5SR - September 6, 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.

Why labor has something to celebrate this Labor Day (Axios)

Some parts of organized labor have a lot to celebrate this past Labor Day, which this article does a great job of outlining (and it’s wonderful to see it).

I celebrate these hard fought wins from unions, but I also want to hold space for the fights that continue.

Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA continue to strike for compensation in the streaming age and for rules against the usage of AI, which I think is perfectly fair. The unpaid labor of caregivers and stay-at-home-parents (largely women), while getting a bit more recognition, remains undervalued and underinvested when it comes to our economy.

This, like so many things in life, is a both/and situation. It’s important to celebrate the hard-fought wins, and recognize we have more battles to fight.

The death of a day care: When a child care center closes, an entire community is affected (The 19th*)

And speaking of care, our already vulnerable care infrastructure is about to become more so, with the federal funding from the pandemic set to expire at the end of this month.

If anything, this investment has paid dividends in growing the economy (local to federal), and is worth an even greater - and permanent - investment, in my opinion.

It’s one thing to look at this $24B and the big picture. But the personal stories - of the specific centers like Giggles & Wiggles in communities like Lancaster, Wisconsin makes it personal (and a reason why The 19th’s reporting is just superb and so important).

When a childcare center closes, it forces some parents (usually mothers) to stop working, or for families to not have another child (and that may not even be someone’s choice in over 20 states that have restricted abortion).

It can’t just be the moms and childcare advocates banging this drum. This isn’t just a critical issue for families - it’s also a massive economic and public safety issue as well. The care economy has the data to show it’s the best investment we can make as a country (and one most nations in the world have already made). It’s past time we did the same.

My So-Called #TradWife Life (ELLE)

I confess that I’ve been sucked into #TradWife content on the Internet (and it often takes me a minute or two to remind myself of how edited everything on social media is and to watch @bigtimeadulting or @nickimarieinc’s Reels to remind myself of what’s joyfully, messily real).

But when one of my favorite writers, Anne Helen Petersen, takes on #TradWife life for a week in the name of journalism, you better believe I’m going to read every single word.

Anne’s experiment took an unexpected turn (documented after a thoughtful, nuanced analysis of this trend). This quote, in particular, sums up what it means to choose this life in this day and age.

Biden administration unveils first 10 drugs subject to Medicare price negotiations (CNBC)

In Peter Attia’s Outlive, he devotes an entire section to the Four Horsemen of Death: heart disease, cancer, Type 2 diabetes & metabolic dysfunction, and neurodegenerative disease and their increasing incidence and impact on our lives.

Each of these diseases are either a leading cause of death or something that significantly impacts one’s quality of life - and all reduce one’s healthspan as well as lifespan. Millions of Americans with any of these diagnoses are taking at least one (often multiple) prescriptions, with varying costs.

In the case of heart disease and diabetes, some of these most prescribed drugs to keep people alive are priced for profit and shareholder value, not for patient accessibility and affordability.

Medicare is the largest reimburser of the medications subject to price negotiations between the manufacturers and the government (to the tune of $50.5B in a single year), and it’s high time we stop prioritizing profit over lives. And while this is not perfect (too much for some, too little for others, and too new to assess the near-term impact), it’s a first step towards delivering actual healthcare (and not inaccessible disease management) to the Americans who need it.

Many executives in my industry claim this move will impact R&D advancements (and it may affect M&A and licensing activity and deal sizes in biopharma). But we’re talking about 10 manufacturers and one drug from each (the exception being Novo Nordisk, who will be negotiating about 7 products from its Fiasp and NovoLog insulin lines).

This article does an excellent job of explaining the issue - how we got here, why we got here, and what’s next. It’s worth your time.

A quick aside - if you haven’t picked up Peter Attia’s book Outlive, you must. It is one of the best investments you’ll make for your health. If you’d like a copy but it’s not available at your library for a while/not in your budget, please DM me and I’d be happy to get you a copy.

Andy Roddick’s Open Era (GQ)

I remember watching Andy Roddick winning the US Open 20 years ago. I was in India, visiting family, and our family gathered around the television to watch Roddick clinch the title.

It felt like a new chapter for American men’s tennis - a passing of the torch from Sampras and Agassi to Roddick and Blake and the next generation. And while reality took us in a different direction, I couldn’t help but feel that same hope yesterday at the US Open, with 3 American men playing in the quarterfinals and watching Taylor Fritz play his heart out.

It’s been 20 years since an American man won the US Open. But in the past 20 years, the last to do it - Roddick - has lived full lives, and his latest largely out of the spotlight. This piece is one of the best interviews I’ve read - detailed, nuanced, respectful.

It’s the joy and the fulfillment in Roddick’s current chapter - a husband and father - that rarely gets this kind of attention, especially in a publication like GQ. If you love tennis, you’ll love this piece. If you love beautiful storytelling, you’ll love this piece.