Reason.tv: Virginia Postrel on Health Care Reform & The Role of Glamour in Politics

Former Reason magazine Editor in Chief Virginia Postrel has seen the strengths and the shortcomings of the American health care system both as a kidney donor and a breast cancer survivor.

She argues that individuals should be free to sell their organs, and that encouraging organ markets may be the best way to save the lives of the more than 100,000 Americans currently awaiting transplants. A 2009 article Postrel wrote for the Atlantic Monthly highlights her experience with the ultra-expensive wonder drug, Herceptin, and the perils of centrally controlling health care costs.

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Postrel to discuss organ markets, wonder drugs, and how to reform health care without squashing innovation.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Hawk Jensen and Paul Detrick. Edited by Paul Detrick. Music: "Something New" by Very Large Array (Magnatune Records).

Approximately nine-and-a-half minutes.

Glamour is "not just about movie stars," says Virginia Postrel.

The Editor in Chief of Deepglamour.net and former Editor in Chief of Reason magazine points out that glamour, which originally meant a literal magic spell "that promises to to transcend ordinary life and make the ideal real," is especially powerful when applied to the world of politics.

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Virginia Postrel to find out how glamour fuels voters' expectations, which modern political figures are glamourous (Barack is, Sarah isn't), and why glamour is both an advantage and a burden.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Hawk Jensen and Paul Detrick. Edited by Paul Detrick.

Music: "You Got Something" by Grayson Wray (Magnatune Records).
About eight minutes. Scroll down for embed code and downloadable versions.

Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions of all our videos.

Subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel and receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

And come back to Reason.tv March 15 through March 19 for the debut of Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey: How to fix the "Mistake on The Lake" and other once-great American cities, an original six-part documentary series.

Comments

[Anonymous Backstabber]

Drink!

[nobody]

God, this interview would have been so much better if Postrel was still around.

[spooker]

What does such a homely person know about glamour?

[Ratko]

I give up, what's Obama know about glamour?

[ed]

This magazine was much better when Postrel had both kidneys.

[Crid [CridComment at gmail]]

Fucker.

[Cyto]

"She argues that individuals should be free to sell their organs, and that encouraging organ markets may be the best way to save the lives of the more than 100,000 Americans currently awaiting transplants."

National Geographic apparently disagrees. They just had an extensive article about transplant tourism, particularly in India. Although it did touch on both sides of the argument, the slant was decidedly against free choice in this matter.

Their take was illustrated with photos of poor rural men showing their scars from kidney removal. They presented people who they felt were exploited and didn't get more than a couple of months living expenses and maybe some drugs out of the deal - no life changing business start-ups.

[paul hughes]

do you think that maybe if there was a market in the US for organs people would not be going to India and "exploiting" those poor rural men?

[amf]

That's what scares me.

[Brett Knoss]

One thing about radiation treatment is the sale of isotopes. Currently few people make isotopes one of which is the Chalk River reactor in Ontario which is old and unrelaible and there are plans for new reactors. There are cheaper solutions like cyclotrons but these are not being looked at by the Candian government. I belive a big part of the solution would be to de regulate the sale of isotopes and allow numerous companies to run use energy reactors to make medical isotops or universtities to use experimental reactors or to have comapnies which use cyclotrons and pump out hundreads of pounds of cheap isotopes.

[BakedPenguin]

If bio-"ethicists" and their allies would stop fucking with cloning research, it might be possible to clone organs from sample tissue. This would get rid of the issue once and for all.

[yonemoto]

i think reason should hire justin raimondo for a column every other month. just to shake things up.

[abercrombie milano]

I like your point! It is of wisdom.

[cheap wholesale]

so perfect