#5SmartReads - April 5, 2023

Madison is based in Kansas City, Missouri where she works as a full-time freelance writer, part-time college counselor, and is launching Grief Cards, a small business that offers sympathy cards that don't suck. This spring, you can find her on the kickball field with her Babe Ruthless teammates or cheering on the KC Current.

People Face A ‘Desperate’ Reality After Leaving Prison. Two Atlanta Women Are Pushing To Change That. (The 19th*)

As much as media talking points like to describe mass incarceration as an ‘opportunity for rehabilitation,’ the human experience of being released from prison is far from that.

Stats show that people with criminal records face significant structural challenges to get steady, living wage work and access stable housing after release, which leads to higher and higher rates of recidivism. Formerly incarcerated people deserve much better, and some organizations - like Barred Business in Atlanta - are doing that exact work. By highlighting the importance of transitional services, the disparities between each state’s offerings, and lived experiences of formerly incarcerated people, this read serves as a great starting point into the world of reentry and recidivism.

Becky Sauerbrunn: Let Missouri Trans Girls And Women Play (Springfield News)

Missouri’s government, like many states around the U.S., is hyper fixated on solving a “problem” that truly doesn’t exist. Trans and nonbinary athletes - from Nikki Hiltz’s professional running career to Lia Thomas’ collegiate swimming career - compete under existing athlete policies at their respective levels, and reached these peak conditions by competing in youth leagues that knew the extensive benefits of sports competitions for all people.

I was proud to see the way Becky Sauerbrunn, USWNT captain and team veteran, articulated these realities in her opinion piece for Springfield, Missouri’s local publication.

Big Tech’s Massive Layoffs Will Come Back To Haunt It (Insider)

Y’all. Boom and bust layoff cycles do not teach any long-term lessons to the people who have much to learn. Instead, it teaches everyday tech employees how to keep their CVs on deck, their cover letters up to date, and their shoulders tensed, always ready for the next hurdle.

At this rate, all future generations of tech employees will have these exact same experiences simply because the people in power, the people with seemingly limitless coffers, haven’t been given any reason to do better. In the end, all of this will continue to primarily hurt two groups: Those everyday employees who can’t find steady work, and the people who could have benefited from the next gen tech products and services that, now, haven’t come to fruition.

Mental Health And The Pandemic: What U.S. Surveys Have Found (Pew Research Center)

Research is slowly coming out that aims to capture just how devastating the COVID-19 pandemic has been to global mental health.

Personally, these numbers prove to be astounding, unsurprising, and undercounted. I recommend reading through what this Pew Research study shows so far, and also reaching out to your own networks to see how these numbers resound with them.

These conversations have to keep happening; trying to brush this under the proverbial rug will only lead to increasingly worse outcomes.

Sabrina Ionescu Talks Debut Nike Signature Shoe: ‘It’s A Blessing’ (Complex)

Even thinking about women’s basketball today makes me tear up. For decades, so many women worked so incredibly hard to blaze so many paths that have, ultimately, led us to where the sport is today.

Sabrina Ionescu’s influence on basketball at-large can never be understated, just as the reach of this year’s March Madness stars - from Angel Reese to Aliyah Boston to Caitlin Clark - will have ripple effects for years to come.

Growing up as a competitive basketball player, I don’t think I ever even dreamed of a future that looked like this, with NIL deals and scholarship funds and increasingly equitable media coverage and so much more. Every sport deserves this, just as every gender does, too. Seeing it all makes me hopeful in a time where, honestly, it can seem like there are little reasons to hope.

Come summer, I’ll certainly be snagging a pair of the Ionescu 1s as well as one of her black tees… assuming they don’t sell out first!