5SR - December 7, 2023

Today’s #5SmartReads contributor is Madison T. Clark! She is a full-time freelance writer, part-time college counselor, and founder of the newly launched Grief Cards, a company that makes sympathy cards that don't suck.

Roxane Gay Has One Hot Take That Just Might Shock You (Refinery 29)

I love Roxane Gay's work. Podcasts, books, interviews, speeches, essays, newsletter - you name it, I'm reading it. This includes her most recent book, "Opinions: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business."

Hearing authors speak about their work is another type of writing that I'm constantly investing time and attention in because the externalization of so much internal work - it's fascinating! Gay's authenticity and candor are on full display here, and I've been returning to this conversation as a breath of fresh air in busy work days.

Kim Ng wont’t return to Marlins 2024: What to make of the GM’s shocking departure (The Athletic)

Kim Ng recently left her position as the general manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team after serving as the first woman to ever be GM of a team in North America's Big Four leagues, and as the first person of East Asian descent to ever serve as GM for a team in the MLB.

She worked in this role for three season, making multiple moves that helped the Marlins get to the playoffs for the fourth time in their entire history. Her original contract included an option for the 2024 season, but she ultimately left early, citing a 'reshaping' of the operations department that wasn't aligned with her vision for the organization.

While this is all still unfolding - and there's a lot that hasn't been said publicly - hell yes to women who recognize a workplace that isn't aligned with their goals and make the choice to leave, no matter how public or groundbreaking their role was. Women deserve the best, and they deserve to make moves to find the best, no matter what that looks like.

A Lab Test That Experts Liken To A Witch Trial Is Helping Send Women To Prison For Murder (ProPublica)

As passionate as I am about reproductive rights and equitable access to care, I'd never heard of the so-called lung float test. As the article describes, it's "pseudoscience masquerading as sound forensics" designed to try and determine if a stillbirth is, in fact, a stillbirth and not a murder.

It's been used in 11+ cases since 2013 and has played a role in putting NINE women in prison - even as a junk science, even as another effort to purposely limit our mobility and capacity. ProPublica (as always) offers a great deep-dive into this barbaric practice, how it's been used, and where it might go from here.

With five old phones and some Pew data, the BBC’s Marianna Spring monitors social media from the inside (Nieman Lab)

This level of deep dive was so interesting to read through. Essentially, the misinformation and social media correspondent for BBC is sharing how she’s maintaining five different ‘voter profiles’ over five completely different cell phones in order to see how algorithms and social platforms respond to each profile.

I learned an incredible amount from this read, and I highly recommend it, especially as the U.S. heads into our next presidential election.

The Red State Brain Isn’t Coming. It’s Happening Right Now. (The New Republic)

I could live in Kansas City forever - and be incredibly happy the entire time. But leaving the boundaries of the city itself, especially on the Missouri side, continues to be a rude sociopolitical awakening each time I drive down I-70. Especially as someone who has left, who has repeatedly picked up and moved to entirely new countries and communities, I know the safety - and loss - that can come from that type of massive life change.

So am I surprised that so many highly educated and accomplished people are leaving red states due to violence, threats of violence, unsafe laws, gun accessibility, and more? Not at all. Honestly, if I didn’t have Kansas City as a safe haven just 15 minutes down the road from my suburban apartment, I probably wouldn’t still be living here either.