Health Sociology

Twins Talk is an ethnographic study of identical twins in the United States, a study unique in that it considers what twins have to say about themselves, instead of what researchers have written about them. It presents, in the first person, the grounded and practical experiences of twins as they engage, both individually and together, the "who am I" and "who are we" questions of life. Here, the twins themselves are the stars.

Imagine you are a hunter-gatherer some 12,000 years ago. You've got a choice - carry on foraging or plant a few seeds and move to one of those new-fangled settlements down the valley. What you won't know is that urban life is short and riddled with dozens of new diseases; your children will be shorter and sicklier than you are; they'll be plagued with gum disease and stand a decent chance of violent death at the point of a spear. Why would anyone choose this? But choose they did.

On Feb. 12, 2008, at E. O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, CA, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney shot and killed his classmate, Larry King, who had recently begun to call himself "Leticia" and wear makeup and jewelry to school. Profoundly shaken by the news and unsettled by media coverage that sidestepped the issues of gender identity and of race integral to the case, psychologist Ken Corbett traveled to LA to attend the trial.

Retirement insecurity is an increasingly serious manifestation of the vast inequality that risks destroying the social fabric in America. The nearly inevitable consequence of lifetime wage discrepancies, security in retirement is linked to the kinds of jobs we hold during our work lives. That, in turn, is a product of all the forces leading to historic levels of inequality, forces that have protected the very wealthy, destroyed any hold on stability for the poor, and gradually eroded the security of the vast middle class.

From the author of The Epidemic of Empathy in Healthcare and The Good Doctor comes a book that explores how the persistent pandemic has revealed what excellence in healthcare truly means and presents an action plan to achieve it.

If you are tired of feeling sick and tired, now is your opportunity to take control of your health and unleash your natural healing potential with the resources and action steps you will learn in this book. Dr. Tim Smith, DC has made it his life mission to educate the public on the principles of real and natural health care for the transformation of people's health through the power of chiropractic and healthy living.

The Marvel of Martyrdom takes a broad perspective on self-sacrifice and martyrdom, bringing together religion, popular culture, history, psychology, and mythology. Stories of individuals both famous (Gandhi) and obscure (Rodrigo Rosenberg) intertwine with research on altruism, happiness, and radicalization to terrorism. The changing landscape of the book's setting - from The Roman Empire to 19th-century Russia to Nazi Germany to post-World War II India to present day Ukraine - makes the power of self-sacrifice and martyrdom come alive.

Our obsession with praise and blame begins soon after birth. Totally dependent on others, rapidly we learn to value praise and to fear the consequences of blame. Despite outgrowing an infant's dependence, we continue to monitor others' judgments of us - and develop what relational psychologist Terri Apter calls a "judgment meter", which constantly scans people and our interactions with them, registering a positive or negative opinion.

The poor die sooner. Blacks die sooner. And poor urban Blacks die sooner than almost all other Americans. David Ansell has spent nearly four decades as a doctor at hospitals serving some of the poorest communities in Chicago, and has witnessed firsthand the lives behind these devastating statistics. In

The Death Gap, he gives a grim survey of these realities, drawn from observations and stories of his patients.

Life and Death in Intensive Care offers a unique portrait of the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), the place in medical centers and hospitals where patients with the gravest medical conditions - from comas to terminal illness - are treated. Author Joan Cassell employs the concept of moral economies to explain the dilemmas that patients, families, and medical staff confront in treatment.

The Tall Book is a celebration of the tall-advantaged, which notes and explores the myriad benefits that come with living large - from the simple pleasures of being able to see over crowds at a parade, to the professional joys of earning more money, and having others perceive you as a natural leader. The Tall Book also offers well-researched explanations into the great unanswered questions of tallness, including: Why are people tall to begin with? How have tall people figured throughout history?

For more than 30 years, Hank Cardello was an executive and adviser to some of the largest food and beverage corporations in the world. For more than 30 years, he watched as corporate profits - and America's waistlines - ballooned: fattening consumers meant fattening profits. Now, in this fascinating and timely book, Cardello offers a behind-the-scenes look at the business of food.

Teen Spirit offers a novel and provocative perspective on how we came to be living in an age of political immaturity and social turmoil. Award-winning author Paul Howe argues it's because a teenage mentality has slowly gripped the adult world.

Sports fans, dads, and data analysts David Sikorjak and Ben Valenta argue that fandom can not only increase our sense of belonging but also serves as a powerful antidote to loneliness because sports fans experience increased social connection. What they didn't realize was how deep that connection was, the potential it carried for individual and societal wellness, or the opportunities it offered for adult friendships, making and keeping friends, and family ties.

Anxiety is a normal human condition. For most people, anxiety is temporary and manageable. However, for some people, anxiety can become acute and/or pervasive. The cause of this anxiety can come from a variety of sources.

You are about to learn everything about the secret healing powers of the vagus nerve to help you deal with anxiety, chronic illness, trauma, depression, autism, inflammation, and so much more!

In The Lonely American, cutting-edge research on the physiological and cognitive effects of social exclusion and emerging work in the neurobiology of attachment uncover startling, sobering ripple effects of loneliness in areas as varied as physical health, children's emotional problems, substance abuse, and even global warming.

Did you know that, for example, those born on June 4 (leap years) or June 5 (common years) are not only perpetual servants by character, and are flexible, try to please and anticipate desires ("the master is laughing - I'm laughing"; "the master is sad - I'm sad"), but also they will ask a great price of "the master" for being whoever the master wants to see? They are masters of illusions, lie with or without reason....

Susie Bright is a sexual liberationist of the highest order. The Sexual State of the Union includes essays about dirty pictures and porn, lesbian marriage and lesbian murder, lesbian men and switching genders, vibrators, and the longevity of feminism. The writing is crisp, intelligent, and provocative; there is sure to be something that will make you cheer as well as something that will deeply offend you.

A leading science writer examines how the brain's capacity reaches its peak in middle ageFor many years, scientists thought that the human brain simply decayed over time and its dying cells led to memory slips, fuzzy logic, negative thinking, and even depression.