Thomas R. Frieden

By KATE MURPHY


Thomas R. Frieden is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and previously served as New York City’s health commissioner.

READING I recently read Jared Diamond’s latest book, “The World Until Yesterday.” It’s a fascinating cross-cultural analysis of everything from child-rearing practices to nutritional issues. Diamond shows how the world looks different to different people and that one view is not necessarily more correct than another. For example, the frequency of corporal punishment in a society correlates strongly with the type of food production. Hunter-gatherers are more permissive while herders, who can’t afford a mistake with their animals, tend to be stricter.

I love baseball and as a lifelong Yankees fan look at the coming season with some dread. I recently finished Alan Schwarz’s book “The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics.” It has a great perspective and insight into the complexities of evaluating performance and shows how this has been debated for more than 100 years. Looking at numbers certainly isn’t the same as watching games but on the other hand it’s only after looking at the statistics for a long period of time that you are able to recognize patterns. I think there are some parallels to health statistics, and Alan Schwarz is now actually writing about public health, which is how I met him.

LISTENING I enjoy classical guitar — Christopher Parkening and Andrés Segovia. I also recently took my 9-year-old fishing in Florida, so we had some long drives and we had a wonderful time listening to Donald Davis’s stories. His stories are funny and nostalgic and have good lessons about life.

WATCHING I enjoyed the film “Brooklyn Castle” — an inspirational true story about kids in an inner-city school in New York City who found their way through the game of chess. I also recently watched a BBC video, “Our Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of a Cell.” It’s largely animated and shows how viruses invade cells. And when I get a rare free moment, I catch up on the 20 years of “Simpsons” episodes I’ve missed. I’ve never admitted that in public before.

FOLLOWING The C.D.C.’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which I get to read and comment on before it is published each week. It’s the C.D.C.’s way of communicating with the world. Every week we have key information about emerging trends and diseases as well as about programs that are working and not working in this country and abroad. One of the things we’ve been highlighting lately is that prescription drug overdose is an epidemic that now kills more people than motor vehicle accidents.

ILLUMINATING My wife recently gave me a Mighty Bright LED book light that’s great — very light and bright and useful. LED is a great technology. We’re using it more in medicine here and around the world as low cost, long lasting and effective lighting.


Kate Murphy is a journalist in Houston who writes frequently for The New York Times.

//www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/opinion/sunday/what-the-brain-can-tell-us-about-art.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print