I am a lecturer and founding co-director of the Master of Science in Media, Medicine, and Health Program at Harvard Medical School. You can learn more about our program here: https://ghsm.hms.harvard.edu/education/master-science-media-medicine-and....
As well, I serve as the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine's inaugural writer-in-residence, selected by Dr. Paul Farmer. I am also Associate Director of the Media and Medicine certificate program and an Associate of the Department of Anthropology at Harvard.
I hold a master's and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard, where I completed an ethnography of pediatric palliative care under the direction of Dr. Arthur Kleinman and Dr. Paul Farmer. I also have a master's in Religion, Ethics, and Politics from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Pennsylvania State University.
I have written more than one hundred reported pieces and commentaries. My work has investigated how racial residential segregation becomes embodied as illness and disease, structural violence and the war on drugs, and the politics of health care in the United States. My writing has appeared in VICE, GQ, The Atlantic, Esquire, The New Republic, The New York Times, Men’s Health, The Guardian, Slate, and The Nation, and has been featured by MSNBC, NPR, HuffPost Live, BET, and Big Think, among others.
You can contact me at Jason_Silverstein [at] hms.harvard.edu.
Selected Commentaries and Reported Pieces
Eliminating the FDA’s blood donation ban on men who have sex with men would help ease the U.S. shortage, STAT/Boston Globe, January 2022
Joe Rogan Is Dead Wrong about the Covid Vaccine, Men's Health, February 2021
Why Truck Drivers Should Be Next in Line for the Vaccine, Men's Health, December 2020
We Can't Beat Covid-19 Without a 6-Week Lockdown, Men's Health, September 2020
Here's a Realistic Plan for Opening Schools and Colleges Safely, Men's Health, September 2020
Empty Dorms Could Help Solve Coronavirus Hospital Shortages, VICE, April 2020
Coronavirus Is Bad in the Cities. It Could Be Even Worse Outside of Them, VICE, March 2020
Being Black in America Is a Health Risk. It's Time for Reparations, VICE, June 2019
The Persistence of Whitewashing, The New Republic, May 2018
Americans Are Still Serving Unconstitutional Sentences, The Outline, April 2018
Jim Crow Laws Are Gone But They Are Still Making Black People Sick, VICE, April 2018
When An Overdose Doesn't Kill You, VICE, July 2017
People with Addiction Are Running Out of Places to Finish Their Recovery, VICE, December 2016
Genes Don't Cause Racial-Health Disparities, Society Does, The Atlantic, April 2015
The search for a more humane execution is flawed because there's no such thing, The Guardian, April 2015
Ron McAndrew Is Done Killing People, Esquire, January 2014
The Racial Empathy Gap, Slate, June 2013
