This Morning's Reading and Listening List

These days, I like to start my morning by listening to two podcasts before hopping on my computer - The Daily from the New York Times and Up First from NPR. These short podcasts give me the top stories. Often they report the same thing but not always. Today, for instance, The Daily discussed the conflict in Syria and the health care bill, while Up First discusses Cardinal Pell, a top adviser to Pope Francis who has been charged with sexual assault, and the parts of the travel ban that will be implemented soon (possibly today).

So now I'm on my computer and pulling up links to check out today:

• Anna Maria Barry-Jester of FiveThirtyEight reminds us that access to care is about more than insurance
• Also on FiveThirtyEight, Kathryn Casteel discusses the lack of good data to help us understand drug use in the United States; for instance, according to the CDC, heroin deaths have increased from 2000 in 2002 to 13,000 in 2015, but the National Survey on Drug Use and Health suggests heroin use has only doubled during that time, meaning the data could be wrong
• Michael Reed, who self-identifies strongly as a Christian, keeps destroying Ten Commandments statues on government property; he did it again yesterday at the Arkansas Capitol