EPISODE 12: DAVID HANER WASSERSTEIN
January 24, 2024
Interview by pRIYANKA gERA
Edited by Michael Fortunato and Priyanka Gera
Photo by Ivan Dominguez
Where are you from?
I am from the Bay Area, California.
That’s so far away. So why New York?
I guess it is far. I just wanted to cross the country. California is a great state, but New York is the place to be.
What did you do in your gap years?
I only took one gap year. I ran clinical trials in Interventional Cardiology.
Are you going to be the first doctor in your family?
No. My grandfather was an ophthalmologist.
Do you have any siblings?
Yes, younger brother and sister.
Are they also on the pre-med track?
Oh no. I am the only one.
Do you have any pets?
I had a guinea pig in sixth grade, and his name was Oreo. He gave my little brother a really severe allergic reaction, so Oreo went back to Petco.
That’s sad. If you could have a pet though, what would you get?
I would get a dog.
What was the last book you read?
I finished reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell last week. It was a great read.
What has been the best piece of advice you have received?
Probably from both of my parents. They are both immigrants so they always emphasize working really hard. If you commit yourself to your goals, you can achieve almost everything. It’s a great mentality, and it works.
Where are your parents from?
My mom is from Germany and my dad is from Israel.
Do you speak German?
A little bit. I grew up speaking German and Hebrew; they were my first two languages actually and I learned English afterward. But English kind of took over unfortunately; it monopolized my brain. Now my German and Hebrew aren’t that good.
Any other languages?
I learned a bit of Spanish in high school. I wouldn’t call myself “quadrilingual” though. I know maybe 1.5 languages, including English.
What is the best thing that has happened to you this week?
The snow. For sure. I love the snow; it’s a rarity since I’m from California.
Have you had the chance to make a snowman?
Yes! Well we made one last week in the snow. My whole apartment and a few other people worked together and it was 8 feet tall. I didn’t appreciate how heavy snow is. It took 3-4 people to lift and we stacked 3 snowballs. It was fun.
What do you think is the key to a long-lasting friendship?
Just always being interested in the person. Some of my longest friendships now aren’t with people I speak to on a regular basis. I care enough that I reach out every 6 months and still remember everything we talked about previously, and we catch up pretty quickly. It just continues that way. The longest lasting friendships are the slow burns. It is easy to pick up where you left off.
3 things you always travel with.
It is winter right now, so definitely chapstick. Sunglasses for sure and to go along with that, sunscreen. I am trying to use more sunscreen––it’s my New Year’s Goal.
Where do you not want to see yourself in 15 years?
This is going to offend a lot of people––not the middle of the country. The east or the west coast is preferred. Ideally somewhere warm. Oh you don’t mean location? Definitely would hope to be an attending at that point. In 15 years? maybe with 3-4 kids in the suburbs.
Your worst fashion moment.
Oh middle school for sure. That’s easy. The basketball shorts, the bright yellow tank top and crew socks with vans. Awful. I looked like a highlighter. 100% my worst fashion moment. Mostly gotten better since.
Which emoji describes you the best?
How about the wave emoji? Like a classic cartoon ocean wave. I used to surf in college. Definitely some of my happiest moments. I like the ocean a lot.
You can’t really surf on the East Coast can you?
You can, but it is dangerous. I don’t like the odds so I choose not to. The water is cold, the waves are big and there are sharks. I’m impressed by the courage of our surfing classmates though. I would never do it.
What other sports have you played?
I played a lot of soccer in middle school and high school. These days, I like to go to the gym. I am picking up running again and I like going hiking too.
Have you hiked anywhere nearby?
I haven’t explored anything nearby. But I have been on some great hikes in my life. My favorite one was probably CanyonLands in Utah. It was in July so it was 105º F. I woke up at 6am to hike before it got too hot— I got to see a beautiful sunrise.
Something you regret doing?
I regret doing things all the time. But the deep answer to that is that you learn from your failures and you shouldn’t regret anything because it makes you a better person long term. That said, I regret the choice of hot sauce I put on my breakfast this morning––toast with eggs. I put buffalo sauce instead of cholula. I wanted to switch up the old morning routine, but that was a mistake.
How do you take your coffee?
With a little milk. No sugar. I have never had sugar in my coffee. My parents don’t have sugar in their coffee either. It is not the way I was raised. Ideally dark roast, lots of taste.
What did you want to be when you were a kid? Was doctor always on your radar?
No. When I was in middle school and big into soccer, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. I realized early on that it wasn’t for me. Before that, I wanted to be an architect because I loved Legos back then. Medicine just worked itself into my life.
Did you ever build any impressive Lego sets?
The only one I remember is from my 8th birthday. It was the Star Destroyer and was 2-3 feet long. I was 8 years old and the box said “16+”, I was hyped. It took me a week to build it, but I did it. I put it on my desk and it was my pride and joy. It is probably all disassembled in a bin somewhere in the garage back home. It was a sweet Lego though.
If you had a warning label, what would it say?
That I give good hugs. High quality hugs. I am concerned that everyone is now going to want a hug though.
Who is the one person who knows you the best?
Probably my parents. They’ve known me the longest obviously, 24 years. I am very close to my family.
Favorite family holiday tradition?
Every winter break we go on cruises. It’s something we have been doing since I was 14 years old. Every year we do this because the Bay Area gets “cold” in the winter and we find ourselves wanting to go to Mexico. Although this year we went to the Caribbean.
What was your first job?
My first real job was at a pizza place, but I had a job before that. I worked at a metal manufacturing plant for a week. My job was to take these metal pucks and stick them into a machine the size of a car and press a green button. Three minutes later the pucks became some other metal thing and I cleaned them and put them in a box. It really stimulated my brain. [laughs] I produced all the metal pucks they needed so I left after a week. I kept my sanity by watching the 2014 World Cup—there was a TV near the machine. I essentially got paid to watch soccer and click a green button every now and then. The pizza place was great too.
Were you making or delivering the pizzas?
I was making the pizzas. What made it sweet though was that my friend and I (we were both 16), after a few months of working there, were able to lock up the store ourselves at the end of the night. The owner would leave early so we were entrusted with that responsibility at 16. I could take home as much pizza as I wanted because no one was there to check.
If you could have any superpower, which would you choose?
I actually thought about this 2 weeks ago. I genuinely thought about this. Teleportation. So much time and money is spent to get to places. How many barriers do we face because of distance alone? A majority of my family lives on the other side of the world and I can only see them every so often because I have to take a flight there. With teleportation, I would go to my grandparents house in Israel whenever I wanted; it’s a 12 hour flight otherwise. For instance, it is cold right now. I could teleport from my apartment straight to the MEC, or to the New York Public Library. Or anywhere warm, like a beach.
3 foods you dislike.
See I have really been trying to work on this because my number 1 hobby is cooking. I am trying to like mushrooms––it has been a struggle. I abhor blue cheese. I used to not like zucchinis, but I like them now. Blue cheese is icky. I can taste the mold in my mouth.
When did you start cooking?
My mom and grandma are excellent cooks so I grew up in a house where food is a big deal. So when I went to college, I missed all of that and I started cooking. It just progressed from there.
What is the hardest dish you’ve cooked so far?
The hardest thing I’ve made was for New Years in 2021––the first COVID New Years. I was with my roommates. It is called timpano. Imagine a lasagna enveloped in a sheet of pasta dough. Inside it has pasta, tomato sauce, hard boiled eggs––which doesn’t sound good but it tastes good––and meatballs. What made it so difficult was that I had to roll out this entire sheet of pasta dough to encompass it all. The whole thing fit in a 6 quart Dutch oven. So the sheet of pasta dough was about 4 feet in diameter; and it took 2 hours to roll out because my countertop was only 2 feet wide. So half of the sheet was hanging off the edge at any given point; I would rotate and roll it so many times by hand. It worked, and it was beautiful and delicious. I got COVID a few days later and I got to eat my timpano for a week in quarantine and it kept me sane. I highly recommend it. It is a real show stopper. It is a huge pasta dumpling.
Words of advice to incoming M1s.
The single most important thing is to be open minded. I came into medical school pretty certain I wanted to do Cardiology, but I made a point of exploring other fields to confirm that it was really what I wanted. Even if you’re undecided, be curious and explore everything. You will figure it out.
Contact David at dhaner_w@student.touro.edu.
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