Hello, and welcome to Issue #35 of Iserotope Extras! Articles this week are about race, gentrification, books, teaching English, and smoothies. Even if you don’t live in San Francisco, please read the first article. It’s disturbing, but it’s deep. The rest of the articles are solid, too. Hope you enjoy them!
Death by gentrification: the killing that shamed San Francisco
Two years ago, a man named Alejandro Nieto was killed by police in San Francisco. In this article, Rebecca Solnit (who introduced the term “mansplaining”) draws connections between Mr. Nieto’s death and gentrification. Though Ms. Solnit’s writing relies on anecdotal correlations, this article is a must-read. It brings up big questions, like, What is public space? and Who gets to live here? It also reminds us that if we call 911, we’d better have a good reason.
Moneyball for Book Publishers: A Detailed Look at How We Read
It’s common knowledge that if you read on a Kindle, Amazon knows exactly what you’re doing: which books you’re reading, how much, and how quickly. Now a consulting firm in London is taking similar data and helping publishers market new books. (It turns out that most of us buy books, but few of us finish them.) In addition to raising privacy concerns, this trend may mean that books get shorter. (See what author James Patterson is doing.)
I like physical books, but in most schools, they end up tossed randomly inside cabinets next to tall, handmade ceramic bowls. (This is why I like Kindles.)
We Don’t Mean to Ruin Smoothies, But…
Do you like smoothies? Are you a juicer? Ever since I was 12, I have railed against fruit-as-liquid in all forms. (I like orange juice, though.) Better to eat the fruit than drink it, right? This Mother Jones article offers more evidence why my claim is true. It’s all about the sugar, apparently, and too much fruit sugar too quickly is like eating cookies. (I like cookies.)
Why Podcasts Like 'Serial' Are Helping English Teachers Encourage Literacy
Podcasts are way popular right now, and I’m a big fan. (I subscribe to about 30.) This article, by high school English teacher Michael Godsey, points out that having students listen to a podcast while reading its transcript (aka “same-language subtitling”) increases immersive reading and enhances comprehension. I gotta say, this is intriguing, and I’ll be encouraging my colleagues to try podcasts out with their students.
Thank you for reading this week’s issue, and thank you for being a subscriber. If you have thoughts about any of the articles this week, please reply to this email and let me know!