Jan. 18: Laura Vanderkam ’01 Says Take Leisure Time Seriously

Cara Reichel ’96 said that when she was writing the musical The Hello Girls with her husband, Peter Mills ’95, she found “some sexist perceptions” that existed about the women who worked switchboards during WWII, but also “real positivity that they were helping in the war effort.” The show is playing at the Phoenix Theatre Company in Arizona. — West Valley View
 
New Yorker editor David Remnick ’81 wrote that a 21st-century U.S. civil war wouldn’t look like the one of the 1860s, but rather “scattered yet persistent acts of violence … carried out by extremist groups.” — The New York Times
 
Ladee Hubbard ’93’s The Last Suspicious Holdout, a collection of stories about Black people navigating a post-racial period in a “sliver of southern suburbia,” and Laura Coates ’01’s book Just Pursuit about her experience as a federal prosecutor are on a list of “Books By Black Authors We Can’t Wait To Read In 2022.” — Refinery 29
 
University of Michigan president Mark S. Schlissel ’79 was fired for having a relationship with a subordinate that violated university policy. — The New York Times
 
Internist Dr. Lucy McBride ’95 said doctors — including those who speak in the media — have a responsibility to frame the risk of COVID-19 reasonably with facts and science. “Fear does harm,” she said. — CNN
 
Former Indiana governor and Purdue University president Mitch Daniels ’71 said California’s new restrictions on the pork industry will be a teachable moment: “Folly in one place serves as a valuable caution to all the rest.” — The Washington Post

“I think a lot of us need to take our leisure time more seriously. A lot of people think they have no time so there’s no point in even thinking about it. That’s not true. Everyone has leisure time.”

— Time-management guru and author Laura Vanderkam ’01 on why we return to work exhausted on Mondays, and what to do about it. — Investor’s Business Daily

Economist Michael Spence ’66 wrote that the era of cheap manufacturing may be ending as the places supplying that labor become “middle-income” countries and the world’s supply of “underutilized labor” shrinks. — Namibia Economist
 
Democratic U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell ’86 of Alabama spoke on a CBS podcast about voting rights, voter ID laws, and growing up in Selma. — The Takeout

U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley ’80 tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating with very minor symptoms. — Reuters 

Jeff Bezos ’86 and Elon Musk both love the work of the Scottish anarcho-communist Iain M. Banks, an icon of science fiction, and it’s reflected in their interest in colonizing space. — The Week

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