5SR - October 27, 2023

Hitha on retelling history, misinformation, and persaverance

Author

Hitha Palepu
October 27, 2023

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

History’s retellings have been Hollywood fodder, to varying degrees. Oppenheimer failed to capture the displacement of 32 Hispano families with little notice and barely any (if any) compensation to leave their homes for the lab.

In the case of Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon, this displacement and subsequent murder is the story - but to what degree?

“Erased alongside the murders, arguably a 20th-century genocide on American soil, were the appalling circumstances that enabled them. Not only were the investigations into the murders hampered by systemic indifference, but the murders could arguably only have happened because of decades of blatant system-wide racism that forced the Osage people to fight for their autonomy. At the time the murders began, they were even fighting for control of their own finances and assets, thanks to a Britney-style conservatorship that robbed them of access to their newfound oil wealth amid an environment of galling corruption. This story, the true American horror story of a community enduring a death wave for over a decade, makes for harrowing drama.

But the full truth of the Osage murders, and the dehumanization at their root, makes it almost more unbelievable that they were ever solved at all — if, indeed, they actually were.”

This reporting on the Osage murders is a critical read on its own, but it highlights another issue - when history is the basis of art, what responsibility does the artist have to ensure accuracy? If that art highlights a significant trauma and injustice to a traditionally marginalized group, should some profits from the art go to that group (especially if said artist is a white man)?

I don’t have an answer for this question, and I will likely skip this film because of the unsettling feelings I have towards works like these. But it’s been on my mind since I first saw the trailer for Killers of the Flower Moon and these are the first words I’ve been able to find to articulate these sentiments.

Some of my romance recommendations horrify my friends - reverse harems, blue aliens, orcs…

They don’t know what they’re missing out on.

But they do love the feminist, historical fiction romances I’ve recommended. And when I was impatiently waiting for a new season of Bridgerton or a new Sarah MacLean book, I stumbled upon Harper St. George (can we talk about how perfect her name is for her job) and it was immediate book love at sight.

I just finished the advance copy of The Stranger I Wed (it’s Miss Scarlet & The Duke meets The Viscount Who Loved Me), and couldn’t get enough of it. I loved learning more about Harper’s inspiration for her books and her writing process in this interview.

Re-reading favorite books is bringing me a lot of comfort right now, and I’ll be picking up her first series again after Halloween (I still need to read my final few witchy books!)

I know that polling is not perfect and not fully representative of our populace as a whole, but this one still managed to shock me.

23% of respondents agreed that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country," according to the survey. This is up from 15% in 2021.

There are some reassuring statistics from the polls (a majority trusting teachers to selecting curriculum, opposing book bans for one), but I fear January 6, 2021 may not just be an anomaly - it might become our new norm.

One correct assumption that the poll validated is that democracy is very much at risk in the United States. I’m fearful for the upcoming election and, well, the future in general.

You have to have a very high tolerance for pain and rejection to work in the pharmaceutical industry.

My decades of Philadelphia sports fandom prepared me well.

More recently, so has Katalin Karikó’s story. While she’s now lauded for her breakthrough in developing mRNA therapeutics like the COVID vaccine, she’s also been through her fair share of bulls&!t.

I wish I had this article to reference when I stepped into the CEO role at Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, for a quick pep talk the many times I needed one. There are so many nuggets of wisdom in this interview with Karikó, but I’ll leave you with my favorite one:

“Don’t focus on what you cannot change. Because you are fired, don’t start to feel sorry for yourself. You just have to focus on what’s next because that’s what you can change.”

So much of her story resembles that of my great great-uncle, Yellapragada Subbarow (who left academia to join the burgeoning pharmaceutical industry). History regards him as the breakthrough innovator that he was - seeing Karikó’s accomplishments be heralded so widely and comparatively quickly shows we’ve come a long way - and we can still do better.

One of Subbarow’s accomplishments was discovering the benefits of folic acid in fetal development, which was subsequently validated over decades of clinical data.

You trust your OB when they tell you to take prenatal vitamins with folic acid, right? So why are people questioning their physicians about hormonal birth control, which has been rigorously tested and studied over decades as well?

Social media is one reason. I love that the platforms have amplified a long overdue and necessary conversation about women’s health, which our healthcare system has ignored for far too long. It’s a vulnerable topic, and creators can have greater empathy and validate someone’s very real concerns about taking birth control, such as side effects and long term impact.

Birth control does act differently in every single person. Finding the right birth control for you may require you to try different options, and your lifestyle may mean non-hormonal options or menstruation tracking may be the right option for you.

But do not demonize a medication that has improved the quality of life of millions and claim it’s harming people at great profit to the pharmaceutical industry (oral contraception represents just 5% of the total market). And please stop looking to influencers for advice that impacts your HEALTH.

At the very least, please follow physicians like Lucky Sekhon, Heather Irobunda, Jennifer Lincoln, Danielle Jones, and Jen Gunter who take the time to share evidence-based information on top of their jobs as physicians.

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