What I’m Reading
July 18, 2023
The last What I’m Reading featured positive stories. Today, I’ll share again two upbeat examples, a different and important profile that marries music and religion and a science article on the state of medical research. The beginning, however, is reserved for a more earnest topic: Ukraine. The visual story I found touches on an important element of the conflict: the toll on children.
War and the Children
I scaled back on losing myself in serious, graphic, and very emotional journalism. There’s just so much happening every day in so many places. As important as it is to take notice, and as important as journalism’s coverage of it is, it’s also important to find the right balance. And that’s an equation everyone needs to figure out for themselves.
But A Boy’s Life on the Front Lines by Lynsey Addario grabbed my attention immediately when I looked through The New York Times recently. And I believe everyone should hear this war story.
Addario shares a powerful multimedia portrait of an 11-year-old Ukrainian boy and how the war has changed his life. It’s a story that stresses the emotional toll of war — especially on children.
A series of videos and full-screen photographs await you. Short and effective text passages appear as overlay as you scroll down. I love that format. As a slight negative: I wish the videos would have sound. That would elevate the story another notch.
I won’t write more and simply hope you give this beautifully reported and documented slice of war reporting a chance. It’s emotional, not too graphic, and focuses on the most important aspects of this conflict: the effect on ordinary people and how they try to survive to see a better tomorrow.
Different Profile
The Christian Pop Star Bringing Latino Evangelicals to the Pews represents a profile that’s as interesting as it is different.
Marcela Valdes, for The New York Times, shows us the world of a musician. But it’s not your typical A-Lister, which is what interested me the most.
Valdes and photographer Maridelis Morales Rosado unite music and religion while acquainting us with singer-songwriter Marcos Witt.
I particularly enjoy the descriptive writing and the unusual perspective.
Witt seems to be as much a preacher as he is a musician. And, even if you — like me — may have never heard of him or his music, he is a successful artist. He simply sits outside the typical channels and sells most of his music directly to his fans, a form of distribution that doesn’t make it into official statistics. By his estimates, he’s sold 27 million albums in the last 40 years and has sold out concert venues across South and North America.
The goal of his concerts is to “bring people closer to god,” as the writer states it. His audience is mostly Latino. But he wants faith to be diverse and hopes his music services unite people.
Witt’s “inclusive approach” contrasts current trends in evangelical circles. And he decided to stay out of politics since the day one politician in Washington promised him support for an immigration bill and then voted against it.
Whether the religious angle is your wheelhouse, this profile is a valuable read; because of its unique angle on the profile genre and because of the inclusive practices of the man it shows us. I hope you find it equally enlightening.
Innovative Times
Today’s final recommendation is a short science read called Suddenly, It Looks Like We’re in a Golden Age for Medicine.
David Wallace-Wells, again for The New York Times (sadly, I don’t have a gift link for this one article at the moment), looks at the potential developments in medicine. One of the researchers he quotes says we live in an “extraordinary time of accelerating discoveries.”
It’s an interesting and positive read that sorts the current developments in medical research, from CRISPR (gene editing) to the exciting opportunities that mRNA (besides COVID vaccines) offers.
I particularly enjoyed seeing the question of global access being included, with an emphasis on ensuring that “technologies get where they are needed most.”
That’s all the reading recommendations for this week. I’ll write about observations from digitizing the journal of my month in Ghana on Thursday. Until then, enjoy your readings.
