[This blog will always be free to read, but it’s also how I pay my bills. If you have suggestions or feedback on how I can earn your paid subscription, shoot me an email: cmclymer@gmail.com. And yes, I am available for speaking engagements.]
Folks, I’m starting a new feature on my blog. Every Monday morning, I’ll be sending you five items that I hope will start your week off right, give you a smile, make you laugh, make you think, and just make you feel good.
Because the current state of our world—and particularly our country’s politics—is, well, pretty fraught, I figure we can all use a breather from stressful news items and pay a bit of attention to some of the good happening around us.
It’s called Five Things You Should Know, and I hope it makes your Monday mornings a little brighter and more bearable moving forward.
1. Caitlin Clark Becomes All-Time NCAA Scorer
When Caitlin Clark was in 2nd grade, she wanted to play competitive basketball, but her father couldn’t find a girls league. So, she joined a boys team at her grade level and wound up winning the state tournament that year. Some parents on other teams protested that girls shouldn’t be permitted to play on boys’ teams.
Yesterday, Ms. Clark became the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, for both women and men, when she overtook Pete “Pistol Pete” Maravich, breaking the legend’s iconic record that had stood for more than half a century.
This is the crowning individual achievement for Ms. Clark, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest college basketball players of all-time. Along the way, she’s won every award at the collegiate level and shattered attendance records in arenas across the country.
2. The Voice of the NYC Subway System is a Trans Woman
Since 2009, if you’ve taken the subway in New York City, chances are pretty high that you’ve heard an authoritative yet comforting voice guide passengers around town and offer friendly advice. For millions of New Yorkers, that voice has become something of an institution in their daily lives.
It belongs to Bernie Wagenblast, who initially built a long career as a radio journalist before being hired for her voice by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority more than 15 years ago. She also now records announcements for New Jersey Transit and the Kennedy and Newark airports.
Ms. Wagenblast came out publicly as a trans woman in 2022. Her journey is extraordinary and makes me smile.
I deeply admire her.
3. Medical School Will Be Tuition Free After $1 Billion Donation
Last week, Ruth Gottesman, a former professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, announced to that institution’s student body that tuition will be now be free, thanks to her donation of $1 billion, thought to be one of the largest individual financial contributions to a college or university in history.
Dr. Gottesman credited her husband, David “Sandy” Gottesman, a Wall Street investment banker and former board member at Berkshire Hathaway, for the enormous amount of the donation. He passed away in 2022. They had been married for 72 years.
The video of the audience reaction to Dr. Gottesman’s announcement is a must-see.
4. CVS and Walgreens Will Begin Selling Abortion Pills This Month
On Friday, the two largest pharmacy chains in the country announced they would begin selling mifepristone, the abortion pill, in its stores this month. It will initially be offered at Walgreens pharmacies in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, and California and at CVS pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Both chains plan to expand access to the pill in a slow rollout beyond those states over time where abortion is still legal. It will not be accessible by mail.
There’s currently a pending case regarding mifepristone on the Supreme Court docket that’s shaping up to have far-ranging consequences for reproductive freedom, FDA regulations, and much more. A date for oral arguments in that case has not yet been set.
5. I’m Speaking at the 2024 SXSW Conference & Festival This Weekend
Every March, a few hundred thousand folks gather in Austin, Texas for the better part of two weeks to take part in the latest and most trendy topics in politics, tech, education, music, film, and television.
It’s an enormous and exciting gathering, and I’m lucky to be taking part in it this year, alongside Prof. Robin Maril, Willamette University School of Law; Andy Marra, Exec. Director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund; and Ricardo Martinez, CEO of Equality Texas, the state’s largest LGBTQ rights organization.
The four of us will be discussing LGBTQ rights in the context of the 2024 election in a panel entitled “Defending Democracy: LGBTQ Activism and Power in 2024.”
Unfortunately, it will not be live-streamed, but I encourage folks attending SXSW to come to our session and learn more about our goals in the fight for equality this year.
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