If you could change one thing about your city, what would it be?
When I bumped in Sarah on the NYC sidewalk, her answer was, “Give everyone clean air to breathe”.
Instantly intrigued, I asked if I could help her try… and that’s what my newest YouTube video is about!
Sarah McCuskee is Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Global Health & Health Systems Design at Mount Sinai. She told me that she spends the majority of her time doing research, and much of this is centered around a concept called the exposome.
In simple terms, it’s the environmental factors you experience all around you that impact your health. Some of these are more obvious, and others you may never have thought about before.
So she took me on a walking tour of the city, pointing out some environmental factors that benefit our health (like parks, public pools, and community centers) and some that are a detriment to our health (like traffic, construction, gas stoves, and trash pile ups).
After asking if she had a solution to bring more clean air into our lives that I could help with that day, she told me about a man named Rahman Humphries-Hodge who is living with sickle cell disease. They’ve collaborated on some research before, and she felt he would be the perfect person to visit.
By cleaning up the air inside a home with an air purifier, Sarah wanted to start seeing if symptoms of sickle cell improved. The goal is to have this be the start of many tests and experiments as a potential solution to help people thrive throughout their lives.
So I bought an air purifier and we headed up to The Bronx. After meeting Rahman, we learned more about his experiences, and gave him the purifier to set up in his home! A few weeks later, he let us know that it seems to be helping.
But there’s so much more we cover in the video too, including:
An air sensor that looks like a cute Pacman ghost that made a map of air quality as we walked around
More ways individuals and communities can improve their environment and health
How the city is able to map everything from food deserts to rats
It was a lot of fun to explore the city with Sarah, and meet and help Rahman. I’m excited to keep an eye out and see how the research progresses!
I also want to note that so far, my YouTube videos have all been possible because of The Hopemakers community (you) and paid subscriber contributions. But for this video, I was originally connected to Sarah through the Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment and Harvard Chan C-Change. I met some of the team after being named to their Climate Creators to Watch list back in 2024, and they approached me asking if I wanted to collaborate with any of their alumni. I thought Sarah’s work was fascinating, and eventually this video came together, thanks to their research and funding help!
If you want to learn more and get involved:
Watch the full video and let us know if you think this is a good solution
Follow Sarah to learn more about her work
Explore HACE (Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment)
And stay tuned for a way to donate and help Sarah continue her inspiring work…
Oh, and last but not least, let me know what you think of videos in this style. I’m also trying to experiment with different topics and formats to uplift inspiring people and their impactful projects. Many more are already in the works, but I value your feedback as I decide which direction to go next!
Talk again soon,
Jacob