Meghan O'Rourke talks about her recent memoir, The Long Goodbye. Meghan O’Rourke’s accomplishments are many. A graduate of Yale, she was a fiction/nonfiction editor at The New Yorker at the age of 24, one of the youngest editors in the history of the magazine. She then became culture editor and literary critic for Slate, a poetry editor of The Paris Review from 2005-2010, and … [Read more...] about Meghan O’Rourke on Writing Through Grief
Health
Dr. Kevin Cahill: Irish America Hall of Fame
Several buzzwords, not all of them kind, have been used to describe the current state of health care in America. The word that guides Dr. Kevin Cahill’s nearly 50-year career in medicine is ‘solidarity.’ “Solidarity is a wonderful Latin American word that means “Are you willing to get down in the mud with people?” he says. “So that’s why I stay practicing … [Read more...] about Dr. Kevin Cahill: Irish America Hall of Fame
News: Hospitals Admit Selling Organs
A number of hospitals in Ireland admitted they had taken glands without consent during post-mortem examinations of patients during the 1980s. The practice, which appears to have been widespread, involved the sale or donation of glands to pharmaceutical companies engaged in the manufacture of human growth hormones. A spokesman for Temple Street Hospital for children confirmed … [Read more...] about News: Hospitals Admit Selling Organs
Remembering Typhoid Mary
Pity poor Mary Mallon. Born in Cookstown, County Tyrone in 1870, she came to New York looking for a new life in 1883, but the life she found, from 1909 until her death in 1938, was confinement on North Brother Island, a spit of land between the Bronx and Riker's Island. What was her crime? Mary was the first recognized healthy carrier of the bacteria that causes typhoid fever. … [Read more...] about Remembering Typhoid Mary
The Unfortunate Legacy of Mary Mallon
Death and disease. Mystery and suspense. A lover's betrayal with controversial human rights issues in the mix. Nova's new documentary The Most Dangerous Woman in America has it all. The superbly directed film explores the difficult, painful journey from teenage Irish immigrant to respectable private cook to public enemy number one of Mary Mallon, a.k.a. Typhoid Mary. Through … [Read more...] about The Unfortunate Legacy of Mary Mallon