Kate’s Comments (group member since Sep 24, 2025)

Kate’s comments from the Mixed Minds group.

What did you think of the Harriet Tubman quote at the beginning of the book? Does this quote prepare you for the text? In what way does it resonate with current events?

The first three chapters establish the very different backgrounds of Martha, Frances, and Harriet and the time in which they lived. What is your sense of their personalities and how they changed over time?

In chapter 4, Frances’s husband, Henry, makes the extraordinarily controversial decision to defend William Freeman, the twenty-three-year-old Black man who confessed to murdering four members of a white family. This is one of the first uses of the insanity defense, which is based on the belief that a person who is unable to distinguish right from wrong should not be criminally charged because they cannot take moral responsibility for their crime. Henry’s father-in-law, a county judge, thought his defense of Freeman would end his political career. What did you think of this?


In chapter 5, Martha overhears a party guest calling her “a very dangerous woman” because of her social activism and her friendship with Frederick Douglass. Consider what it meant to be a “dangerous woman” in Martha’s time and place. Who, or what, is being threatened by Martha’s behavior? Is there a modern-day equivalent of the term “dangerous woman?”

Discuss these two quotes from chapter 13 and how they have “aged” since their initial utterance: “The United States government ‘was made by white men for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever.’” —Senator Stephen A. Douglas. “I know, and you know, that a revolution has begun. I know, and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backward.” —Senator William Henry Seward

At the end of chapter 13, Henry and the British intellectual Harriet Martineau discuss slavery, “the great American question.” What might you consider today’s “great American question”?

Discuss the interplay of women’s rights and anti-slavery activism throughout the book. The abolitionist and women’s rights movement were aligned through much of the mid-nineteenth century. The movement split in the late 1860s over priorities—some women insisting that the fight for Black male suffrage take precedence over the fight for women’s rights, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony broke away to fight solely for the women’s vote. In what ways have the conflicts of this period extended to our own?

Think about the husbands of Martha, Frances, and Harriet. How did they help or hinder their wives in their goals? What impact did these relationships have on the women in their decision-making processes? How did the women shape the thinking and actions of their husbands?

Letters, photos, and portraits appear throughout the book as chapter and section openers. What do these add to your reading experience? How does it feel to have faces and handwriting to put to these historical figures?

Consider the impact that the actions of the activists in the book may have had directly on your own life. Can you conjure an example of how their efforts in the movements benefited you personally?

Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, both followed in their mother’s footsteps to become the first Black female legacy graduates of Harvard Medical School. What role do you think the idea of legacy has played in Dr. Blackstock’s life? What does legacy mean to you?

Dr. Blackstock writes that her mother’s patients “had experienced the care of a physician who listened to them, understood their lives and experiences, and was invested in them as whole human beings.” Do you have a trusted doctor in your life? Do you feel seen by them? Has your relationship with a physician affected how you respond to your own health?

Dr. Blackstock was not taught about the racism baked into the history of medicine in America. She came to learn about many of these staggering inequalities on her own as a practicing physician. As you read Legacy, did your understanding of the US health-care system change?

Dr. Blackstock experiences burnout at Kings County Hospital, where shifts were incredibly long and demanding, and the hospital was underfunded and short-staffed. Have you experienced burnout in your own life? How do you think burnout can be alleviated on both individual and institutional levels?

Discuss some of the ways structural inequities like systemic racism impact a person’s biological health and health outcomes. How do environmental exposures, job opportunities, and lack of access to health care influence the social determinants of health?

Dr. Blackstock writes about the impact mentorship can have, and the tendency people have to choose mentors who look like them. Talk about the experience you’ve had being a mentor or being mentored. Have you gravitated toward mentors who look like you?

Dr. Blackstock mourns not having an out-of-hospital birth. Despite her career and education, she was still not aware of the benefits of that birthing model. Were you aware of the Black maternity crisis before reading Legacy ?

Discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed racist practices in medicine and deep preexisting racial health disparities. What role do underperforming hospitals in economically distressed communities play in these outcomes? How has the pandemic further revealed fault lines in our social institutions?

Dr. Blackstock does not think of her mother in terms of exceptionalism but as one of the lucky ones who made it through, and a reminder of all those who weren’t able to. How do you think it’s harmful to frame the successes of people like the original Dr. Blackstock in terms of exceptionalism?

Dr. Blackstock left academic medicine to become a full-time health equity advocate and fully use her voice to speak out about racial injustice. Which call to action enumerated in chapter 15 resonates the most with you? Do you feel more galvanized to work toward dismantling racism in medicine? What will you do?

Did An Immense World make you examine your own sensory experiences? If you could rely only on one sense, which would it be- sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch? Why?


If you could experience the world through one animal’s senses for a day, which would you choose and why?


The book suggests humans perceive only a narrow slice of reality. Did this idea feel humbling, unsettling, or exciting to you?


Which sensory modality (vision, smell, sound, touch, magnetoreception, etc.) fascinated you the most, and why?


Were there any explanations you found difficult to grasp? How did Yong make complex science accessible—or not?


If humans had one additional sense described in the book, which would most radically change society?


Did the book change how you think about conservation strategies or urban design? How do human activities (noise pollution, light pollution, habitat loss) interfere with animal sensory worlds?


How might the knowledge of the impact of human activities on animal senses influence how we design zoos, farms, or wildlife reserves?


Which chapter or example stayed with you the longest after reading?


Did this book change how you observe animals in your daily life?

1. What did you think of the USPS before reading this book? Has your opinion changed?

2. “I always check in on her,” Wade said. “If I don’t see her, I’m supposed to call her son.” That is the other difference between a regular and a sub. The sub just delivers the mail. The regular is delivering something else. Continuity. Safety. Normalcy. Companionship. Civilization. You know, the stuff that a government is supposed to do for its people” What is your relationship with your mailman?

3. What president would you let watch your children?

4. Did you have any favorite characters besides Stephen?

5. LLV Mailtruck safety - no ac, left hand driving, 66 year old mailman dying of heat induced heart attack

6. I thought his views on America were very interesting, “America is an idea that calls to be perfected” “There has always been things dividing us but in the eyes of the postal service, you are all created equal”

7. His timing of joining the USPS was almost once in a lifetime, the mail in ballots in one of the most heated elections in US history and COVID creating the rise in online ordering and the amazon debacle

8. What did you think of his dedication to deliver, the fridge and freezer, etc.

9. He had so many accidents throughout his short time as a mailman it makes me wonder what mail carriers have seen in their time, wasps, dog attacks, guns, etc.

1. The author keeps certain Spanish words untranslated—mojado, cerote, cruzó—blending them naturally into the dialogue. How did this impact your reading experience? What do you think code-switching reveals about the characters’ cultural identity and sense of belonging?


2. Javier’s relationship with Grandpa evolves throughout the journey. How do difficult circumstances reveal different sides of family members? Have you ever seen a relative in a completely new light because of a shared challenge?


3. To cross into the U.S., Javier must “become” Mexican, rehearsing slang and memorizing national anthems. How does forced assimilation shape identity? Have you ever had to adjust how you present yourself in different cultural settings?


4. The book is told through Javier’s perspective, capturing his innocence, fears, and observations. How does this childlike voice shape your connection to the story? Would it have felt different if told from an adult’s perspective?


5. Pupusas and Pollo Campero steal the spotlight in Javier’s farewell feast. What meal instantly takes you home, and why? And let’s be real, what food from the book are you now craving?


6. Masculinity takes many shapes in this story: Grandpa’s quiet strength, Marcelo’s hardened edge, Don Dago’s detached leadership. Javier not wanting to cry. How do cultural expectations define what it means to “be a man”, and how do these pressures shape boys as they grow up?


7. The idea of moving to the U.S. for a better life is central to the book. How do different cultures interpret the “American Dream,” and does it change when viewed from outside the U.S.? And for non-Americans—does it always involve McDonald's, pizza, and snow (because tbh, that’s exactly what I had imagined)?

1. Finkel poses an interesting question a little way through the book that I’m interested to ask you all. He writes, “I began asking cabin owners–and, later, many others–to estimate the longest time they’d ever spent without human interaction. By this I meant not seeing anyone or communicating in any way, including phone, e-mail, or text messages. Just time by oneself, unconnected, though reading or listening to the radio or watching TV alone was okay. Nine out of ten people, often after a contemplative pause, realized that they had never passed a single day in solitude.” How long do you think you’ve spent without human interaction?

2. We see throughout the book that the people affected by the thefts are a bit divisive in their feelings about Knight. Many didn’t care since they weren’t there, there was no damage, and nothing of value was ever stolen. Yet, there were also a lot of people that were enraged because his thefts made them fearful and took away their sense of security, one family even dealing with their young boys having nightmares of “the hermit.” Where do you think you would fall if you had been a victim of the thefts?

3. Follow up; many people on either side said if he needed things they would have gladly left things out for him and in the beginning of the book a few people did just that yet he didn’t take them and still broke in. Why do you think he refused to take things left specifically for him?

4. Doctors attempted at diagnosing him, generally landing on autism, depression, or schizoid personality disorder. But there was still a lot of contention surrounding this, with one person even saying “I diagnose him as a hermit.” What did you think of these speculations? Why do you think people feel the need to diagnose a person when these rare situations occur? To get answers? To gain a sense of understanding?

5. Did you find it odd that his family never contacted authorities to file a missing persons report? He was only a few years out of high school when he left yet they didn’t look or alert anyone? Would you have told someone if you’d been in their position?

6. What did you think about Finkel and Knight’s relationship? Do you think Finkel ever overstepped? Do you think they came to form a friendship in the end?

7. On page 78, Finkel notes that Knight’s decision to retreat to the woods “had elements of a suicide, except he didn’t kill himself.” Considering Knight’s promise to go back into the woods at the end of the book, do you think this was the underlying cause of his isolating but changed his mind once he found that the woods were a place he felt comfortable? What do you think this says about human’s relationship to nature if anything?

8. On page 50, Finkel states that Knight “seemed to say exactly what he was thinking, raw and true, unfiltered by the safety net of social niceties.” Do you think this way of interacting is just his personality or do you think it’s due to the years of isolation? Both?

9. Throughout the book, Knight is defined by many labels: He is a hermit, a thief, a prisoner, etc. Which of these labels does he associate himself with, if any? What do you think about society's determination to label people?

10. Do you think he deserved jail time? How do you think the transition from total isolation to prison with hundreds of other people affected him?

1. Did you like the book? Why or why not?

2. Was this book what you thought it would be? What were you expecting?

3. Do you feel like pictures are important in memoirs/make the story more transportive? Did they make Rick’s journey more memorable for you?

4. Were you familiar with Rick Steves prior to reading this book? If so, did you discover anything new about him that surprised you? Or make you think negatively about him?

5. What was the most memorable moment of the trip for you?

6. Did this book inspire or deter you from wanting to travel? Follow up, have you had any similar travelling experiences?

7. Would you have travelled with him/done the Hippie Trail if you had the chance?

8. What is your take on his journey? Given that it took place in 1978, do you think that his and Gene’s journey was unique to the time?

9. Do you think this journey could be done today?

10. Why do you think they called it “The Hippie Trail”?

1. Had you heard of Israel Keyes before reading this book? Why do you think his crimes haven’t been shared in the same light as other serial killers? Why do you think true crime and serial killers are so fascinating?

2. What are your thoughts on the length of the investigation? Did the investigators make any errors during the investigation? If so, do you think said errors slowed down Keyes arrest?

3. How does True Crime compare to other fictional stories and movies? Do you believe in the Mark Twain quote, “Truth is stranger than fiction”? Was it more unsettling that you were able to look up the people involved and put a face to a name?

4. Do you think Keyes wanted to get caught?

5. What do you think motivated Israel Keyes to commit such heinous crimes?

6. Do you notice any patterns in Keyes victims?

7. Do you think the media has a responsibility to report on cases like Keyes?

8. Were there moments where you questioned the ethics of the investigators' decisions?

9. Nature vs Nurture?

10. How did reading American Predator affect you personally? Did it change your views on crime, law enforcement, or the criminal justice system?