I’m just interested at looking at some things from a bunch of different angles, and I feel like the essay offers the chance to give your readers, like, “OK, you’re looking at the front side of a thing, now come along to the back, and look at it from the other side,” and I think you can do that in terms of concepts, you can do that in terms of recounting what was said in an interview, where that interview happened, what fears propelled it, all that stuff …
Leslie Jamison is terrifyingly legit (and too young to be so wise) and you should go read The Empathy Exams when you get a chance. I interviewed her for Flavorwire.