#AcademicRunPlaylist - 8/3/25

It's been a toasty few days in Tokyo, and while checking out some of the local flora on my dashes between air-conditioned spaces I listened to talks for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an interesting panel on possible approaches for restructuring the NLRB at the New York University School of Law with Samuel Estreicher, Roger King, and David Sherwyn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7CszENWBqc

Next was an informative review of the BLS's monthly employment numbers by Christian T. Lundblad at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise (note that this is before the extremely concerning action by the current administration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j79NzsiMRUU

Next was an engaging talk by Stefan McDaniel on recent jurisprudence around discrimination on religion at work at the NYU School Law https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzbgaQgRY7o

Next was "Bitch: On the Female of the Species" by Lucy Cooke. Cooke brings an extremely entertaining style to this wide-ranging tour of female biology and reproduction. Rather than drill down on a single species, Cooke brings in experts from across the animal kingdom on different aspects of sex, starting from its biological complexity and going through mating and child rearing behaviors and strategies. What emerges is the plethora of strategies that different species take, which can even differ radically between those that are closely related, and the degree to which recent human cultural biases have driven the study and interpretation of these behaviors. The book is a bit light on scientific rigor, with Cooke using interviews with scientists rather than digging into the papers themselves. This is a somewhat minor complaint - I think most people won't mind skipping the details. Highly recommend https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/433914/bitch-by-cooke-lucy/9781804990919

Last was "The Mind Electric" by Pria Anand. This book is better thought of as a neurologist's memoir with some scientific details sprinkled in. While there are lots of interesting anecdotes and observations on the practice of medicine, there's little insight here into neuroscience, cognition, or human biology more broadly. If you're a complete beginner in the space this could be a gentle introduction to the space, but if you want a more research-oriented work it's best to look elsewhere https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Mind-Electric/Pria-Anand/9781668064016