Looking Back, Looking Forward
On a new year, evolving questions, and what comes next
As this year ended, I found myself returning to a simple question: why am I still writing here?
I started this Substack as a way to communicate the science of aging well and living better after cancer. My original goal was to translate research into something people could use in their daily lives. Over time, that writing evolved.
What started at the beginning of the year as deep dives into health topics has expanded into something broader: questioning the status quo in medicine, naming where it falls short, and highlighting the growing gap between what is known (scientific evidence) and what is done (standard medical practice).
Much of my professional life has been spent working at the intersection of public health, aging, and cancer survivorship. I was first trained as an anthropologist, and later as an epidemiologist—the former to understand the complexity of the individual human experience, and the latter to see how collections of those experiences shape population-level health. All of this informs how I think about care, evidence, and accountability.
This space exists because scientific information is often inaccessible – hidden behind journal paywalls, buried in technical language, or stripped of nuance once it reaches the public. The questions that matter most in health are rarely simple.
Questions like:
How do we build a healthcare system that doesn’t just extend life, but supports living well?
How do we translate evidence into care that is equitable, humane, and meaningfully improves people’s lives?
How do patients and survivors advocate for themselves in systems that weren’t built for them?
And how do decision makers – often far removed from clinical or lived experience – understand what it actually feels like to navigate healthcare as a patient, survivor, or caregiver?
These are the questions that continue to pull me back to the page.
If you’ve been reading for a while, you may have noticed that not every post looks the same. Some focus closely on science. Others pull back to look at assumptions we rarely stop to examine. That breadth is intentional. Health does not exist in isolation from policy, environment, and cultural forces, and medicine does not always move at the pace (or in the direction) that patients need.
Writing here has been a way to think out loud and to sit with this complexity, rather than rushing toward easy answers. This Substack is my attempt to hold all of that in view at once.
Looking Forward to 2026
As a new year begins and the buzz of resolutions becomes inevitable, I find myself excited by the hope and promise of new beginnings. I’ll be starting a new role, and with that comes new challenges, but also the need to be more thoughtful about how and when I write here. The goal here has never been volume, but rather sharing when I feel there is something important that needs to be said. You can expect more flexibility in the posting cadence, and more guest voices, something I’m genuinely excited about. There are many forward-thinking people doing important work in this space, and I want to make room for them to be heard.
If you’re here because you want to understand and advocate for your health better, or push for a better healthcare system, I’m glad you’re here. This space will continue to be one where science and humanity come together, and where small, thoughtful steps can compound over time into meaningful change.
I genuinely appreciate your thoughts and invite you to share your feedback. I am looking forward to continuing the conversation in the year ahead.
Happy New Year!
Jen