#5SmartReads - June 8, 2022

"Red flag" laws test evidence that mass shootings are preventable (Axios)

“Red flag” laws are the bare minimum we can and must do to combat the mass murders by gun violence. But focusing on the implementation is absolutely critical, as the data shows us from states that have these laws on the books.

We need to have a unified strategy on who can file a red flag petition (and educate the public on how to do that and to make it easy), the judges have to have the bandwidth to review these petitions, and local law enforcement has to be trained to execute these orders promptly.

The good news is that we do have state data to reference and inform us on how to craft a federal law, but the state and local authorities and justice departments are going to be the one enforcing them.

We must pass these common sense gun safety law - but we also must plan accordingly so it can be implemented and enforced strongly as well.

Iman Vellani: ‘Ms. Marvel’ Made Me Feel Seen for the First Time (The Juggernaut)

Iman Vellani dressed up as Ms. Marvel for Halloween just a few years ago. Everyone thought she was dressed as the Flash.

This week, the world will meet her as Ms. Marvel. And I, for one, could not be more excited.

The diversity within South Asian culture is just starting to be better represented in Western media, and it’s high time that Muslim and non-Indian culture be represented both in the creation of the show and the culture of the set, as well as on-screen. And that it has is just so heartwarming.

Disclosure - I am an investor in The Juggernaut

These female health-care workers won a huge WHO honor. They'd like a raise, too (NPR)

2022 - where a public health grassroots organization wins the prestigious Global Health Leaders Award. But they continue to be underpaid and working in unsafe conditions.

And, of course, they’re women.

ASHAs are keeping Indians alive in their most vulnerable and critical moments, especially in rural regions where access to medical care is significantly limited.

These women are saving lives every single day. They deserve to be paid commensurate to their contributions.

Money is emotional — but personal finance advice rarely accounts for that (Vox)

I’m an emotional spender, and I still fall into the trap of “I feel awful and buying something will make me feel better.”

While I’ve gotten better about it (thanks to therapy and a husband who is my accountability partner with spending), I wish that emotion-centered financial education was around back in high school, where I feel like so many of my personal finance habits were born.

It only took 23 years, but I’m heartened to see that we are finally talking about it, and I hope to see my own favorite financial experts (@herfirst100k, @asksnowball, @thefinancialgym) include it in their content as well.

With the right molecular signal, a cancer drug works in every patient (STAT)

Yes, this is a very small study and focused on patients with a specific genetic marker in their tumors (called mismatch repair deficiency). But to see complete response with this drug alone - without chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery that affects the patients’ quality of life - is INSANE.

Now there will need to be more trials (and I hope those trials do better to recruit Black patients, because that’s another story that I’ll tackle this week), but news like this is why I work in life sciences - to help save lives AND quality-of-life in making medicines better (and in our case, also affordable).