them a really lovely experience.

I’m very bullish on mobile clinics to deliver healthcare more equitably, as they solve for a very real pain point - proximity.

The Family Van in Boston takes it a step further by hiring an diverse staff that speaks any number of languages (including regional differences), and it has made an incredible impact in the community:

“Based on estimating their impact in decreasing unnecessary emergency trips to the hospital and increasing lifespan through preventive screening, the Family Van team has previously estimated that the mobile clinic saved close to $36 for every $1 spent on the program. Clients who visited twice had reduced blood pressure readings, which in turn lowered their heart attack and stroke risk.

The mobile clinic has another advantage: the diverse identities and backgrounds of the community health workers who staff it.

“The truth is, it’s not really helpful for me to be here,” said Williams, even though she can speak Spanish. “One of the things that makes the van a safe place is that it is run by people from the community who look like them, who speak the same language, and who meet them where they are. And as a white woman who doesn’t blend in well to, say, Upham’s Corner, and who doesn’t have the same lived experiences as the people on our van, I’m not the best one to deliver care.””

It’s Lily’s fault that I’ve become an F1 fan, and now an IndyCar fan. If you’d like to join me on this obsession, you’ll want to start with her podcast Choosing Sides (it’s a crash course in F1), and follow up with her newsletter Engine Failure.

Now, whenever I read anything remotely F1 or IndyCar adjacent, I have to resist the urge to immediately send it to her because she’s already read it or wrote it.

While there aren’t enough women in racing for my liking, the women that are working in this industry are total rockstars. Give this video a watch, and please join me on this obsession because I need more friends to discuss it with.

“The Lost Cause is the racist myth that justifies chattel slavery. It tells a false story of generous slave owners and happy slaves, as well as lies that the Civil War wasn't really fought over slavery — it was about states' rights. Everything that follows, the nadir of American race relations, the violent dismantling of Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the erections of Confederate monuments and the conflation of a treasonous Confederate flag with patriotism, are all in the name of this Lost Cause.”

History is written by the winners. It is not the objective, honest story we assume it is. And it is the subjectivity of history that allowed the Lost Cause to take root and grow into a powerful and deeply troubling truth for many Americans.

We think the truth and history nearly overlap, but this piece shows that it’s a Venn Diagram with a shrinking overlap. This article is an uncomfortable read, but it’s deeply honest and important.

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