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Thoughts on Retirement, MIB Style
Sena alerted me to an article about the 28th anniversary of when the first Men in Black movie hit the theaters in 1997. The author praises it and says it’s still pretty good. I can’t remember the first time I saw it, but it was probably not in 1997. I was in my second year…
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Svengoolie Show Movie: “Tarantula”
I watched the Svengoolie show movie “Tarantula” last night, although I fell asleep for what turns out to have been about 20 minutes or so during the second half hour of this 1955 film about radioactive nutrient producing a giant tarantula. I had to catch up on what I missed on the Internet Archive. Don’t…
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CDC ACIP Highlights on Covid 19 Vaccine
There was a lot to digest in today’s CDC ACIP meeting on Covid-19 vaccines. I missed the morning sessions but managed to see a few of the afternoon presentations. The presentation by Dr. Retsef Levi, PhD, MIT, ACIP Work Group Chair, the Covid -19 Vaccine Discussion Framing Work Group (WG) was basically pretty critical of…
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University of Iowa Physician Wins Lasker Award!
How about some good news? This just in, University of Iowa Physician-Scientist, Dr. Michael Welsh, wins the 2025 Lasker Award for his research on cystic fibrosis. His work and the work of two other researchers with whom he’ll share the award set the stage for the development of new drugs which saves the lives of…
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Rounding@Iowa Podcast: “When to Suspect Atypical Recreational Substances”
There’s a new podcast in town from The University of Iowa Health Care and the title is “When to Suspect Atypical Recreational Substances.” This is a fascinating topic and the discussion ran for close to an hour, which is longer than usual because there’s a lot to say about it. The substances include a lot…
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Community Psychiatry Podcast: Shelter House Iowa City, Iowa
I just discovered this Community Psychiatry Podcast site today. A couple of days ago Dr. Emily Morse, DO, of The University of Iowa Health Care gave a 20-minute interview that outlines how the psychiatry department leverages community psychiatry outreach to address the challenges those experiencing homelessness face. Introduction: “Emily Morse, DO, is a Clinical Associate…
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In Memory of Leonard Tow, Founder of the Tow Foundation and Humanism in Medicine
I just found out that Leonard Tow died on August 10, 2025. In humility, I express my gratitude and respect for his creation of the Tow Foundation, a big part of that being the Humanism in Medicine Award, of which I am one of the many recipients over the years. I hope this great tradition…
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Success of Johnson County Civil Mental Health Court in its First Year
I’ve been looking for other ways that Iowa addresses mental illness and its impact on homelessness and other adverse outcomes since my last post on the issue. It turns out that, despite Iowa ranking 51st out of all U.S. states for the low number of psychiatric beds according to the Treatment Advocacy Center statistics (in…
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It Takes a Village to Tackle Homelessness: What’s Iowa Doing?
After I read Dr. Dawson’s post today “More on homelessness and violence as a public health problem,” it got me thinking about what the situation on homelessness of people with mental illness and substance use disorder is here in Iowa. First, I looked at the 2024 Iowa Homelessness Needs Assessment, which is a thorough report…
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A Small Update to a Pseudo-Rap YouTube Video and a Big Tribute to Dr. Robert G. Robinson
I just noticed something about one of my YouTube videos that I made sort of as a combination gag and educational piece about pseudobulbar affect. It needed a couple of updates—one of which is minor and which I should have noticed 10 years ago when I made it. It’s a pseudo-rap performance (badly done, I…
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