Scott J. Pearson

Religion, Spirituality & Public Health: Competing & Complementary Epistemes

By Scott J. Pearson | August 22, 2026August 22, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

In the COVID-19 pandemic, resistance to modern biomedicine (evidence-based medicine) occurred in droves and presented real problems to public health implementers trying to get us out of infections. Now that the pandemic is over, it’s worth spending time reflecting on how to better handle similar approaches in the future. This volume, from the British Academy, offers such an approach. Its vision is global in scope, not just localized to the British isles. So what’s an…

Fiction-Stories

Transcription: A Novel

By Scott J. Pearson | August 16, 2026August 16, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

I picked this book up from Barack Obama’s summer reading list. Whatever you think of his politics, he has a refined taste in books, and he’s never led me to a bad place in his book choices. This work is no different. Ben Lerner guides us along for a shorter story – almost a novella – that unwraps creatively as we go along. Though readers’ curiosities are engaged from the start, the main theme isn’t…

Economics History

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – and How it Shattered a Nation

By Scott J. Pearson | August 13, 2026August 13, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 is legendary, but I’ve read relatively few accounts of its detailed history. For many people, I suppose, it’s like doing a deep dive about your favorite sports team’s worst loss. That’s unfortunate, though, because history offers many lessons. Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book offers a personal view of the crash – not in the sense that the author saw it himself but in the sense that he unpacks the motives,…

Healthcare Research-Education Science

Practical Implementation Science: Moving Evidence into Action

By Scott J. Pearson | August 9, 2026August 9, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

With the Internet, the world has become glut with information, and the domain of scientific knowledge is no exception. The challenge, however, has become implementing that knowledge into healthcare practice. Papers are published, read a few times, cited by other authors, and often die in scientific journals. Those journals are great, but the pipeline to practice (the clinic and patient lives) needs to open up more. Translational science and implementation science aim to do just…

Biography-Memoir Leadership

A Journey of Insights: Lessons in Leadership & Legacy

By Scott J. Pearson | August 9, 2026August 9, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Sage advice is hard to come by – you know, the kind of advice that makes you change the way you look at the world and in turn act better in the world. We often look to experienced leaders and educators to point the way. James Ellis, the former Dean of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, served students for over two decades as professor and leader. Before that, he…

Research-Education Writing-Communication

They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing

By Scott J. Pearson | August 5, 2026August 5, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Academic writing can be confusing to outsiders and newcomers. Often filled with abstractions, this style of writing can lose readers with all the pretense. Yet to succeed in college – and in many careers – people need to learn to express themselves effectively. The authors seek to demystify this task by showing readers how they can think about the forms of academic writing. Primarily, the authors show readers how to integrate their perspective into a…

Leadership Management-Business

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work & What to Do About It

By Scott J. Pearson | August 2, 2026August 2, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

An oft-cited fact is that most small businesses don’t succeed. They fall prey to a common set of challenges – namely, that entrepreneurs never transition their work from a job into building a business. In this book, Michael Gerber shines light on this common error and shows ways to overcome it. He uses a parable of Sarah starting her own business as a way to interject life into these principles and illustrate how entrepreneurs can…

Biography-Memoir

Between the World & Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

By Scott J. Pearson | August 1, 2026August 1, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

This critically acclaimed book came out while Black Lives Matter protests were gripping the streets in 2015. Written as a memoir, it explains the effects of violence against black (particularly male) bodies on the black psyche. Although his observations are built around the artificial construct of the black and white races, he clearly sees that Dr. King’s Dream is as-yet unrealized in America. As a continual parade of unnecessary black deaths illustrated – deaths that…

Leadership Presentation

The Right to Speak: Working with the Voice

By Scott J. Pearson | July 28, 2026July 28, 2026 by Scott J. Pearson

Months of formal voice training has been something that has attracted me for decades, but I could never justify the time or the expense for it. Obviously, anyone who leads groups and speaks to groups regularly needs to attend to the voice. It’s still difficult to get the feedback necessary to articulate words in an engaging manner. This book will not offer customized feedback, but to the self-disciplined, it offers ways to internalize principles of…