Howie and Harlan are joined by Stephen Latham, a Yale School of Medicine senior research scholar and the director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. Stephen reflects on his journey to a career at the intersection of law and medicine, and explains why the legal definition of death is becoming less useful in an era of rapidly advancing medical technologies. Harlan unpacks recent analysis of smoking rates in the U.S.; Howie contextualizes recent accusations of Medicaid fraud in New York.

Show notes:

Smoking Rates

"Tobacco Product Use among U.S. Adults, 2023–2024"

"Smoking rates are at a historic low. You're not hearing about it from the government"

"Cigarette Smoking is Down Nationwide, but Not Equally Across All Groups"

Stephen Latham

American Medical Association

American Medical Association: Code of Medical Ethics

Oregon's Death with Dignity Act

"Harvard's grade inflation experiment"

"Professors face grading dilemma: too many A's, little taste for limits"

"Harvard University Plans To Delay Its Cap On A Grades For One Year"

"Cellular recovery after prolonged warm ischaemia of the whole body"

Uniform Determination of Death Act

Cleveland Clinic: Organ Donation and Transplantation

Bexorg

"Bexorg: The Yale Spinout That Figured Out How to Keep Brains Going Outside the Body"

Brain Perfusion - An Overview

"Political Theory, Values and Public Health"

"AI-guided CAR designs and targeted pathway modulation to enhance multi-antigen CAR T cell durability and overcome antigen escape"

"Conscience, Disobedience, and Standard of Care"

Medicaid

"Trump administration admits a glaring error in its accusations about New York health care fraud"

"5 Key Facts About Medicaid Program Integrity – Fraud, Waste, Abuse and Improper Payments"

"Medicare Program Integrity and Efforts to Root Out Improper Payments, Fraud, Waste and Abuse"

IRS: The tax gap

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Stephen Latham: The End of Irreversibility