A list of some topics that arose in our discussions during week one of the trip:
Flexner report – released in 1910 (~50% of schools closed thereafter)
Red Cross founding – founded 1863 (in response to the Austro-Sardinian war. Of course.)
economic mobility in the US – not great, as we suspected.
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2015/07/economic-mobility-in-the-united-states
unconditional cash transfers to the poor in low resource settings – JPAL study, in Kenya, showed good response (improved happiness, better access to goods) without increased purchase of alcohol, tobacco; again, only one study, so with a grain of salt.
http://www.poverty-action.org/study/impact-unconditional-cash-transfers-kenya
Whitehall study – double risk of cardiac disease from lowest to highest social strata within the British bureaucracy after adjusting for confounders (keeping in mind that relative risk increases are well and good, but absolute risk increases are more important)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitehall_Study
