Episodit
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Life can be hard when we are sick. But even when we aren't, life can still wear us down in quiet, surprising ways. Indeed, major traumas are relatively rare, and it's the moments when too many things go wrong at once, or we are exposed to prolonged periods of stress, that we fall into a spiral of exhaustion, fatigue, burnout, and hopelessness.
Vincent Deary, PhD is an author and health psychologist who explores the mundane struggles of everyday life. His writings blend clinical insight, literary finesse and wisdom drawn from philosophy and art to illuminate how the wear and tear of life affect all of us, and how we can navigate through it all. He is the author of How We Are (2024), which explores the power of human routines and the challenges of personal change, and How We Break (2024), which delves into how individuals cope when pushed to their limits.
Over the course of our conversation, we discuss what the clinical work of health psychology looks like, what happens to our minds when we deal with stressors in life, the importance of storytelling for psychological growth, balancing self-improvement with self-acceptance, the role of constitutional luck in our search for happiness, the importance of restorative rest, how clinicians can cope with grief and guilt from their work, and more. By bringing an empathetic lens to the complexities of modern existence, Vincent helps us create a path through difficult times.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:43 - What health psychology is and how Deary became drawn to this field
18:58 - Deary’s motivations for exploring the emotional toll of experiencing life in his writings
22:42 - The benefit of approaching each patient as a “case”
31:46 - Finding a balance between self-improvement and self-acceptance
38:10 - Using the bio-psycho-social model to explain our capacities for weathering stress
43:14 - Fostering a healthier perspective on work-life balance
50:55 - The importance of community and institutional support in helping people process compassion fatigue
58:05 - Strategies for connecting more deeply with patients within a clinical setting
Vincent Deary can be found on Twitter/X at @vincentdeary.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Variations of cryonics — the long term storage of human beings, usually at low temperatures — have long been featured in science fiction. In stories involving space travel, it’s often used as a solution for long-duration journeys. But increasingly, this is not just the stuff of fiction anymore.
The prospect of preserving ourselves, potentially indefinitely, forces us to ask some of the most profound questions we have ever faced: are we meant to transcend the boundaries of our mortal lives? What does it mean to be alive? If life can be extended, what happens to its meaning, urgency, and beauty? These questions, by turns technological, philosophical, ethical and even spiritual, are what we explore in this episode.
Ariel Zeleznikow-Johnson, PhD is a neuroscientist who studies the nature of conscious experiences to better understand how we can preserve cognitive function. His book The Future Loves You: How and Why We Should Abolish Death (2024), explores the viability of delaying death and its societal implications. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the science of human preservation, definitions of life and death, broader questions about how we derive meaning from life, whether or not the finitude of human experience is essential to our conceptions of a well-lived life, our social contract with future generations, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:44 - How Dr. Zeleznikow-Johnson became interested in the future of longevity
6:00 - Dr. Zeleznikow-Johnson’s definitions of “life” and “death”
14:29 - Why Dr. Zeleznikow-Johnson thinks that believing death is inevitable is a form of “learned helplessness”
17:52 - The level of faith one would need to have in the future of technology to consent to cryosleep
24:16: - Whether the finitude of human existence is essential to its meaning
29:05 - Whether every death is an inherent tragedy
30:25 - How the limitations of the human brain could impede longevity
33:16 - The ethical dilemma that would arise due to the financial costs of this technology
36:30 - Why Dr. Zeleznikow-Johnson is confident that cryonics will be successful
46:42 - The core thesis of Dr. Zeleznikow-Johnson’s book The Future Loves You
50:15 - Whether immortality is a desirable objective
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Puuttuva jakso?
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One of the most mysterious and frightening entities in medicine are prion diseases — rare neurodegenerative disorders that are usually infectious in nature but involve not bacteria or viruses, but proteins. Prions are misfolded proteins that can induce normal proteins to become misfolded as well, resulting in a chain reaction that leads to irreversible brain damage and death. What makes prions alarming is that they are incurable, can incubate for decades in a person's brain without symptoms, and are usually associated with 100% mortality within months to a few years.
Sonia Vallabh, PhD was a recently-married lawyer in her early career when she witnessed her mother's baffling sudden health decline and death. Her mother was ferried from hospital to hospital, yet dozens of doctors could not figure out why she was seemingly succumbing to rapidly progressive dementia at the age of 52. It wasn't until after her death that Vallabh discovered the cause was a genetic prion disease. Subsequent testing revealed that Sonia Vallabh herself had inherited the same genetic abnormality. Determined to find a solution, Vallabh and her husband Eric, a transportation engineer, decided to retrain as biomedical scientists in a race to cure her before it grew too late. The couple now leads a prion research lab at the Broad Institute at MIT and Harvard. They are also the co-founders of the nonprofit Prion Alliance.
Over the course of our conversation, Vallabh opens up about what it was like to accompany her mother in her last months of life, the psychological toll of dealing with a fatal medical mystery, how she lives each day with an awareness of how ephemeral life is, what prion diseases are and what makes them so difficult to treat, what makes her optimistic about the future of her work, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:23 - Vallabh’s early memories of her mother and the devastating experience that overcame her at 52 years old
16:37 - The process of grieving the loss a parent
22:32 - What prion diseases are
25:35 - How Vallabh made the decision to undergo the genetic testing that confirmed she inherited a mutation thah causes prion disease
36:27 - Vallabh’s major career change to become biomedical researchers
45:50 - Where the quest for an effective therapy for prion disease currently stands
52:08 - Vallabh’s message to listeners on how to approach life
View Sonia Vallabh’s TED Talk on her quest to cure prion disease.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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The second half of the 20th century saw monumental shifts in civil rights in the United States, with the end of legalized racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement affecting all spheres of life, from education to health care to housing to marriage and more.
Judge David S. Tatel is a civil rights lawyer who has contributed to key advancements in voting rights, educational equality, and disability rights. Over the course of his five-decade career, he has served as Director of the National Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, as Director of the Office for Civil Rights during the Carter administration, and as a federal judge on the D.C. Circuit, considered the second highest court in America.
Judge Tatel also happens to be blind, due to a rare genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa. In 2024, he published a book titled Vision: A Memoir of Blindness and Justice.
Over the course of our conversation, Judge Tatel opens up about how he has wrestled with vision impairment in both his legal career and his personal life. He discusses what it was like to be diagnosed with an incurable, progressive, blinding disease as a teenager, how he struggled to make sense of his identity as a blind individual even as his career was taking off, his philosophy as a lawyer, how his beautiful relationship with his wife and children have helped him navigate the world, and how he met his guide dog, Vixen. Judge Tatel's legacy is one of judicial integrity, a lifelong commitment to equality, and a testament to the boundless potential of individuals living with disabilities.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:45 - Judge Tatel’s experience of being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager
15:33 - The inspiration that led Judge Tatel to focus his legal career on civil rights
22:47 - Judge Tatel’s experience of progressively losing his vision while ascending in his legal career
28:05 - Visual elements of life that Judge Tatel misses and how he now “experiences” vision
33:12 - Why Judge Tatel regrets concealing the truth about his blindness early in his career
37:01 - How Judge Tatel’s blindness has influenced his civil rights work
44:45 - Judge Tatel’s concerns about the future of democracy in the United States
46:27 - The ways in which getting a guide dog late in life changed Judge Tatel’s sense of freedom and his perspective on blindness
49:06 - Judge Tatel’s advice to his former self
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Addiction is often misunderstood not just by the public, but also by clinicians. It challenges us as individuals, families, and communities. To understand addiction is to understand not only human behavior and neuroscience, but also social networks, public policies, and bioethics. Our guest on this episode, Keith Humphreys, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in addiction and has served on the White House Commission on Drug Free Communities during the Bush administration, and as Senior Policy Advisor to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy during the Obama administration. His research on recovery support systems like Alcoholics Anonymous and on the opioid crisis has shaped how we understand addiction recovery.
Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Humphreys shares how he became interested in addiction medicine, what happens to our brains when we become addicted, the difficulty of balancing interventions with a respect for patient autonomy, why social networks can be powerful tools in addiction recovery, possible solutions to the opioid crisis, and how clinicians can better establish trust with patients facing addiction.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:36 - How Dr. Humphreys became interested in studying the psychology of addiction
4:34 - The neuroscience of addiction
9:15 - Whether addictive behavior is a matter of personal choice
16:27 - How clinicians can address patients who do not yet recognize their addiction as a problem
21:36 - What GLP-1 inhibitors can tell us about the mechanisms of addiction
26:07 - The benefits of peer support groups (like Alcoholics Anonymous) for addiction recovery
32:55 - Dr. Humphreys' work on drug policy
37:32 - The rise of the opioid crisis
43:05 - Policy models to address substance abuse
48:24 - How medical professionals who are struggling with addiction can seek help
51:25 - Dr. Humphreys' advice for clinicians on how to connect with patients who are struggling with addiction
Dr. Keith Humphreys can be found on Twitter/X at @KeithNHumphreys.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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One of the most fascinating concepts in human health is the idea of social contagion, meaning that emotions, behaviors, and health outcomes can spread through social networks, much like infectious diseases. Examples in the medical literature abound: if a person becomes obese, their friends have a significantly higher chance of becoming obese — even their friends of friends have increased odds of becoming obese. Similarly, someone who quit smoking is likely to create a ripple effect through their social networks, influencing many more people to quit smoking. Social contagion affects life and death itself — after the death of a spouse, the surviving partner's mortality risk increases, and conversely, strong social networks are protective against early death.
Much of the groundwork of our understanding of the powerful health effects of social networks laid by Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, a physician-turned-social scientist who is the author of multiple best selling books, including Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus On the Way We Live (2020) in Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (2019).
In this episode, Dr. Christakis shares his remarkable path to medicine and sociology, beginning from witnessing his mother's struggle through serious illness, to his foray into palliative medicine, and finally to his life's work on the social, economic and evolutionary determinants of human welfare. We discuss the mechanisms by which social contagion functions, why modern medicine does a disservice to patients by atomizing their medical problems, how the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the effects of social networks on public health, the philosophical implications of living an interconnected life, and why human beings are wired to build good societies through our capacity for love, friendship and cooperation.
In this episode, you’ll hear about
3:17 - Dr. Christakis’s path to medicine through witnessing his mother’s serious illness
15:05 - How Dr. Christakis became passionate about studying the effects of social networks
24:43 - How social networks affect an individual’s health
31:28 - The negative effects that COVID-19 restrictions had on patients and their loved ones
38:58 - The central thesis of Dr. Christakis’s 2019 book Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
50:38 - Dr. Christakis’s thoughts on how to live a meaningful life
Dr. Nicholas Christakis can be found on Twitter/X at @NAChristakis.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Digital technologies have saturated our lives and there is no going back. Given this, it's worth pondering whether and how they are fundamentally reshaping our mind and our relationships.
A seminal work that explores these issues is the 2010 book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, by journalist Nicholas Carr. In it, he argues that the internet is “shallowing” our brains, meaning that as we offload cognitive tasks to digital tools, our ability to read linearly, to absorb and immerse ourselves in complex information, is reduced. But more than that, the internet curtails our emotional depth and compassion, diminishing our humanity and rendering us more computer-like, as we process information in short bursts, skim for quick answers, and operate with frenetic attention spans. In Carr’s 2014 book The Glass Cage, he discusses how the increasing automation of tasks leads to a decrease in human agency, creativity, and problem solving capability.
In this episode, Carr joins us to discuss the neuroplasticity of the brain, the mechanisms by which digital technologies reduce our ability to think deeply, how the failures of electronic medical records illustrate the limitations of technology, what social media does to our relationships, the value of focused, reflective thought in a fast paced world, what we can all do to remain independent of technology, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:42 - Carr’s path to researching and writing about the human consequences of technology
5:38 - The central thesis of Carr’s 2010 book The Shallows
15:27 - Whether the cognitive impacts of digital technologies are reversible or permanent
21:18 - Whether society is better or worse off due to social media and the internet
25:38 - How modern technology has changed the medical profession
38:22 - Carr’s thesis for his upcoming book Superbloom
45:21 - How society can address the loss of focus and empathy that has occurred as a result of social media
Nicholas Carr can be found on Twitter/X at @roughtype.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Medicine is filled with stories that illustrate the most beautiful, devastating, hopeful, and consequential moments of life. But how do we capture these moments and transform them into everlasting lessons that guide us on our search for meaning? That's where the art of storytelling comes in.
Our guest on this episode is Anna Reisman, MD, director of the Program for Humanities in Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Reisman is not only a physician-writer whose essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and other major outlets. She has also dedicated her career to helping clinicians better reflect and write about their experiences.
Over the course of our conversation, we discuss how Dr. Reisman went from being an English major in college to working as a physician, her own experiences with burnout and what helped her overcome it, her approach to creative nonfiction writing, concrete ways that writing sharpens the mind of the physician, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:00 - Dr. Reisman’s path from English major to physician
3:45 - The scope of Dr. Reisman’s current work
8:22 - How Dr. Reisman became involved in medical humanities and how she created a writer workshop at Yale Medicine
14:19 - How writing and the medical profession goes hand in hand
22:49 - The VA Writes reflective writing group
27:56 - Teaching observational skills to medical students in today’s technology-forward landscape
30:25 - How to approach the writing process if you are new to writing
45:57 - What Dr. Reisman wishes she would have known at the beginning of her career
Dr. Anna Reisman can be found on Twitter/X at @annareisman.
A list of Dr. Reisman’s essays can be found on MuckRack.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the phrase “Healthcare Heroes” echoed through hospital walls and city streets. For many people, this felt like an overdue acknowledgment of the difficult and important work that healthcare professionals carried out during the most devastating healthcare crisis the world had seen in a century. But this phrase can also be problematic, romanticizing the sacrifices of individual clinicians without addressing the systemic failures that put them at risk, overlooking the mental health struggles they experienced, and undermining healthcare environments that encourage reflection about respect and duty.
Our guest on this episode is Dhaval Desai, MD, a hospitalist at Emory Healthcare in Georgia and the author of the book Burning Out on the Covid Front Lines: A Doctor's Memoir of Fatherhood, Race, and Perseverance in the Pandemic (2023), in which he details his personal narrative as a healthcare leader and frontline physician fighting to hold his hospital together.
Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Desai shares why he decided to train in both internal medicine and pediatrics, how his experiences caring for his ailing father revealed the flaws of our healthcare systems, the nerve-wracking first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, his own struggles as a leader, healer, father, and husband during a time of deep uncertainty, how we can all better connect with patients through even a few moments of shared humanity amid our busy days, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:36 - Dr. Desai’s path to medicine
5:05 - How a Med-Peds residency differs from other medical residency tracks
8:06 - How Dr. Desai’s personal experiences have shaped his approach to patient advocacy
11:53 - Dr. Desai’s personal and professional life leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic
18:46 - Dr. Desai’s opinion on why it is important for leaders to be able to express emotion
24:53 - How Dr. Desai used his leadership role to help his staff navigate the emotional turmoil of the pandemic experience
28:32 - Moments when Dr. Desai suffered heavily from burnout
34:47 - Stories of the isolating effects of COVID-19 in the ER
39:53 - Our society’s support of healthcare workers
46:19 - Advice for young clinicians on ensuring humanity stays central to their work
Dr. Dhaval Desai can be found on Instagram at @doctordesaimd and on X/Twitter @DrDesaiMDx.
In this episode, we discussed the New York Times article “I Couldn’t Do Anything: The Virus and an E.R. Doctor’s Suicide”
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Precision medicine — the approach to health care that involves tailoring medical interventions to an individual's genetic makeup, environment and lifestyle — promises to deliver the right treatment to the right person at the right time. From preventing diseases decades before they appear, to specially designed cocktails of cancer drugs, to genetic modification of rare diseases, many of these applications sound straight out of science fiction.
At the forefront of precision medicine and medical genomics is Euan Ashley, MBChB, DPhill, Chair of Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. A cardiologist and intensive care physician by training, Dr. Ashley has pioneered the use of genetic sequencing to identify risk factors for heart disease and new treatments for rare diseases. He is also the author of The Genome Odyssey: Medical Mysteries and the Incredible Quest to Solve Them (2021).
Over the course of our conversation, we discuss his path from growing up in a small Scottish town to now working at the cutting edge of medicine, the excitement and fulfillment he experiences as a clinician in the cardiac intensive care unit, remarkable patient stories of healing and resilience, the future of precision medicine, why he is optimistic about the development of artificial intelligence, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:24 - Dr. Ashley’s path to medicine and to cardiology
7:19 - What life is like working in the CCU
21:34 - How the Undiagnosed Diseases Network was founded and what it does
33:22 - An overview of precision medicine
38:09 - The impact that genetic testing and genomic medicine is having on modern medicine and where it could go from here
45:00 - Dr. Ashley’s thoughts on how AI will change the field of medicine
51:40 - Making access to medical advancements in AI and genomics more equitable
1:04:39 - Dr. Ashley’s advice for healthcare professionals in training
Dr. Euan Ashley can be found on Twitter/X at @euanashley.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Joseph Sakran, MD, MPH was a teenager in a small town in Virginia when, in 1994, his life took a dramatic turn. At the age of 17, he was out with his friends after a high school football game when a nearby gunfight broke out and he was struck by a stray bullet in the throat. The bullet, tearing through his windpipe and a carotid artery, brought him to the razor edge of death before he was saved by trauma surgeons.
Thirty years later, Dr. Sakran is now a trauma surgeon who serves as Director of Emergency General Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and a vocal advocate of reducing firearm injury through public health initiatives at the state and national levels. Following the 2018 comment by the National Rifle Association that doctors should “stay in their lane” with regard to gun violence prevention, Dr. Sakran started the #ThisIsOurLane movement, mobilizing thousands of health care professionals to advocate for gun violence as a public health crisis.
Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Sakran shares his harrowing experience of being shot and what it was like to be confronted with imminent death, how his perspectives on and priorities in life changed after the incident, what goes on in his mind when he operates on victims of gun violence, how he connects with his patients over shared experiences of trauma, how all clinicians can be more empathetic with their patients, and why advocacy is integral to the work of a physician.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:46 - How a personal tragedy set Dr. Sakran on the path to becoming a trauma surgeon
9:51 - How Dr. Sakran’s perspective on life was altered by his personal experience with gun violence
13:11 - How Dr. Sakran’s experiences informs his approach to speaking with patients and their loved ones during traumatic situations
19:09 - The importance of showing empathy to build rapport with patients and families
23:51 - What it is like to tend to victims of violence
29:26 - Addressing the public health crisis of gun violence in America
37:41 - How clinicians can become more involved in advocacy
45:32 - Dr. Sakran’s advice to future clinicians
Dr. Joseph Sakran can be found on Twitter/X at @josephsakran.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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To the best of our knowledge, humans appear to be unique among animals in our awareness of mortality — at least in our capacity for existential reflection about death in an abstract, cultural, and symbolic sense. With this capacity comes profound psychological experiences, from our search for meaning, to our struggle with grief, to a yearning for the spiritual.
Our guest on this episode is Dr. Rachel Clarke, a palliative care physician based in the United Kingdom who entered medicine after an initial career in journalism. As she would discover, her love for language and storytelling has turned out to be one of the most important ways she helps patients heal in some of the most devastating moments of their lives. As a writer. Dr. Clarke is the author of multiple best selling books, including Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love and Loss (2020), Your Life in My Hands: A Junior Doctor's Story (2017), and Breathtaking (2021), which was adapted into a TV series of the same name. Her writing, imbued with both grace and grit, invites readers to confront difficult truths about mortality, suffering, and the inequities of the healthcare system, while also offering a vision of medicine that is as deeply human as it is healing. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss her journey to medicine by way of journalism, her reflections on the moral imperatives that drive her work, the power of storytelling in comforting patients, why suffering is inextricably connected to love, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:12 - Why Dr. Clarke switched careers from journalism to palliative care
9:46 - The challenge modern doctors and patients face when it comes to thinking about mortality
15:09 - Supporting a patient’s psychological suffering through conversation
20:31 - Grappling with what Dr. Clarke calls the “essential paradox of being a human being” — our awareness of mortality
33:41 - The experience of watching a person die and the reverence we hold for the bodies of the dead
43:05 - The doctor’s dual responsibilities of navigating both science and human emotions
Dr. Rachel Clarke is the author of four books, including most recently, The Story of a Heart (2024).
Dr. Clarke can be found on Twitter/X at @doctor_oxford.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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Modern medicine has long considered many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease to be immutably linked to the fate of certain unlucky individuals through yet-poorly understood genetic mechanisms. But increasingly, we are seeing evidence that some of our lifestyle choices, including our diet, physical activity, and relationships, may play a significant role in the development of, or protection against, these diseases. Our guest on this episode, David Perlmutter, MD, is a neurologist and writer whose immensely popular books, including Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar — Your Brain’s Silent Killers (2013), discuss why diets low in refined carbohydrates and high in fats, in addition to foods that nurture a healthy gut microbiome, may prevent cognitive decline.
Over the course of our conversation, we discuss Dr. Perlmutter's path from conventional neurology to moving towards a more functional and holistic approach to treating brain disorders, the importance of metabolic health in maintaining our cognitive capacities, how Dr. Perlmutter responds to critics of his non-conventional medical advice, why nutrition science is riddled with messy and conflicting findings and how we can better navigate through it all, what clinicians can do to better help their patients live well, and more.
Note: Some of Dr. Perlmutter’s ideas and recommendations have been the subject of debate and controversy within the medical community. While we believe in fostering open dialog and exploring diverse perspectives, the views expressed in this episode are those of Dr. Perlmutter and do not necessarily reflect the views or endorsements of this podcast. We encourage listeners to critically evaluate the information presented and work with qualified healthcare professionals when making any changes to their health and wellness routines.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:11 - Dr. Perlmutter’s transition from conventional neurology to what he calls “preventative” neurology
8:43 - Dr. Perlmutter’s views on what constitutes a “disease” and the role of the doctor.
19:08 - Emerging science on the importance of metabolic health on brain health
25:17 - How scientific studies on preventative health can be (and have been) designed
34:56 - Why Dr. Perlmutter prioritizes health markers (such as HbA1c) over specific dietary recommendations when working with patients
42:21 - Dr. Perlmutter’s views on GLP-1 antagonists such as Ozempic and Mounjaro
50:36 - How Dr. Perlmutter has dealt with critics of his work
Dr. David Perlmutter is the author of eight books.
Dr. Perlmutter can be found on Twitter/X at @davidperlmutter.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
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What makes a life worth living? This question has animated great thinkers and faith traditions for millennia. Interestingly enough, in our time of rapid globalization, technological advancement, and material abundance, we often seem more unmoored from our conception of the self and its relation to the world than ever before.
Our guest on this episode, Miroslav Volf, has spent his life wrestling with this question of questions and helping others to do the same. Volf is a professor of theology at Yale Divinity School and founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, and his work explores the intersections of faith, identity, and public life. He is the author of more than 10 books, including the bestselling Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most (2023), based on one of the most popular courses at Yale University, which he co-teaches. The book, an inquiry into the nature of human flourishing, invites readers to consider wisdom drawn from various religious, philosophical, and literary traditions. He challenges the often superficial metrics of happiness promoted by modern society, urging readers to reflect deeply on the kind of life they want to lead — one that is not just pleasurable or successful by conventional standards, but that is positively shaped by adversity, contemplation, and interconnectedness.
In our conversation, we discuss how growing up as the son of a Pentecostal minister in Former Yugoslavia influenced Volf's relationship with Christian theology, why faith is a “comfortably difficult” thing, why “finding your authentic self” is a problematic concept in modern culture, how social media, divisive political currents, and the relentless drive for productivity distract us from what matters most, and the nobility in pursuing a richer, more intentioned, and just life.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:12 - What Volf’s work as a systematic theologian entails, and key childhood experiences that shaped his relationship with faith
12:18 - The philosophical basis for the Yale class that inspired the book Life Worth Living
20:23 - Why Volf uses Smokey Bear as a representation of the pursuit of a meaningful life
26:53 - Shifting the focus of life from personal desires toward the quest to live by “truth”
40:38 - The inherent challenge in shifting focus away from “I, Me, and Mine”
45:49 - How the search for a meaningful life relates to the experiences of a medical professional
51:42 - Advice for how to add philosophical practices to a busy modern life
Miroslav Volf is the author of 17 books, including Life Worth Living (2023)
Past episodes discussed in this episode:
Episode 95: Shaping a Soul, Building a Self | William Deresiewicz
Episode 21: Pain, Pleasure, and Finding Balance | Anna Lembke, MD
Visit www.TheDoctorsArt.com for transcripts of all episodes. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, send an email to [email protected].Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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Most people shudder at the idea of an infectious disease outbreak — patients stricken with a mysterious illness, hospitals overflowing, and cities going into lockdown. But for Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc , MCP, rushing into such a scenario, donned in a hazmat suit, to control the chaos has been a dream since childhood. Today, she is an epidemiologist, biosecurity advisor, and a pathogen preparedness expert who serves as Senior Director of the System-Wide Special Pathogens Program at New York City Health and Hospitals, which operates the municipal health care system of New York City.
Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Madad shares what excites her about the work of infectious disease control, why she believes we have emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic worse prepared for the next pandemic, how scientists and doctors can better communicate with the public in the absence of clear data, the importance of utilizing trusted messengers in the community to fully deploy the power of public health, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:09 - How a movie led Dr. Madad to become an infectious disease preparedness expert
6:54 - An overview of Biosafety levels (BSL)
9:30 - Moments in Dr. Madad’s career when disease containment went well and moments when it did not.
12:27 - How Dr. Madad mentally and emotionally manages the heavy weight of often-lethal infectious diseases
18:05 - Dr. Madad’s opinion on how COVID-19 policies were handled
24:02 - Dr. Madad’s personal thoughts on the potential origins of COVID-19
26:55 - What concerns Dr. Madad most about future pandemics and how we can make positive steps toward recovering trust in science
35:40 - Dr. Madad’s advice for those considering a career in public health or infectious diseases
Dr. Syra Madad appears in the Netflix special Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak.
Dr. Syra Madad can be found on Twitter/X at @syramadad.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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For many physicians, having serious illness conversations with patients — talking about a dire prognosis or the futility of curative treatments — is one of the most daunting aspects of patient care. But to palliative care physician Shunichi Nakagawa, MD, these conversations are fundamentally about communicating the honest truth in an elegant, considerate, and humane way.
Dr. Nakagawa, the director of the Inpatient Palliative Care Service at Columbia University Medical Center, joins us in this episode to discuss both his unique personal journey, as well as his insightful approach to figuring out what really matters to patients during critical moments in their lives. He shares what it was like completing his surgical training in Japan, than coming to the United States with the hope of becoming a liver transplant surgeon, before having those hopes dashed when he found out he was ineligible to work as a surgeon in the US due to his hepatitis carrier status, and finally discovering his true calling in geriatrics and palliative care.
We also discuss cultural challenges in thinking about the end of life, why it is so difficult for physicians to communicate with their patients about serious illness, how clinicians ought to approach shared decision making, and why, when done well, this can be one of the most meaningful and rewarding parts of doctoring.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:34 - How Dr. Nakagawa entered a career in medicine in Japan
5:33 - Dr. Nakagawa’s unique journey through medical training, from surgery to palliative care
16:25 - The three-stage process that Dr. Nakagawa follows when communicating challenging medical information to patients
28:10 - Delivering medical advice in a succinct way when speaking to patients and their family members
36:14 - Lessons on what works and what doesn’t work in sensitive patient communication
Dr. Shunichi Nakagawa can be found on Twitter/X at @snakagawa_md.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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When Impossible Foods released its first product, the Impossible Burger, in 2016, it was met with equal parts curiosity, skepticism, and excitement. This plant-based “meat that bleeds” was seen as a novelty item. Today, Impossible Foods’ expanded line of offerings, from sausages to chicken nuggets to Italian meatballs, can be found in most American grocery stores at a price that rivals traditional meats.
The founder of Impossible Foods is Pat Brown, MD, PhD, a physician and molecular biologist who, after seeing the detrimental impact of animal farming on deforestation, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions, made it his ambitious mission to create a sustainable food system by reducing our reliance on animal agriculture. He set out to develop plant-based alternatives to meat that not only matched, but surpassed the taste and nutritional value of traditional meats, harnessing biochemistry to recreate the sensory experience and culinary qualities of meat at a molecular level.
In this episode, Dr. Brown joins us to share his early career path from clinical pediatrics to biochemistry research, along the way inventing the DNA microarray, now an essential laboratory tool used to measure the expression levels of thousands of genes. He then discusses the origins of Impossible Foods, the scientific breakthroughs that have propelled its success, and how he hopes to inspire a cultural shift towards more sustainable eating habits and ensure a healthier planet for future generations.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:41 - How Dr. Brown was initially drawn to a career in medicine
7:54 - Why Dr. Brown chose to transition from clinical work to biomedical research
14:05 - How Dr. Brown’s drive to tackle the biggest problems of humanity led to the creation of Impossible Foods
24:19 - The scientific approach that Impossible Foods takes in creating its products
30:17 - Whether plant-based meats are too highly processed
38:40 - Dr. Brown’s vision for the future of food
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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Many people regard dementia as a fate worse than death, in large part because it strikes at the essence of our humanity — our memories, identity, and relationships with others. Unlike diseases that primarily afflict the body, dementia erodes the mind, leading to a gradual fragmentation and loss of self and autonomy.
The burden of this disease on caregivers also cannot be understated. Not only does dementia require comprehensive, long term care that addresses the afflicted individual’s cognitive, behavioral, and physical issues; witnessing a loved one's slow and irreversible decline often exerts an immense emotional toll on the caregiver. Additionally, the pervasive stigma and isolation associated with dementia can leave caregivers feeling unsupported and alone.
Our guest on this episode is Dasha Kiper, a clinical psychologist who works with caregivers to people with dementia. She's the author of Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, The Caregiver, and the Human Brain (2023). The book explores the complex relationship between caregivers and dementia patients, which are frequently rife with heartbreak, guilt, frustration, helplessness and shame. Over the course of our conversation, Dasha shares her transformative personal experiences working as a caregiver, why caregivers deserve more empathy and understanding, ethical dilemmas over medical interventions and patient autonomy, navigating the distorted reality in the mind of a dementia patient, coping strategies for caregivers and healthcare professionals, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:13 - How Dasha “stumbled” into working as a live-in caregiver for a dementia patient while still in school
4:44 - How serving as a caregiver for a dementia patient shaped Dasha’s views of neurological illness
10:23 - Managing the “loss of shared reality” that often occurs between the caregiver and the dementia patient
23:45 - The added emotional toll that dementia can take on family members
32:46 - What human dignity means in the context of dementia care
36:55 - Fostering self-compassion as a clinician or caregiver by connecting with community
49:16 - Dasha’s advice for finding community support if you are a family caregiver
Dasha Kiper is the author of Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia The Caregiver and the Human Brain (2023).
Past episodes and works discussed in this episode:
Episode 62: Navigating my Father’s Alzheimer’s as a Doctor | Sandeep Jauhar, MD
My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s by Sandeep Jauhar, MD
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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There once was a time when indoor smoking was allowed in workplaces all across the United States, when trans fats were ubiquitous, and when fast food restaurants didn't have to post calorie information on their menus. That wasn't so long ago, and it's in large part thanks to the pioneering efforts of Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, Health Commissioner of New York City from 2002 to 2009, that these changes were made. Dr. Frieden’s city-wide initiatives during this time included steps to reduce tobacco use (by banning indoor smoking, increasing tobacco taxes, and aggressive anti-tobacco ads), to ban trans fats and mandate proper nutrition labeling in restaurants, and to rapidly expand screening for diabetes and HIV. All of these efforts have since been adopted nationwide and have gained practically universal acceptance by the public.
Prior to this, Dr. Frieden spearheaded tuberculosis control measures in New York City and India, drastically slashing rates of multidrug resistant tuberculosis. He was also director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during which time he led the CDC's response against the H1N1 influenza pandemic, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the Zika virus epidemic. Most recently, he leads Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative aiming to prevent cardiovascular disease primarily through advocacy of lifestyle interventions.
Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Frieden shares his personal path to a career in infectious disease and public health, lessons learned from his work on tuberculosis control, striking the balance between curbing personal liberties and protecting community health, key insights into effective public health communication particularly when dealing with incomplete information or data, the evolution of the political and partisan nature of health policy, why preventing heart disease is so critical, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:00 - How a conversation with his father drew Dr. Frieden to a career in public health
5:40 - Dr. Frieden’s early work tackling tuberculous as a “management problem”
9:05 - Balancing individual rights with the health of the public
17:55 - The formula Dr. Frieden has used to choose which particular public health issues to focus on
28:08 - Strategies for effective health communication with the public
33:08 - The mission of Dr. Frieden's organization Resolve to Save Lives
39:16 - Dr. Frieden’s thoughts on how to navigate public health communications in the light of changing scientific knowledge
45:50 - The important lessons that Dr. Frieden learned from his patients about public health during his time as a clinician
Dr. Tom Frieden is the President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives.
Dr. Frieden can be found on Twitter/X at @DrTomFrieden.
People and Work discussed in this episode:
Dr. Karel Styblo
Dr. Nancy Messenior’s February 2020 COVID address
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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It is well documented that descendants of Holocaust survivors exhibit greater levels of anxiety, depression, and vulnerability. The trauma of domestic violence can ripple through generations, with maladaptive coping mechanisms and emotional instability perpetuating subsequent cycles of trauma and dysfunction. The brutal history of slavery in the United States is seen today in the form of persistent economic disparities and ongoing social injustices, affecting mental and physical health across generations. All of this, in various forms, is intergenerational trauma. Extending beyond the individual, the emotional and psychological wounds of this type of trauma embeds itself within the family lineage through behavioral patterns, emotional responses, and even biological alterations.
Our guest on this episode is Mariel Buqué, PhD, a health psychologist who specializes in helping individuals experiencing intergenerational trauma. Her book Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma (2024) reveals the invisible threads that link the past and present and highlights the necessity for healing not just individuals, but entire family systems and communities. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Buqué shares how she draws on her experiences as an Afro-Latina immigrant from the Dominican Republic in her work, how a health psychologist connects with patients, how intergenerational traumas happen and their devastating effects on individuals, families, friends, and community members, and more.
In this episode you’ll hear about:
2:00 - What drew Dr. Buqué to the field of psychology
5:19 - What health psychology is
8:40 - What occurs in a course of treatment with a psychologist
18:30 - An overview of intergenerational trauma
28:00 - The far-reaching effects of intergenerational trauma in society and how psychology can help unload the burden
35:50 - Breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma
40:30 - The role of stigma in access to mental health care
45:10 - Dr. Buqué‘s approach to building trust with patients
48:28 - How all clinicians can better empathize and connect with their patients through trauma-informed care
Dr. Mariel Buqué is the author of Break the Cycle: A Guide to Healing Intergenerational Trauma (2024).
Dr. Buqué can be found on Instagram at @dr.marielbuque.
Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024
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