Dear readers,
Every piece of media has its lifespan, and the ASDA Blog is no exception. This entry is the final ASDA Blog post. The ASDA Editorial Board will now solely focus on Contour magazine.
When I was in high school, I used to listen to The Bugle podcast hosted by Andy Zalzman and John Oliver. When Oliver’s HBO show Last Week Tonight blew up, episodes of The Bugle grew increasingly scarce, until one day they announced they would discontinue the show. I felt devastated.
But the show survived in reality and in spirit. Years later, Zaltzman revived The Bugle, which he and rotating guests host. The Bugle also exists in spirit on Oliver’s show. The biting satire that made The Bugle so outrageous now permeates throughout the long rants on Last Week Tonight. The shows may have changed, but the people who made them have not.
Which brings me back to ASDA Blog. I’ve been part of the ASDA Editorial Board for three years, starting in 2020. I witnessed transitions ASDA made when the pandemic hit including Contour shifting from print and digital delivery to a digital-only publication. Despite this change, our writers embraced the new Contour and continued to tell the profound stories of dental students. The same will happen with the ASDA Blog transition. While we will no longer update the blog, we will find a home in Contour for all our blog writers. The spirit of the blog will continue to thrive there.
Let’s take this moment to celebrate the stories we have covered in the blog in recent years. Here are some of my favorites:
- “Threads of my white coat” – Ethan Nguyen, Pacific ’24, wrote poetically about what dentistry means to him, using the white coat as a symbol for his life story.
- “The importance of the medical illustrator today” – Alan Booth, Pittsburgh ’22, detailed how traditional illustrations help dental students learn anatomy in ways that remain irreplaceable by photography.
- “Best podcasts for dental students” – Stephanie Jaipaul, Georgia ’22, honored International Podcast Day with a listicle of podcasts to keep dental students informed about their profession.
As my term on the Editorial Board approaches its own conclusion, I look back at my time with incredible fondness. Serving the Editorial Board has been an opportunity of a lifetime. It opened the door in my dental school education to places outside the clinic and classroom that I never would have imagined. We have a great team. I can’t wait to see what the next Editorial Board will bring and what the future of ASDA publications will look like.
~ Ryan Lee, Texas-Houston ’23, ASDA Editor-in-Chief
