#AcademicRunPlaylist - 9/1/25

I had a lovely long weekend, and while enjoying a relaxing few days I listened to some talks and books for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

First was an engaging conversation with Melanie Sheehan on the US labor movement's complicated post-WWII relationship with trade liberalization at the Hagley Museum and Library https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoAjnuvHF1I

Next was "The Autumn Ghost" by Hannah Wunsch. This book follows the different players and techniques that dealt with the 1952 Copenhagen polio epidemic, which reverberated throughout medicine in Denmark and beyond. Many technologies and processes that we take for granted - ventilators, anesthesia improvements, rigorous hand washing and quarantine procedures - owe something to this epidemic crucible. While Wunsch provides fascinating and engaging detail, I wish there was more time spent on the practice of emergency medicine writ large - it was often hard to gauge how much certain practices differed from the international norm, as well as to what degree those practices shifted after the epidemic. Still, as a look at how medicine and work more broadly can be dramatically changed and improved through crisis, this book is an excellent read. Highly recommend https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-autumn-ghost

Next was "Law School for Everyone: Contracts" by David Horton. Contracts are an essential aspect of business, and yet beyond vague generalities how they formally function, and importantly don't function, is poorly understood by the general public. Even if you don't have any legal background, Horton provides an excellent, high level foothold in US contract law, important cases, and where grey areas still exist. Highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Law-School-for-Everyone-Contracts/dp/B07YBLJC81

Last was "Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything" by Salvatore Basile. This book makes clear just how profoundly air conditioning changed society, arguably making it the most transformative modern invention. Basile further shows how hard it was for people to grasp the value of AC due to cultural norms - becoming expected only after half a century of technical and commercial feasibility. How work, production, and even the distribution of the US population looked before and after the adoption of AC is difficult to overstate, and this book methodically demonstrates the breadth of that transformation. Highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Cool-How-Conditioning-Changed-Everything/dp/0823271781