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New Year, Similar Problems
19 Plays3 years ago
Happy 2022! Come join us as we talk about the new wave of the pandemic, some celebrity tea, and health topics to keep at the forefront in January. Plus, a new tip from Aldwin’s Financial Corner*!
*We are discussing traditional IRAs vs Roth IRAs, and which may be more beneficial at different levels of training.
We would love to hear your thoughts! If you have a question or a comment about any of the topics discussed in our show, email us at podcast@snma.org and your question may appear in our next episode!
Disclaimer: The opinion and views expressed on our podcast do not reflect the official stance of Student National Medical Association.
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Transcript
Joining the SNMA Board
00:00:00
Speaker
Are you a natural born leader? Do you have a passion to serve? Do you want to foster change in your community? Then consider joining the SNMA Board of Directors. Learn more about the roles and responsibilities of the national board positions at snma.org forward slash page forward slash elections committee.
00:00:27
Speaker
Applications are due January 30, 2022 at 11.59 p.m. To submit your electronic application and or if you have any questions about the application process, email elections at SNMA.org. Now, let's start the show.
New Year's Resolutions Discussions
00:01:04
Speaker
Happy New Year's, y'all. Welcome to SNMA Presents the Lounge. Whether you're in the student lounge, doctor's lounge, or lounging around at home, get ready to join SNMA for meaningful conversations on topics affecting minorities in medicine and groups that often sit at the margins of healthcare. I'm student Dr. Isabella, and in the spirit of a new year, let's talk about our resolutions.
00:01:26
Speaker
What is one New Year's resolution you have? I can start. So for me, I think my resolution has really just been to
00:01:38
Speaker
keep an open mind this year, like with everything that I do, because I'm transitioning into a new phase of my medical career, which is going through the clerkship year. And so that requires just a lot of like patients, as well as just a lot of learning about things I've never really done before or seen with my own two eyes. And so then there's just a lot of expectations that comes with the year. So I think just trying to like be
00:02:06
Speaker
as present as I can, despite maybe all of the responsibilities is important for me. So that way I can make an informed decision, you know, when the year is over. Yeah, so that would be my one year or my one new year resolution. So what about you guys? Hey, it's student Dr. Erica Dingle. I have no resolutions this year. That's my resolution.
00:02:28
Speaker
Wow. Drop the mic. That is very important. That's powerful. I feel like... She is perfection. Oh, stop it. No, sir. You know when you just, every year you do the same thing? That's facts. I just... No. Oh, that's my biggest resolution, y'all. No. What about you, Alvin?
00:02:52
Speaker
Yeah, what's good, everybody? I'm student Dr. Aldwin. One of my, actually I got two, one of my resolutions are number one, match into my number one choice for residency. Oh, I love it. And then get my second investment property is my other. So just trying to manifest, right, these goals, you feel me? Like trying to get this back, money outside of medicine. You feel me? That's the way of the future.
00:03:18
Speaker
So you know what time it is? Tell them what time it is.
Running the List: Current Events in Medicine
00:03:22
Speaker
Gang, what time it is? It's time to run the list. For our preclinical students, running the list on awards allows a team to address pressing matters of the day. In this segment of the show, we'll be discussing some recent events in medicine and beyond, affecting our communities and the populations we served.
00:03:43
Speaker
So think about it, when we wrapped up our 2021, we gave a shout out to some of the legends that we lost, you know what I mean, during the year. But then also, we also had someone that we lost at on December 31st, 2021, right before the new year started. A legend in the game, the golden girl, one and only, the last one remaining, Betty White.
00:04:04
Speaker
had a crazy successful eight year eight decade career as an actress and entertainer and then she held up the space for African Americans at a time when no one else would and she even got a documentary that's coming out on January 17th a hundred year documentary you know based off of her life you know I mean fortunately she didn't make it to January 17th but her legacy her legend lives on forever and
00:04:26
Speaker
I wanted to ask you guys, like, how do y'all feel about that? I mean, we lost so many people, including Betty White. But like, it's just crazy. Like, Sidney Poitier, shout out to him. Yesterday died as well. I mean, it's just so saddening, you know, our legends that, you know, we hold dear to us now is just leaving us. But of course, leaving a legacy and a mark on us forever that we could carry with us.
00:04:47
Speaker
Right. I mean, Betty was she was revolutionary in all ways that a person could be revolutionary. And it's actually just crazy to think that she even lived for as long as she lived or whatever. I think you mentioned, like, you know, the golden age of Hollywood. You have to mention Betty and just the fact that, like, you know, with
00:05:06
Speaker
With her platform, she also used it to lift up others, especially those who didn't even have, you know, the power to be able to uplift themselves at the time. So I think that's just that speaks to her character. And that's why she lived clearly as long as she lived, because her is like, like, you know, we don't leave. I believe that most of us do not leave or all of us don't leave unless our time on this earth is done. And I think she did everything that she needed to do. So, you know, rest in peace to Betty.
00:05:33
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with both of you guys. They had both of them. Sidney Poitier and Betty White had amazing careers. So big shoes to fill with the current Hollywood's elite. I don't know if we'll ever see people like those like them rather, you know, when it comes to the impact they made in Hollywood. But hopefully, right. Here's hoping fingers crossed.
00:06:03
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Oh, that's true. Shout out to Sidney Poitier as well. You know, I actually the first thing I ever watched from him was a guess who's coming to dinner. And I think that's just like that's that's I would say that that's like one of those like century turning movies that like the culture.
00:06:20
Speaker
moving forward. So yeah, rest in peace to him as well. He definitely has he's definitely just like Betty, a life and culture shifter in his in the career that he had. And you know, we're grateful for the time that they spent on this earth.
00:06:37
Speaker
Yeah, big up to the Bahamas man, Sidney Poitier, he was a civil rights activist, he was outside in the community, even when during it threatened literally his whole career, you know what I'm saying, his fan base, and the respect and, you know, kind of recognition that he received
00:06:53
Speaker
especially during the civil rights movement. But he said, you know, bump that just like Muhammad Ali. Like, it's bigger than me. It's bigger than an individual, right? It's about enforcing, you know, the integrity and having access to critical issues that blacks need to have access to. And so I really respected everything that he's done.
00:07:10
Speaker
And like Erica, like you said, like ushering in people that have a revolutionary thought and mindset, it's so rare to find that, you know what I mean? Including Betty White too, right? Like bringing in a black dancer, even when it threatened her career and she lost the opportunity to offer that. Where are those people, you know? And so they gave us a sample of some of the things that we need to incorporate as people, especially as physicians. We're not just about that medicine wave too. We're above and beyond that too. There's other things we could contribute. Absolutely. I dig it.
00:07:41
Speaker
And in addition to bringing in 2022 with unfortunate, I won't say untimely, cause you just said Isabelle, right? Like if they lived their lives into their nineties, you know, they likely fulfilled their purpose. But accompanying that is this God forsaken coronavirus we thought was
00:08:08
Speaker
Do you remember when we started the show? Yep. We were like so adamant about coronavirus going away. And I think we even said like, it's not going to be here, y'all. Come the start of, what was this? This would have been the start of 2021. I don't think we anticipated talking about it. Well, no, I'm talking about last year. I don't think we anticipated talking about it throughout the year, last year.
00:08:38
Speaker
And here we are again. And it's just crazy. I know so many of us on our podcast team have had it recently, including myself. And, you know, shout out to everybody who's recovering. We love you. We're praying for you. Get better soon. Thank you. But this new Omicron variant
00:09:01
Speaker
B1, B.1.1 or is it I? For all these damn numbers, it's mad numbers. It's just too much, which was first detected in specimens collected on November 11th
00:09:18
Speaker
last year in Botswana and on November 14th last year in South Africa. And then the first confirmed US case of this Omicron variant was identified on December 1st. And until
00:09:37
Speaker
Is it currently like the Omicron variant accounts for like 95% of the cases? And it's just so much because then you have, if that's 95% of cases, a lot of people
00:09:52
Speaker
That's just the people that are testing. There's people that haven't even gone to the doctor's office or wherever you don't get tested at this point. Is it? Do you go to urgent care? Do you go to a test center? You know what I'm saying? There's so many avenues. And at home kits too as well. Thank you. Some of them have been given false negatives too and false positives. So there's a lot going on overall. And then the CDC. Yeah, go ahead. And I was going to say, I think what's crazy is just like, you know,
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah like how with tests like a lot like I think I take for granted the fact that like I have easy access to testing like through my school and some people just don't even have that and so the fact that like you know you have people have to go and like get at home tests just because they don't want to infect like their loved ones or people that they're around constantly right because like it's important if we say that we want to like contain the spread and like help this variant you know like
00:10:49
Speaker
transition on out of our current society, even though, you know, that's not really how it happens, but at least not have it be such a big factor in terms of these new cases, like it's going to take awareness that you have it because we know that this goes asymptomatically. But then how do you do that when testing is just
00:11:06
Speaker
Like when testing is just, you know, like not really accessible for everybody. So I think that's going to be another challenge. How do we keep testing active for all people or, you know, like available for all people so that way we can move forward with this Omnicron little devil.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's wild. I mean, one of one of our members here on the podcast stated that one of their schools is not accent allowing them access to university testing. So what does that mean for the specific institutions and the spread of actual virus? Like, do you not care about the welfare of your students?
00:11:44
Speaker
right, especially at your medical school, especially the fact that they're encountering they're in the wars in the hospital and outpatient clinics, so many patients they're coming across, they may be potentially bringing that to their actual, you know, home or their community.
00:11:59
Speaker
I mean, and again, we talked about a little bit about this, but when we talk about like this, you know, CDC and their regulations and in regards to, you know, testing, now they're stating that, you know, if you essentially, it's just like really weird because we were at 10 days now, right? And now they're talking about five days you could quarantine and you'd be straight. If you got boosted and you got back, then you could go out there. Even if you, you know what I'm saying? If you have symptoms and all that, it's like, it's really a revenue plug, right?
00:12:27
Speaker
I know residency programs and things that are like that they got a lot of people that are having symptoms, but they're like, Oh, we need you to work. You the foundation of this hospital, like we got to make this bread. No, where does the morality rate running out of stimulus checks? Clearly.
00:12:44
Speaker
The PPP loan ain't working, you know what I'm saying? Ain't no more PPP loan. That's what I didn't work at all to begin with. No, it's crazy though. They have these people working and whether they are symptomatic, well, I know if you are symptomatic, it's the five days, but they're asking people, I saw an article yesterday. There is a hospital, I want to say,
00:13:10
Speaker
And somewhere in New York where if if you are Not symptomatic and have tested positive. They still want you to come in. Yeah. Wow That's just because they're just they're tired Everybody's tired
00:13:34
Speaker
I was tired. Remember when on the last episode, I was telling you, it doesn't matter what happens. I'm going to, she's going through Vegas and she doesn't care. Stay in homes, stay in school. I didn't like, I was tired.
00:13:51
Speaker
I love it. I wasn't doing not even half of what the CDC said. And thank God, you know, I tested recently and I have, you know, I tested negative to cope. Listen, I was right. I was there with you. I was there. I was like, yeah, I was watching his stories like she's going to dinner. He's going this and that like turning up. I'm not. You feel me?
00:14:15
Speaker
It's hard to be where you were, you know, and I was living vicariously through you because actually I was living with you because I was doing the same thing. Meanwhile, I was all hemmed up. Got to be as safe as possible, but you know, did you think I was like, it's looking slow once those plane tickets. Plus, I was like, whatever happens, it happens.
00:14:41
Speaker
It's above me now. It's above me, I'm sorry. Clearly, COVID is not going anywhere anytime soon. I'll do what I can, but you know what? I was really relying on my vaccine for the most part. I was flying on faith with her, so she didn't get me through. I don't know what was going to happen.
00:15:04
Speaker
I was laughing at the fact that you called your vaccine her flying on paper. She's a part of me now, you know, we're rolling through 2022 together, because you don't know what this year is gonna bring, you know, with all this COVID stuff. So yeah, it was definitely riding on faith. But you know,
00:15:23
Speaker
I can completely understand why the CDC has done what they've done. Do I think it's the
Impact of COVID-19 on Medical Education
00:15:29
Speaker
best choice? Not necessarily, but at this point, I'm just wondering how feasible is it going to be for us to continue the same protocol that we had before Omnicron, given that these variants are coming out of the woodworks. Like I said, I think we're running out of government funding, we're running out of support.
00:15:46
Speaker
Like what are we gonna do from like what's left to do from your perspective? I mean, you know, it's about you mentioned the CDC like how trustful are we are the CDC when they're creating these new mandates out of thin air with no substantial evidence to indicate a Person is non-infective at certain dates, right? I mean look at Europe right now. They're saying seven days in Europe, but here's five days So how do y'all feel especially in y'all circles? Like what are people saying about the CDC like being in a medical environment like I
00:16:15
Speaker
I mean, there is just this inherent distrust of medical systems in general in the communities and circles that are frequent because we're black. So, you know, I mean, I feel like
00:16:40
Speaker
We're all just kind of watching it happen at the same time. And I think the CDC is just like, you know, they try to, we don't know how they're thinking, but it's, you can joke about it and say, you know, I feel like they tried to mandate stuff in the beginning and now they're just kind of like, whatever we try. Here's, here's what y'all are going to get now. Um, lots of moving parts across the board.
00:17:05
Speaker
is no, I don't know. I mean, I feel like it's for me, it's definitely like affecting like a little bit of the medical education, right? And that is something that's also going to be affected is like medical education moving forward because you have less cases that can be actually
00:17:22
Speaker
like done during this time. Like I've seen even at the hospital that I'm at right now for the surgery rotation, you know, they've had to cancel so many surgical cases, especially the elective ones, because they just can't really risk that extra exposure. And I think you definitely have to have a clearance of a negative COVID test before they can even operate on you on top of that too. So it's definitely it's just changing a lot, right? Like,
00:17:43
Speaker
To me, this is, like I said, another mimic of what we experienced early, like, the 2020 time when this virus was so rampant and things were just changing out of the woodworks. I mean, like I said, the only difference is that we're not surprised this time, right? And we actually have some things in place that we can use. But I do think that, like, it's just things are going to change. Like, that's just what it is. And I'm hoping that
00:18:12
Speaker
I have nothing left to say about this. What are we supposed to say at this point? It's another day, but the same story, essentially. I'm gonna keep living my life. I hope that...
00:18:27
Speaker
my co-hosts continue living their life to the best that they can. I hope I am going to do that. All right? There's no gray areas. You don't got to worry about it. I know y'all are living. But listen,
The Legacy of 'Insecure' Series
00:18:39
Speaker
people like me, right? We've had this discussion on the show before. I have older parents. You know, some people have kids. We inside. And while we were inside,
00:18:51
Speaker
at the end of 2021, we were inside watching Insecure. So shout out to all of the programming that kept me company while I had COVID. COVID took me down, y'all. So shout out to the programming that assisted. And I'm not
00:19:11
Speaker
I know I think is you're more of an insecure fan. Oh, yeah. And I am right. We had some we have some dialogue about it. So right. We've been we've been rolling in secure since she started, you know, she has been this is just so surreal that the show has actually ended because when I think about like,
00:19:29
Speaker
all the barriers that insecure in terms of just in the TV industry and just in terms of black stories in general that are told, you know, we we they loved struggle stories before, right? They loved like, oh, and there's nothing wrong with that. Right. Because like that is what being black is. It's a combination of everything. There is struggle that's associated with it. There is as well resilience. And there's also just like normal life. Like what happened to just being black and normal and just like literally existing in your space
00:19:57
Speaker
as a Black person, and I think that's what Insecure captured the best was that Black people just existing, living their lives and just trying to navigate this world the best that they could, but not necessarily just because that they're Black, but because they're a human being, first and foremost, who happens to be Black, and this is their situation. So I think Insecure did a great job of that. I suggest if you're listening to this and you haven't watched and you're a big fan, you haven't watched up to the ending,
00:20:24
Speaker
I suggest, you know, you kind of fast forward through this part, but we got it. We got it. We got to keep it rolling. So basically just to end off things, if you watch insecure, you should know that at this point for the last season, she was kind of dealing with her two
00:20:42
Speaker
options, two male options that I guess you could say that she had, one being the partner that she had the longest before that whole situation where, you know, she cheated on him, they broke up back and forth, like on and off type relationship here and there. And then this man, so I'll say it's Lawrence, you know, he then impregnated another woman when they weren't together. And that kind of just changed up everything.
00:21:07
Speaker
And so now, Issa goes back to another male option that she had, Nathan, who she had met, kind of, I think, was it like season two or three? He was dealing with his own personal issues, you know, he had bipolar disorder. And he just, you know, he was a transplant to LA from Houston. So he was just kind of like, you know, different from, I think, what she was used to. But she clearly had a lot of love and care for him. So but then because he
00:21:33
Speaker
he was kind of dealing with his own stuff that kind of messed things up with her and him as well at some point. And so somehow some way like after Lawrence impregnates this woman and decides that he's going to end up being a father and like this is going to happen, you know, somehow Easton and Nathan find their way back to each other.
00:21:51
Speaker
But, you know, a lot of people, if you're on Insecure, you know, Twitter, a lot of people just felt like it looked forced, like Issa and Ethan just weren't, it wasn't giving the, like the, what's it called, like the chemistry that Lawrence, yeah, that Lawrence and Issa had on screen. So all of them were just like, man, this is forced, like what's going on here? I mean, for me, like, I originally thought, you know what, I think this is what she needs right now, because listen, if you don't, if you don't need baby mama troubles,
00:22:18
Speaker
that you just don't need it. And I just don't think you should do something you're just not ready for. So I supported Issa choosing herself in that moment and being like, you know what? This is something that I really want to take on right now, especially like this is a newborn. The baby's just like, he's going to have to be there a lot of the time, right? If he's going to be involved in this baby's life. So I think Issa just felt like this is just not something, these are just this, basically like Jordan Woods, I don't want your situation. So she decided to move forward with Nathan.
00:22:46
Speaker
However, you know things happen life happens, of course Nathan is like trying to balance Keeping up with like how can he? exist in his society and amongst his friend group like knowing that he has bipolar disorder and like trying his best to like Be an active I guess friend partner whatever and at times that kind of conflicts with his relationship with Isa and so, you know, I think in the end it comes down to
00:23:12
Speaker
You know, there's a big there's like a big thing that happens the episode before the finale where like Nathan and Lawrence really get into it. Um, they argue and Nathan, she's like, you know what? Like, this is too much for me. I don't need this. Like, and he decides to exit. Um, and so now at this point, it's just Isa herself and her, her girlfriends. And, you know, they kind of speed through a couple of years using the birthdays as like a time point thing. And, uh, she ends up finding her way back to Lawrence. Um,
00:23:39
Speaker
And, you know, I think she comes to a point where she actually is ready to, you know, be in this relationship with him exactly and accept his situation. And I think before she had said that, you know, she had kind of like been the person where she just already said, this can't work for me without trying. And now she was in a position that she was willing to try and see, can this work? And, you know, let's assume I think we can assume that it's worked. I mean,
00:24:04
Speaker
The best part to me out of the whole finale was that Molly got married. I had very little hope for Sis at some point. So I'm so happy to see that she actually found her like her dream guy and like somebody who actually is supportive of her and like somebody who actually like, you know, can tolerate or be like, yeah, just kind of like be present for everything that she is because, you know, Molly's like she's such a dynamic character and she just has so many different like personality traits. So I was just thinking, man, what man is Issa going to drop from the sky for her? And she really found the
00:24:34
Speaker
perfect person. So I'm so grateful. But yeah, that is pretty much in a nutshell, like what happened for insecure ending. So I don't know if everybody liked how it ended. Some people said, Oh, like, you know, they're not sure if she should have just ended up with Lawrence like that, or if that is that like really realistic. Personally, I think it was fine. But you know, I'm interested to hear what you guys think in terms of like, how do you think the ending? How was the ending for you? Like, do you agree with what happened? Are you happy about it? Or what?
00:25:02
Speaker
I'm coming from a perspective I haven't watched episodes in season two so I did watch the last episode and I think like the last episode underlies the tones of redemption and acknowledging that there's no perfect situation for every single body you know what I mean like and that's okay but if you find perfection in the imperfection
00:25:23
Speaker
then that's perfectly reasonable, I think, for so many individuals, and finding strength in that there are billions of people out there, but there's also somebody out there for you. And if you feel entitled and empowered with the person that you're with, as we've seen, you know what I'm saying, with Issa Rae, you know, and Lawrence, I think, in that situation, initially, she wasn't with it. But then she realized, like, he makes me happy. And
00:25:45
Speaker
Maybe I'm not necessarily happy with having a child. That's not for me in this situation. But maybe I also will learn and attribute certain values to myself in this experience. Maybe I'll learn more about myself, how to become a mother, right? Because potentially, eventually, they may have children. I mean, we don't know what's going to happen. Obviously, that's the last episode. But I think that she learned that it's OK to accept things that most individuals will question, you know, if you love a certain individual.
00:26:13
Speaker
And so I think it was a great episode. I love especially the ending when she's like riding down, rolling around through LA, and they're going slow motion. And she's seeing a dude at Best Buy. And she's like, that was more than she was at Best Buy working there when he's trying to get his life together. And then it's like, now he's balling. He's doing his thing. He's holding his son down. And he's holding her down. We've made it so far. And also, Isabella, when you talk about celebrating Black success, I think that,
00:26:41
Speaker
especially in this new day and age, like, Insecure has kind of emblazoned that and kind of, you know, represented that in so many different ways in terms of we are not just actors, actresses, like, even within the actual group of the people working there, you got lawyers, entrepreneurs, you got so many successful people that we could resonate and connect with and also celebrating black love, right?
00:27:03
Speaker
being entitled to coming back, you know, like going to who you love, being part of the community and contributing to something even greater than ourselves. I really love that aspect about the show. And so it really, it was really heartwarming,
Antonio Brown and CTE Concerns
00:27:16
Speaker
you know, unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on, I feel like they could have done more seasons, but maybe, you know, she's moved other projects. She just wants to move on. Yeah, that's what it is. They could have done more, but, you know, but yeah.
00:27:31
Speaker
I mean, I haven't watched this episode for a while. So y'all pretty much summed up how I feel on both sides of the fence. But one thing I really.
00:27:42
Speaker
I can appreciate is how this entire venture created opportunities for literally people that were students at the time. I remember she did, Issa Rae did, it was some kind of contest like come pretty much submit some work and you end up working on the show.
00:28:03
Speaker
young girls are now like show runners for other shows. Love it. And this is, these are people in our community. I don't know if you guys watched that. It was like a documentary, the kind of like the after show where they go into, it was just, it was beautiful to see. Like it was just beautiful to see. Like that is each one, reach one, giving back. Right. So.
00:28:31
Speaker
Issa, Issa guided in my book on that, on that for real. Shout out to Insecure, man. It changed, it changed our TV culture. So, so grateful to Issa for that. Yeah. That's interesting. You said it changed our TV culture because I agree.
00:28:49
Speaker
But I haven't heard that in a while. Mad alone. Talk about the costumes. We usually talk about, you know, Fresh Prince kind of thing. Fresh Prince, right. I don't know about family matters so much, but that's insightful.
00:29:09
Speaker
He's iconic. Yeah. I'm just thinking of shows that people like. Yeah. Yeah. But that that's that's a that's major to hear that. So, you know, who's also a, you know, cultural icon who's been going through some unique situations and circumstances. Our boy, or maybe not your boy, but, you know, Antonio Brown.
00:29:36
Speaker
Now, he ain't my boy. There's something as fast I can't agree with. But we're not talking about that today. But we are talking about the fact that Antonio Brown recently, at a game, during the middle of the game, essentially, he took off all his attire, his football attire, and basically, his chest was all out. And he ran through the field and was saying, what up? Just getting hyped by the crowd. And this is right during the actual play. You know what I'm saying?
00:30:04
Speaker
And it's interesting to see how immediately after the game, the Bucks coach was like, you fired Antonio Brown. And subsequent to that, he releases an actual mixtape, an actual song. And not discussing what happened at the actual game, but it's like he had all these things
00:30:22
Speaker
thought about. And so the discussion around this is, does he have CTE? You know, especially when you are in so many pronounced situations that have happened recently last month or about two months ago, NFL player killed himself and his wife. And even in the last couple of years, we've seen, you know, demonstrably after an NFL player dies, they dissect the brain and look at it and it has huge incidences of CTE.
00:30:51
Speaker
And so this begs the question, psychiatric and mental health, you know, it has caused a rocky career in his actual career. And during this game, he was sidelined for half of the game. And I read actually today that he actually had a doctor's appointment that basically it was just very, there was a lot of confusion about the doctor's appointment. The Bucks thought that he misses doctor's appointments. So they were trying to punish him, but he's like, now it's trying to move the doctor's appointment because it didn't fit with
00:31:20
Speaker
my actual timing for that specific day and so it's a lot of gray air it's a lot of back and forth i'm trying to really figure out the story honestly and it's i don't know man but i want to hear you guys thoughts on ct impacting a lot of our a lot of the nfl players and what's going on and you know
00:31:38
Speaker
overall, what does it mean for our society? We talk about little children, right? There's a study that came out 11 to 14 year olds, when they have actual concussions, when during that specific time period, there is no indication that they have learning disabilities while they're 11 to 14 years old, but they don't know what happens after that, if you feel me. So what are your thoughts on that?
00:31:59
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think I first got exposed to what CTE was through that movie with Dr. Bennett O'Malley. And CTE is definitely one of those silent diseases. It's a degenerative brain disease that's thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head and repeated episodes of concussion, right? So this is usually that's found in athletes, military veterans, people whose careers have had to involve a lot of traumatic brain
00:32:30
Speaker
injuries, essentially. And so, you know, football players, we don't think about all the time, but literally, that's their entire, that's their entire, like, career is, like, taking blows to the head. And so, but the tricky part about CT is that it's not something that's just gonna, like, appear, like, on a, on a CAT scan, right? Like, it's something that's, like, happening internally, and usually people don't even see it until, like, they do an autopsy.
00:32:52
Speaker
So I think there does need to be more awareness about CTE and like how, I'm not trying to say we got to throw away maybe football or throw away whatever, but I don't know if there's any possible way to like, you know, kind of improve whatever gear that these people have to, you know, wear when they're playing, you know, there was a lot of controversy that came with
00:33:10
Speaker
Like, what do we do, especially when CTE came out? Like, a lot of the NFL company was hiding it. Like, they were hiding these cases. Like, this is money, right? Like, we live in a capitalist society. Their money comes first. And so I think it's kind of sad that there's so many, like, victims who are probably living with it, maybe don't even know they have it, and, like, it's causing them to not even function the way that they want to function. But, yeah, I think that, like, I'm so grateful that that movie came out and that, you know, now we have more awareness about CTE because I think it does affect a lot of our athletes as well as our veterans.
00:33:42
Speaker
But I think Antonio Brown's situation is very sad, and I hope that they treat him before anything fatal occurs, because we've heard about a lot of fatal cases that have happened with CT, like you said, the football player who ended up killing himself and his wife. And I think the movie may have even documented other situations similar to that as well. But it's disappointing.
00:34:05
Speaker
having someone so public in the limelight and seeing that is disappointing.
Summer Walker's Album and Celebrity Transparency
00:34:10
Speaker
We have other people in the limelight too who are going through it and we're seeing it firsthand. Some of them are putting it in albums that are even being more specific about these situations, but Summer Walker is somebody who's actually been trending recently since her new album, still over it. So if you're a fan of over it, well, Sis is still over it.
00:34:35
Speaker
So she pretty much just kind of took us into her life with London on the track and everything that went wrong with that situation, right? She knows that she was the fourth baby mother. We kind of talked about this during our run the list meeting. But I told you guys, I'm trying my best to sympathize with this woman.
00:35:02
Speaker
Just because, you know, she and this album, you know, talked about, you know, London not being there, whatever, like leaving her to fend for this pregnancy alone. He had a ring for her, blah, blah, blah. That then she even went on her social media recently and she started accusing him of like posting their daughter just for clout and that he doesn't even have a bed for his own daughter. So, you know, like, wow.
00:35:31
Speaker
I'm sorry, this is supposed to be funny, but it's like, what is going on? I just know myself, when I'm with somebody who has a past like London, I'm running in the other direction. But somehow, some way, we're supposed to sympathize with her situation.
00:35:50
Speaker
I don't know. What do you guys think? Because I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to, you know, I'm very sympathetic, but you know, I can't. I listened to some of the album and it's crazy. She has an actual title track, fourth baby mama on there. And the first, the first song she got Cardi B on there talking about, I don't know what's going on with, you know, you know, Summit Walker.
00:36:12
Speaker
But, you know, I hope the best for whoop doop doop doop. So you say you mentioned people being, you know, the limelight center of attention, people really tuning in to every all the drama and everything. And I really feel like she got a lot of issues going on that she got to address, but I don't think she got to address them in a such a personal and public way at the end of the day.
00:36:31
Speaker
Instead of putting all your, and I understand people say music's my outlet, it's my therapy, but I think there's certain details when you wanna talk about you have a whole child with another individual that you trying to criticize and antagonize him, but when she grows up and she listens to this actual album, she gonna be thinking like, damn.
00:36:48
Speaker
Ma, you ain't really show love to like, I know he did his own thing, but mom, you were like really disrespected like pops. So how's she going to feel toward that individual? It might cause conflicting views because he might be like, I love, you know, I love my kid. Like I'm a show. I'm a show my kid love. Whoop, doop, doop. They listen to like.
00:37:06
Speaker
that are you really who you say you are? And then it causes diversion because you're saying you're the fourth baby mama, instead of saying I'm the mother of this individual. It's like, all right, what about the three other women that your kids gonna have half children with, right? It's not gonna be a complete home, but you gotta kinda help facilitate a very entangled, positive situation for everybody that's involved, even though he made it entangled enough.
00:37:31
Speaker
But I'm just saying that at the end of the day, it's just not looking like you're not perpetuating or portraying the right ideals as a woman. But I think, you know, I'm not here to judge her, but I am here to say that she has had several instances where she's went off in the past, in the public limelight, and she does have a lot of demons that she has to face. And so this brings the issue of a lot of celebrities, a lot of women that are listening to this album, that the album's dope. I ain't going to lie to you. Like, I really love the melodies. I love the songs and all of that. But it brings the issue of
00:38:01
Speaker
What do you do to heal through trauma, right? What are the best ways, the best interventions, right? And how do we adapt to set situations over time, especially when we talk about black women and, you know, the trauma institution, racism, and all of these things that occur in our day lives, you know what I mean? Or women's lives.
00:38:19
Speaker
That was a good question in terms of healing through trauma. I'm just trying to think back in the day, because this isn't a new emergence of African-American female singers, rappers, whatever. What did they do back then? Because music was so different and struggle was real, if not more real back then.
00:38:46
Speaker
We're over here arguing about, not us arguing, but this is a for baby mama discussion on an album versus legit struggle back in the day in music. You know what I'm saying? It just makes you think to your point, all of them like,
00:39:07
Speaker
how do you how do you handle your trauma? Were they just not handling trauma back in the day then? Or, you know, is this is this how you do it? Is this just put it on an album? You know, instead of having a diary, like I remember that, you know, that's right. Well, that's how that's how I feel like people used to get stuff out, you know, writing this cathartic. So I guess it's cool to put it
00:39:36
Speaker
on an album, but it's not in my taste. Not the one that your baby father is producing. I'm sorry, because now this man is making money off of your your pain. That's just so contradictory to me. But I do see like, yeah, I see what you're saying, Erica, in terms of like, yeah, like, we get the point. But I don't know if the point was. I don't know if she hit it. Anyway, she already moved on. Larry is on her forehead. So apparently he's the new stepdad.
00:40:04
Speaker
right? Or whatever. Okay. So yeah, but you know, she, Summer's, her, she's, whatever she's doing, all right, we gonna, we gonna keep watching her and making sure that sis is all right, moving forward. Because like I said, I'm a big fan of her, but we'll see. So I guess we gotta continue monitoring that Summer Walker situation.
Celebrity Scandals: Tristan Thompson
00:40:21
Speaker
But listen, she's not the only one out here just making
00:40:24
Speaker
just, you know, just doing what they feel like doing because Tristan Thompson, who I thought I was going to stop seeing this man's name in the news for nonsense. But for some reason, you know, he's still he's still coming up with or his name is still showing up with very controversial situations revolving his relationship with Khloe Kardashian and
00:40:46
Speaker
Apparently he's now quote-unquote he made this announcement as if he didn't know that like when you have unprotected sex with a woman This is what happens. She was he was like, oh, it's been confirmed that I'm the father of Marlene Nicole's baby who was born last month like, okay like I'm sure this is not a surprise to you, but thanks for making us feel like you know, it was a surprise and
00:41:07
Speaker
Basically tried to issue this public apology to Chloe blah blah blah the same thing. He's the same ring around right Starting with what happened with the Jordan Woods situation, right? He's always gotten himself into some nonsense But what I couldn't understand from this situation is like the way Chloe just turned up on Jordan Woods over a kiss But it's crickets now that he's the father of this new child. So what do you guys think about that? Cuz uh, yeah, I don't I don't know It's a lot going on with that. Like I ain't gonna lie like
00:41:37
Speaker
At some point, you gotta have some integrity as a man and for you to continuously like disrespect your woman, it's not acceptable. No matter how much public apologies, you know, it would be public, private, like you making her look like a fool and you being her man, like you gotta do better and set a standard, not only for yourself, but also for your children.
00:41:55
Speaker
when they grow up or even now when they're looking at, you know, Tristan Thompson, how he moving. I mean, prior to this couple of months ago, like a year ago or so, you were spotted with like two women, you know what I'm saying? And they was groping you doing this and that. And you're supposed to be with Shorty. So it's like, I can't respect what he got going on, you know, doing that outside of your marriage and doing that outside of who are they married or in a relationship? My bad. Yeah, they're not married. I know that thing. Girl, Erica, you look like you are.
00:42:27
Speaker
Well, no, because I always said, you know, and
00:42:33
Speaker
I'm sorry. No, there's nothing bad. There's nothing bad. Oh, you said that he's making her look like a fool, right? With his actions. She's making herself. She's she's allowing herself to look like a full box. I am like, elevate, elevate the sisters. Right. Right. That's true. What are you doing? Sister girl. Well, no, but I'm just. Let me let me.
00:42:58
Speaker
I said sisters. I'm about to say, I'm about to go off. She's a woman. I support women. She's a Kardashian at the end of the day. I know everybody hates them or loves them depending on the moment.
00:43:24
Speaker
they go go run your beauty business pajamas business and get somebody else that actually care. It's just real. That's for everybody. Like you said with the name she should have men on on speed like you should have you know, and not to say that that's that's really how it is but like
00:43:44
Speaker
I don't think they associate themselves as commoners or as regular people of society, so I'm assuming that it would be easier for her to dip if she wants to leave the situation. I don't know what's keeping her there. Maybe true is what's keeping her there, but I still think that she is making herself... I mean, like I said, I lack sympathy for her because she wanted to turn up on a 20-year-old girl at the time over a kiss.
00:44:10
Speaker
You know, and now it's like, you want to like, I've heard nothing. She said nothing about the situation that's happened with him impregnating this new woman. Like, why? Why come now you're silent? Is it that you wanted to, like, tear down a black woman because you know you can get away with you? Like, you know, I don't know. Like, it's I don't know. It could have been proximity to because wasn't Jordan like a friend of her sister or something? Yeah, she was she was close to Kylie Jenner. So that could have also been that could have been part of it as well.
00:44:40
Speaker
Anyway, it's a lot going on in Hollywood, and these people that we tend to keep track with what's going on in their lives. It's probably better if we don't at this point because they just did. I don't know. They're not making much sense. They ain't putting no money into my account, so a lot of times, I'll be involved in engagement, but at the end of the day, we got to also focus on ourselves, the energy that we put into others, they're not necessarily manifesting to what we got going on.
00:45:06
Speaker
Dope, not dope, whatever's going on. But remember guys, you control your destiny, you control your actions, your thoughts, the way that people react and the way that you react to situations, you know what I'm saying? So stay genuine to yourself and be true to whatever you want to accomplish.
00:45:21
Speaker
Well, you guys know we are a medical podcast to a certain extent, right? It's the SNF course. We come with the gossip and the entertainment, but we also have a number of health matters issues.
00:45:44
Speaker
that plague the populations we will intend to serve, right? In our futures of medicine.
Health Awareness: Glaucoma and Cervical Health
00:45:52
Speaker
And there are two we want to specifically discuss with you today and bring some awareness to.
00:45:59
Speaker
So January is National Cervical Health Awareness Month and Glaucoma Awareness Month. And specifically regarding glaucoma, it's like a silent disease, right? So more than 3 million people in the United States have glaucoma. And according to the National Eye Institute,
00:46:22
Speaker
projects or projects, sorry, this number will reach 4.2 million by 2030, a 58% increase. That's a lot of people. It's known as the the sneak thief of sight, since there are really no symptoms. And once vision is lost, it's permanent.
00:46:48
Speaker
And I realized that this was National Glaucoma Awareness Month. As a childhood friend of mine who's approaching 40, did a post about it on social media and mentioned some of her symptoms, pressure, thought it was sinus pressure, et cetera, and come to find out.
00:47:10
Speaker
the beginnings of glaucoma. So she's being followed and treated. Um, but it's just, it goes to show like 40 is not old by any means. Um, so if you're not getting your eyes checked and having your eye pressures tested, that's something you might want to consider doing. Um, and honestly, glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness among African Americans.
00:47:36
Speaker
and among Hispanics in older age groups, so. Talk about the populations we serve. Again, six to eight. I feel like all of us have to at least know, I feel like all of us have to at least know one person who has glaucoma. I've definitely like grew up knowing one person with it. It's so common, like more common than we think, you know? Six to eight more times more common in African Americans than Caucasians, so. Like, if you were in a room full of black people,
00:48:05
Speaker
Yeah, what's the likelihood, right? That's super important, so thanks for touching on that, Erica, because I do think we need to discuss, you know, these disease pathologies that affect, like you said, the populations that we will soon be serving. Another, you know, we already mentioned, of course, too, cervical health awareness, that's also very important.
00:48:22
Speaker
important as more than 14,000 women in the US are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer each year. And HPV or human papillomavirus is actually the most commonly sexually transmitted infection in the US and it's actually the cause of almost all cervical cancers in women.
00:48:37
Speaker
I think there is a HPV vaccine that is available for people to get. I personally haven't gotten it yet, but I think that is something that I want to look into, given its prevalence is so high, especially if you are sexually active, unless you know your partner's history, that is pretty important. Or even if you don't, even if you do know your partner's history, it's something, another added thing you could have for protection.
00:49:02
Speaker
The best way to prevent cervical cancer, of course, is to get this HPV vaccine. So if this is something that you feel you could relate to or something that you feel could be helpful towards you, I would definitely recommend. I think it would be a great recommendation to look into.
00:49:18
Speaker
getting that vaccine. But yeah, that we hope that January will be a reminder for everyone who's listening to continue to remember those who either at risk for or who have glaucoma as well as cervical cancer. And yeah, but that is pretty much our run the list, guys. I mean, we've touched on a lot. And I think that we have a lot to sit with
00:49:42
Speaker
this 2022 year. And, you know, we hope that all of you guys listening take into consideration everything we said and send us your thoughts. All right. You know, so you know what time it is, you know, the financial corner. We on the corner. Are we? You feel me? This is a we definitely do. We definitely do. But we don't work on
Understanding Retirement Plans: Roth IRA & 401k
00:50:05
Speaker
that. But I think, you know, something that target, you know, oftentimes, again, we talk about this
00:50:10
Speaker
In medical school, we don't know how to empower ourselves. We don't learn about negotiating contracts. We don't learn about how to, you know, be, you know, fired, you know, financially independent. And I want to retire early. So that's what I call fire. But one of the ways we think about today, right, we think about, like, how much better we got today, how much debt, how much we manifest in today. But we also got to think about our future, right? What are our retirement plans like? Because we're not going to, well,
00:50:39
Speaker
Hopefully we don't have to work all of our lives being physicians and the like entrepreneurs and the like. We also got to think about how, when we retire, what are the opportunities that are gonna avail us? Social security ain't gonna last us, right? They have a couple hundred dollar checks. It may work, it may not work. You gotta entire yourself. You gotta empower yourself to be like, yo, when I reach this age, this is how much money I'm gonna have in this bank. And this is how I'm gonna live. I'll be able to travel. I'll be able to take care of myself.
00:51:07
Speaker
I'll be able to maybe give out some bread for scholarship money. I may be able to go see my grandkids, et cetera, et cetera. And so with that being said, there's something called the, you know, Roth RA. And then we also got something called the traditional Roth. And these are investment accounts where you put in money each and every year, each and every month. And the money that you put into the accrues, it gradually accrues over time, you know, with interest.
00:51:33
Speaker
And these are both accounts where when you do retire, you can take out the money and utilize that for whatever case may be. So let me talk to you guys a little bit about the difference between the Roth RA and the traditional Roth. It's pretty simple. So the Roth RA, when you talk about Roth RA, essentially you put down money every month. And that money is immediately taxable versus the traditional Roth. It's not taxable.
00:52:00
Speaker
with a traditional Roth, what they do is once you retire, or typically, once you hit 59.59 and a half years old, when you're ready to take the money out, which is when they allow you to take the money out without any penalties, they'll tax that immediately. Versus the Roth RA, they'll tax that as soon as possible. So we as medical students and residents
00:52:22
Speaker
you know, one of the things that they say or suggest is that because we're going to be in a low tax income earning bracket, you know, which is currently on a federal level at 24%, versus someone that's an academic family medicine specialist, right, you're making $200,000, they tax that person at 32% currently, right.
00:52:40
Speaker
So with the Roth RA, they'll tax you less early on in your career. You're already taxed, right? You tax at a lower level. So why not tax me at that lower level when I am a medical student or a resident, right? And I get to keep turning them out. But as I gradually go on, I could transition to the traditional Roth where I'm gonna be taxed at a higher level, right? You feel me? They tax early on and you get to recoup a lot of the bread. So think about it from this perspective, right?
00:53:09
Speaker
Roth RAs, right? You can put $6,000 per year in a Roth RA, right? If you're under 50 years old. Once you hit over 50 years old, you could put $7,000 per year. With the 401k, you know what I'm saying? Roth RA 401k, you could put 19,500 in 2021. In 2022, you could put 20,500. And now,
00:53:34
Speaker
next year is going to go up. You know what I'm saying? For those that are 50 years or older, so, you know, they say being 50 or getting older, there's no benefits to it. There is real benefits because you can put more money into your 401k. You feel me? 26k in 2021 versus 27k in 2022.
00:53:52
Speaker
So I say that to say, we got to think about investing ourselves today, right, for our future. It's not about, you know, being able to get these clothes, being able to, you know, get this new car today. It's all about what you want to manifest when you hit 65 years old.
00:54:07
Speaker
and you're not really or 70 and you're not really working, you got to be able to substantiate your life. And again, so security is not going to necessarily take care of you have to take the initiative to be in that position where you don't have to worry about day to day activities. And of course, some people envision my kids going to take care of me, I'm gonna be this and that like
00:54:25
Speaker
You can't guarantee any of that. What you can guarantee is a money moves that you make. You can't guarantee your thought. You can't guarantee your mindset and the way that you approach certain situations with your money. Psychology is money, right? So the thought that you got about money is a thought that you're going to manifest with the money that you have.
00:54:43
Speaker
And so I want you to approach it from that perspective, educate yourself, read about it. You know, 401k, the traditional RAFA versus the RAFA 401k is important to have these values set. So when you hit residency in particular, it's so important because a lot of emergencies, they will match. So if you put
00:54:59
Speaker
For instance, $200 on your, you know, raw 401k, your residency, sometimes they'll match 1%, they'll match 10%, you know what I mean? 1% or $200, it's $2, but it's still bread that they're giving that's free, so it adds up, you feel me?
00:55:16
Speaker
So that's something even for myself that I'm looking at, at residencies. Like, how much are these residency programs willing to contribute and put in onto my, you know, Roth 401k? So, Aldon, quick question. So, this Roth 401k, you know, these are all terminologies that I'm hearing for the very first time in my life.
00:55:34
Speaker
I have heard of a 401k, but I'm wondering like, say for the perspective of like, say a medical student, like, you know, us, what would be the difference? Like, is this life insurance that we're talking about? Or is this different from life insurance? No, it's different from life insurance. So life insurance, you get a policy and it covers you for a certain limit and it allows you to get disimbursed a certain amount since certain things happen over
00:56:02
Speaker
you know, a plan. But with this, this is actually retirement account money. You know what I'm saying? So this is funny that you basically saving up but that you'll have access to when you retire and it'll come directly to you. The only difference is whether it's taxable early on, or that they tax it later on.
00:56:18
Speaker
And then differences is, you know, how much money you making right now for us as med students, we're, we're going to be in a low tax, but we're relative. It's still pretty high, in my opinion, but relative to someone that's like hitting retirement age, you wouldn't want them to put, get into the Roth. You know what I'm saying? The, the Roth 401k, you probably do a traditional Roth. You know what I'm saying?
00:56:41
Speaker
So with that being said, I think just thinking about retirement and our future is just as important as thinking about the now and what we're trying to manifest. But there's something to look at even into residency, even into when you're negotiating contracts, like if they'll match your employees. And the beautiful thing about this is that it carries over. So
00:56:58
Speaker
Well, if you have residency at one spot, that's cool. But, you know, your, your Roth 401k or traditional Roth, all right, it carries over to other places. So it'll follow you along. That money is not going nowhere. It's going to state it and it's going to appreciate over time. You know what I mean? So appreciation and value is so important for our community. And we, you know, unfortunately don't have enough knowledge and unfortunately don't have enough knowledge in medical school.
00:57:21
Speaker
about ways that we could protect ourselves in the future and create a satisfying environment for ourselves and our children and our communities.
00:57:31
Speaker
Right. Well, that was helpful for me. I've learned a lot of new things that I had no clue about. I don't know if the same thing is true for you too, Eric, or if you have any further questions. That was really good, Alduin. I appreciate you dropping that financial knowledge on us. No doubt. Financial corner, I think, is one of the
00:57:53
Speaker
I want to be like more, I mean, we do run the list, right? But something that brings value because this is not taught unless you've worked and actually read the documents that they give you when you start a job, which talk about 401ks, Roth IRAs, et cetera, then this isn't something that you commit to memory.
00:58:18
Speaker
So very invaluable, invaluable? I mean, it's valuable. I ain't trying to diss you. I feel like this needs to be a curriculum, like included in curriculum in some way, shape and form because
00:58:37
Speaker
people mess up their money every year. And there's no reason for us to not know about this information from the start of medical school as adults. That's so true. That is so true. Kudos to you. Thanks. Financial advisor. We love you over here at the podcast. I appreciate that. I love y'all too. Well, anyway, so
00:59:02
Speaker
That's our show. So thanks so much for joining us for this episode of The Lounge. We appreciate, love y'all, y'all family. It's been an amazing, dope episode. Now let me tune it into Erica. Hold it down. Let us know your thoughts about the discussions we had today or ask us a question for a chance to be featured on consults by emailing us at podcast at SNMA.org.
00:59:32
Speaker
And be sure to follow the SNMA on all our social media platforms to stay up to date on upcoming events. Thank you guys so much for listening. We hope you enjoyed the show and we will see you next episode.