Marjorie Cross

A poem about suicidal empathy

Just out: a fascinating collection of autobiographical essays by psychiatrists about how their personal struggles have intersected with their professional identity.

Editor Glenn Roberts is one of the pioneers of narrative-based approaches to psychiatry and psychotherapy.

personally-speaking.com

Home from SCS. Got free books. Missed my bed. Time to sleep 😴

After a convocation speech he gave about practicing kindness went viral, the writer George Saunders earned a public reputation for goodness — a narrative that he resists. On “The Interview,” Saunders explains how he’s just as flawed as anyone else. Read, watch or listen. trib.al/ZWKt6Gc

Audio long read: Will blockbuster obesity drugs revolutionize addiction treatment? Listen to an audio version of a recent Nature Feature.

Researchers are investigating whether GLP-1 drugs can help blunt cravings for nicotine, alcohol and opioids.

go.nature.com/496UaW0

To all our fans, all the best for 2026! Looking forward to more cricketing fun the world over in the next twelve months.

Resolutions Omar Sakr Tomorrow, I will address my flaws. Tomorrow, I will set the future to my tiller. Tomorrow, I will free Palestine single-handed. Tomorrow, I will save the coral reef. Tomorrow, I will destroy the saint within and leave only the human. Tomorrow, I will free myself of small delusions and entertain only the grand. Tomorrow I set my sights on kissing the moon's dusty cheek, if she will have me. Tomorrow, I will finally replace the old water tank. Tomorrow, I murder the mould in my house. Tomorrow, I adequately thank all who have lent me a hand, a kind word, a meal. It will take a thousand years. Tomorrow I live for a thousand years of gratitude. Tomorrow, I write a less embarrassing poem. Tomorrow, I scour my ego until it is perfect, small and shiny as a pickled egg. Tomorrow, remind me, won't you, to order my thoughts into a practical and functional list. Tomorrow, when my son is free of cancer, O tomorrow, then I will be able to plan.

Resolutions.

‘Even in the most unlikely places there is beauty’: stories of hope from newsrooms around the world From the construction worker who won a place at medical school to an art exhibition in a country with no galleries, we asked journalists for their most optimistic tales of the year

‘Even in the most unlikely places there is beauty’: stories of hope from newsrooms around the world

Thank you for your poetry. Caring thoughts to you, Hannah the baby and Nayirr.

YouTube video by Journeyman Pictures The secret history of Neoliberalism | The Invisible Doctrine | Full Film

Delighted to hear that The Invisible Doctrine, the film by @peterhutchison.bsky.social and @lucas-sabean.bsky.social, is being offered free to view on YouTube for the holiday season. It's all yours! youtu.be/gR4eSEetKP0

A Five-Step Guide to Combating Misinformation on Social Media How fear, profit, and cherry-picked data shape your feed—and what to do about it.

Medical misinformation and social media go hand in hand now. After a rousing chat with @caulfieldtim.bsky.social about his new book, I wrote my thoughts on a five-steop guide to recognizing and resisting medical misinformation. vajenda.substack.com/p/a-five-ste...

"A Five-Step Guide to Combating Misinformation on Social Media

#1: The Road to Misinformation is Paved with Supplements
#2 Read Before You Share
#3 Be Extra Mindful with Health Halos
#4 Check the Scientific Consensus
#5 Did the Post Make You Feel Like You Scored a Touchdown?"
#Misinformation ⬇️

Leadership, Surgery & Motherhood

'*Little* words, *little* statements make such a huge impact'. 👏

Fabulous podcast from @collegeofsurgeons.bsky.social
Miss Maria Satchi, Miss Tharani Nitkunan and Miss Tina Rashid with advice for everyone (not just women).
#MedSky #GenderEquity #ILookLikeASurgeon

The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carre, with a giant blurb by JB Priestly on the front.

When you got a good blurb and you want to show it off. cc @nickharkaway.com!

As Zohran Mamdani wins the New York election, check out our @empirepoduk.bsky.social special, an interview with his father, my friend the wonderful Professor Mahmoud Mamdani on his family's history in East Africa & their journey to America. Zohran zindabad!
share.google/RS4MWp65kxNy...

YouTube video by The Moody Blues - Topic Watching And Waiting (Remastered 2022)

#KillerTunes
#MusicChallenge

Day 17: Sadako (The Ring)

The Moody Blues - Watching And Waiting

Health progress in a post-COVID-19 world The COVID-19 pandemic upended global mortality and morbidity. COVID-19 was ranked as the number one age-standardised cause of death globally in 2021 but by 2023 had dropped to the 20th cause of death ...

“These papers lay out for the first time a comprehensive description of health in the post-pandemic world.”

📄 A Lancet Editorial provides an overview of 3 new articles, presented at the @worldhealthsummit.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/yke8vh56 #WHS2025 #GDBStudy @ihmeuw.bsky.social

“Opportunity depends on our health […] This Commission identifies adverse foods and adverse food environments as the often unacknowledged barrier to health, opportunity, and justice.” - Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet, opens the 2025 EAT–Lancet launch.

Livestream here ➡️ bit.ly/3VKhnaz

A long-awaited consensus statement on inflammation and heart disease
"We have thus entered an era when the evidence linking inflammation with ASCVD is no longer exploratory but is
compelling and clinically actionable."
@jaccjournals.bsky.social open-access
www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/...

Research Assistant at UCL Recruiting now: Research Assistant on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

We’re hiring! We’re looking for two RAs to study neuroplasticity in sight loss, sight rescue and development in children and adults @ucl.ac.uk using a wide range of neuroimaging and behavioral methods. Please help spread the word! Apply by 16 Oct! t.ly/q3aYe #neurojobs #NeuroSkyence

A passion for prevention Introduction by Croakey: With decades of experience as a nurse, working in diverse settings across the United States and Australia,

A passion for prevention – meet Denise Lyons, President of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association.

www.croakey.org/a-passion-fo...

#PHCmatters
#HealthReform
#ScopeOfPractice

A Visit To Freya Stark, Travel Writer. “I have no reason to go, except that I have never been, and knowledge is better than ignorance. What better reason could there be for travelling?” Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia

Today we pay a visit to Freya Stark, the woman who made travel writing intimate rather than imperial.
“To awaken quite alone in a strange town,” she wrote, “is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.”
themadridreview.com/f/a-visit-to...
#travel #travelling #travelwriter #travelblog

AI and Democratic Publics

everyone who believes that AI will fix democracy: Read this piece by @himself.bsky.social‬ ‪@hahrie.bsky.social‬

knightcolumbia.org/content/ai-a...

A tenet of Fascism is keep repeating lies and people will become so confused about what is the truth that they’ll start to believe them. We all have a responsibility to keep repeating the truth in the face of politically-motivated lying. Don’t just roll your eyes, speak up.

Audio long read: How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI Listen to an audio version of a recent Nature Feature.

This week's audio long read: How to detect consciousness in people, animals and maybe even AI

Scientists are searching for awareness in all its possible forms — insights from human brains could inform that quest.

go.nature.com/4n2Jk8T

I’m sharing it too

Raising questions about governance of Primary Health Networks, and the balancing acts involved

Raising questions about governance of Primary Health Networks, and the balancing acts involved www.croakey.org/raising-ques... #publichealth

To Build A Fire - a brilliant short story by Jack London First published in 1908, To Build a Fire has been called the finest expression of naturalism in American short fiction. A stark and unforgiving tale of survival, it tells the story of a solitary man w...

Read the brilliant Jack London short story 'To Build A Fire' on the blog today #nature #thewild #wilderness #jacklondon #shortstory #fiction #klondike #history
themadridreview.com/f/to-build-a...

An international primary care workforce: addressing the ethics beyond the red list In March 2025, the Nuffield Trust published a report1 that examined ‘Health in the UK after Brexit’. This highlighted the instability of the UK healthcare workforce following the end of free movement ...

One of the things that the UK, a country that has led the world in general practice and family medicine, can do in collaboration with doctors in the red-list countries

bjgp.org/content/75/7...

#BJGP #GPworkforce #RedList

A lot of people dismiss those whose beliefs are rooted in misinformation as uneducated. As Uyi Omoregie and I discovered researching our book, Misinformation Matters, even a PhD is no protection against conspiracy theories: you're convinced your intellect makes you better able to see what is 'true'