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The Doctor's ArtOne Hundred Voices Later — A RetrospectiveIn the 100th episode of The Doctor's Art, we reflect on the lessons and insights we have heard from guests over the past two years. We first share the story of how The Doctor’s Art podcast came to be, then we discuss some of the most meaningful and impactful episodes for us and how the show has changed the way we practice medicine and approach life. Finally, we share exciting new directions in which we hope to take the program.In this episode, we discuss: 1:45 - How The Doc...2024-02-201h 02The Doctor's ArtReflections on Happiness from 80 Years in Medicine | Gladys McGarey, MDBorn in India in 1920, Gladys McGarey, MD has a life story marked with various pivotal moments of the 20th century. She witnessed Gandhi's Salt March in her final childhood days in India, arrived in the US amid the Great Depression, began medical school four months before the US joined World War II, and became a physician at a time when few women were accepted in the profession. She would later co-found the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine and the American Board of Integrative Medicine. At over 100 years old, Dr...2024-01-3035 minThe Doctor's ArtA Doctor for the People | Ricardo Nuila, MDBen Taub Hospital, located in the heart of Houston, Texas, is the city's largest hospital for those who cannot afford medical care. Texas, in turn, is the US state with the country's largest uninsured population. Amid chaotic emergency rooms and busy hospital wards serving the most financially and medically vulnerable people, Ricardo Nuila, MD finds meaning and beauty through stories he hears from his patients. In addition to his duties as a hospitalist at Ben Taub Hospital, Dr. Nuila is an associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where he...2024-01-2350 minThe Doctor's ArtShaping a Soul, Building a Self | William DeresiewiczAs an English professor at Yale University, essayist and literary critic William Deresiewicz observed a trend across American higher education that troubled him deeply. Instead of learning to think independently, critically, creatively, and courageously, students were increasingly subscribing to a mode of careerism, credentialism, and conformism that focused on climbing the academic or professional ladder. So what is the value of higher education? As Deresiewicz writes in his 2014 book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, colleges, first and foremost, are supposed to teach you to think, to help y...2024-01-1649 minThe Doctor's ArtRandom Acts of Medicine | Anupam Jena, MD, PhDWhat happens to the mortality rates of cardiac arrest patients on days when there is a marathon happening in the city? What happens to surgical complication rates when it's the surgeon's birthday? Why do patients of younger doctors seem to have better health outcomes? These and other quirky questions are what preoccupy health economist, Anupam Jena, MD, PhD. Dr. Jena is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, host of the popular Freakonomics, MD podcast, and, together w...2024-01-0948 minThe Doctor's ArtBeing (Im)Mortal | Tony Wyss-Coray, PhDFrom ancient myths to science fiction, humans have long been fascinated by the idea of transcending the limits of our natural lifespan. But what does modern medicine say about the practical, actual possibilities of extending human life? Joining us to explore this tantalizing question is Tony Wyss-Coray, PhD, a neuroscientist and director of the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience at Stanford University. While his research focuses on age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease, his work has involved identifying the “biological age” of various organs and its implications on v...2023-12-1952 minThe Doctor's ArtCaring for a Broken World | Arthur Kleinman, MDMedical anthropology provides a lens through which we can view the intricate tapestry of human health, woven with the threads of cultural beliefs, social structures, and biological realities. Few have played a more significant role in creating this discipline than psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman, MD, whose early, extensive field work in Taiwan and China have shaped how we think about cross-cultural healthcare systems and their impacts on human suffering. Many of his books, including The Illness Narratives and Patients and Healers in the Context of Culture, have become seminal texts in medical anthropology. Dr. Kleiman is also a moral philosopher...2023-12-121h 00The Doctor's ArtInside a Suicidal Mind | Clancy Martin, PhDSince childhood, Clancy Martin has been preoccupied with, and even addicted to, the idea of suicide. A survivor of more than ten suicide attempts. Clancy has spent his life wrestling with questions like: where do these impulses come from? Why am I haunted by them? Why do I feel so much guilt? Can I be helped?Clancy is a professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri — Kansas City, where he teaches existentialism, moral psychology, philosophy of the mind, and ethics. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and th...2023-12-0555 minThe Doctor's ArtHealing Our Crisis of Disconnection | Jeremy Noble, MDIn recent years, loneliness has transformed from a private, personal experience into a full blown public health crisis. Studies have repeatedly shown that loneliness and social isolation increase the risk of premature death, dementia, and all sorts of mental illnesses. In this episode, Jeremy Noble, MD shares how he is combating our national crisis of loneliness by fostering connection through art and storytelling. Dr. Noble is the founder of the Foundation for Arts and Healing, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, and the author of the 2023 book Project...2023-11-2848 minThe Doctor's ArtA Seat at the Table — Leading the AMA | Jesse Ehrenfeld, MDWhen Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD attended his first meeting at the American Medical Association (AMA) as a first year medical student, he was struck by the collaborative spirit he witnessed among physicians of all specialties from across the United States. But he was also filled with insecurity over whether he, as a gay man, would ever be truly accepted for who he was. 22 years later, Dr. Ehrenfeld is now the first openly gay president of the AMA. An anesthesiologist by training, he is also a senior associate dean and tenured professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. 2023-11-2151 minThe Doctor's ArtThe Doctor Who Cycled the World | Stephen Fabes, MBChB"It's like having a backstage pass to the world." That's how Stephen Fabes, MBChB describes his epic adventure exploring all six inhabited continents on a bicycle. Over the course of 6+ years, he cycled across 75 countries and 53,000 miles, discovering how human stories shape our conceptions of health and illness. Currently an acute medicine specialist at the Royal London Hospital, Dr. Fabes is also the author of the 2020 memoir Signs of Life: A Doctor's Journey to the Ends of the Earth. His writings have also appeared in The Guardian, T...2023-11-1441 minThe Doctor's ArtThe Possibilities and Perils of Digital Health | Jag Singh, MD, PhDIt's been less than a year since ChatGPT was released in November 2022, but in that time, reports have emerged of ChatGPT outperforming physicians in everything from clinical reasoning to documentation and even to empathetic communication with patients. How are we to make sense of the role of clinicians when artificial intelligence and digital health technologies seem to be advancing at a pace beyond our reach?Here to discuss this is Jag Singh, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and former Clinical Director of...2023-11-0755 minThe Doctor's ArtReflections at the End of Sight | Andrew LelandImagine if, as a teenager, you were told that you would lose your vision over the course of a few decades. How would you approach your life, your world, and the people in it? Joining us to discuss these questions is writer Andrew Leland. Andrew has retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that affects the retina's ability to respond to light, leading to progressive irreversible vision loss. Andrew's works have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and elsewhere, and he is the author of a 2023 memoir titled The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End...2023-10-3151 minThe Doctor's ArtThe (Small-P) Politics of Medicine | Josh Sharfstein, MDFor many people, the idea of politics in healthcare conjures up hyperpartisanship, where power and party loyalty trump public interest. But Joshua Sharfstein, MD is passionate about politics and health care because to him, these are opportunities to bring together wide-ranging expertise and navigate seemingly irreconcilable interests to implement changes that change the lives of millions. Dr. Sharfstein has led a career reflective of this passion. He has served as the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, the Principal Deputy Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, and...2023-10-2449 minThe Doctor's ArtAddiction as a Chronic Illness | Nzinga Harrison, MDAddiction and substance use disorders have long been mired in misconception and stigma, seen as moral failings or a lack of willpower. But the reality is far more complex and nuanced. In this episode, we are joined by Nzinga Harrison, MD, a psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist who is the co-founder of Eleanor Health, a tech-enabled provider of comprehensive and longitudinal care for substance use disorder and mental health. Dr. Harrison holds a faculty appointment at the Morehouse School of Medicine, previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, and is the author...2023-10-1750 minThe Doctor's ArtMoral Imagination in Medicine | Lydia Dugdale, MDMoral imagination is the ability to transcend one's own immediate context and experiences to explore diverse moral perspectives and ethical scenarios. In medicine, where decisions can reverberate profoundly through a patient’s life, moral imagination allows us to navigate the ethical complexities of particular situations while honoring the dignity of others. But how can this capacity be developed? Can we actually teach moral imagination to clinicians? In this episode, we are joined by Lydia Dugdale, MD, director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University, who has deeply ex...2023-10-1043 minThe Doctor's ArtZen and the Art of Psychotherapy | Mark Epstein, MDWhat is the intersection between psychotherapy and Buddhism? For decades, Mark Epstein, MD, a practicing Buddhist and psychiatrist, has deeply explored how Buddhist philosophy can be integrated into therapy to help patients heal from trauma. His key insight is that Buddhism grants us the wisdom to reshape our relationships with our personal stories, through which we conceptualize and contextualize our emotions and identities. Dr. Epstein is the author of Thoughts Without a Thinker, The Trauma of Everyday Life, Advice Not Given, 2023-10-0351 minThe Doctor's ArtMythbusting Medicine | Jen Gunter, MDDespite advances in medicine, issues in women's health are still often mired in stigma, shame, misinformation, and disparities in access and societal standards. In this episode, we are joined by Jen Gunter, MD, who is perhaps the most well-known and outspoken gynecologist in the world. She has made it her life's work to dispel potentially dangerous myths about women's health and, more broadly, the wellness industry. Dr. Gunter is the author of The Preemie Primer, The Vagina Bible, Menopause Manifesto, and the upcoming book Blood: The Science, Medicine, and Mythology of Menstruation. She is also a columnist on women's...2023-09-2647 minThe Doctor's ArtFinding Hope and Healing in the ER | Michele Harper, MDIn many ways, emergency rooms are the frontlines of health care, serving as the initial point of contact for people experiencing sudden and severe health problems or accidents. In other ways, emergency rooms are the last line of defense, serving as a critical catch-all for vulnerable populations who have nowhere else to go. How can doctors reconcile the tension between the desire to help others with the frustrating inability to address the many systemic causes of health problems encountered in the ER—homelessness, mental illness, domestic violence, substance use disorder, and more? Here to explore this question is ...2023-09-1949 minThe Doctor's ArtTranscendence in the Age of Science | Alan Lightman, PhDWhen we gaze at the stars and wonder at our place amid the expanse of the universe, or when we witness the birth of a child and marvel at the miracle of existence itself, or when we listen to music that seems to touch our soul — there are moments in life when we feel a transcendent connection to things larger than ourselves. But how are we to make sense of these experiences in the age of science? In perhaps our most meditative episode yet, we speak with Alan Lightman, PhD, a theoretical physicist and hu...2023-09-1245 minThe Doctor's ArtThe Mind in Rebellion — Reflections on a Career in Neurology | Stephen Hauser, MDMultiple sclerosis is the most common disabling neurological disease among young adults. It's a disease in which the body's immune system begins attacking the protective covering around nerve cells, leading to a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from vision problems to difficulty walking fatigue to dizziness to speech problems. Our guest on this episode, neurologist Stephen Hauser, MD, has led research that has been key to developing our understanding of this disease, and his work has resulted in treatments that have helped hundreds of thousands of people. Dr. Hauser is a director of the 2023-09-0642 minThe Doctor's ArtHow Public Health Saved Your Life | Leana Wen, MDAccording to emergency physician Leana Wen, MD, MS, "public health saved your life today, you just don't know it." Having been appointed the Baltimore City Health Commissioner at the age of 31, she certainly has the credentials and stories to illustrate this assertion. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, public health played a frequently misunderstood and under-appreciated role in our society, ranging from sanitation and immunization to mental health support and pollution control. In addition to her public health work, Dr. Wen is the author of the 2021 memoir Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the...2023-08-2936 minThe Doctor's ArtStorytelling is the Oldest Medical Technology | Laurel Braitman, PhDStorytelling is the oldest medical technology — so claims our guests on this episode, Laurel Braitman, PhD, an acclaimed author and Writer-in-Residence at Stanford School of Medicine. Laurel offers a uniquely qualified perspective on the matter, having grown up in a medical family and now mentoring clinicians everywhere to help them fulfill their writing goals. She received her doctorate in History and Anthropology of Science from MIT, and her most recent work is a 2023 memoir titled What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love. Over the course of ou...2023-08-2249 minThe Doctor's ArtWhen a Cancer Nurse Becomes a Cancer Patient | Theresa Brown, PhD, RNWhen professor of English literature Theresa Brown, PhD, BSN, RN decided to become an oncology nurse, she suddenly found herself juggling seemingly-impossible patient expectations. And when she later was diagnosed with breast cancer herself, she was forced to confront the paradoxes of a healthcare system that demands so much of its practitioners yet provides insufficient support for them. She recounts these revelations in her recent book, Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Theresa is also the author...2023-08-1557 minThe Doctor's ArtThe Beauty of Impermanence | Sunita Puri, MDDespite the optimism of modern healthcare promising ever more miraculous cures, there are inevitably moments in medicine that compel us to face the fact that not all problems can be fixed. Recognizing the limits of medicine and navigating the space between what can be done and what should be done for a patient requires a fundamental shift in mindset, one imbued with an understanding that sometimes acceptance is the most compassionate response. Our guest on this episode, palliative care physician Sunita Puri, MD, has dedicated her life to probing this...2023-08-081h 01The Doctor's ArtThe Physician Who Cured Himself | David Fajgenbaum, MDAs a medical student, former college quarterback David Fajgenbaum, MD was at the peak of his health and physique when he suddenly came down with a mysterious disease that, within weeks, led to multiple organ system failure. Dr. Fajgenbaum found himself on the brink of death over and over again in the intensive care unit, at one point receiving his last rites, with all of his doctors baffled about the cause of his illness. When the culprit was eventually found to be Castleman Disease, a rare disease entity that to...2023-08-011h 05The Doctor's ArtResilience Against Burnout | Gail Gazelle, MDAccording to our guest on this episode, Gail Gazelle, MD, there has never been a more difficult time to be a doctor. Whether or not you agree with this statement, it's true that clinicians today are expected to see more patients in less time than ever before, spend hours on the electronic medical record, and manage countless administrative and organizational pressures. Dr. Gazelle is a physician coach who specializes in helping doctors build resilience and confidence in order to overcome burnout and rediscover joy in medicine. She is the author of the book 2023-07-2551 minThe Doctor's ArtThe Spirit and the Body | Kerry Egan"All dying is a spiritual process," says our guest on this episode, hospice chaplain Kerry Egan. By this, she means that each person's death is more than just a biological event; it's an opportunity to reflect on the culmination of our human experiences, the lessons we’ve learned, and the impact we've had on others. The recognition of our impermanence prompts us to grapple with questions of legacy and purpose, infusing our mortal existence with depth and significance. Over the course of our conversation, Kerry describes how she became a chaplain, how she supports pa...2023-07-1858 minThe Doctor's ArtLife and Loss in Transplant | David Weill, MDA lung transplant—taking some or all of one person's lungs and putting them into someone else, giving the recipient years of additional life—sounds nothing short of miraculous. Today, over 2500 lung transplants are performed every year in the US. Still, it's among the most medically and ethically complex areas of medicine. Joining us in this episode is David Weill, MD, former director of the Lung and Heart-Lung Transplant Center at Stanford Health Care. He is also the author of Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant2023-07-1157 minThe Doctor's ArtAddressing Healthcare Inequities Through Patient Relationships | Lisa Cooper, MDIt’s no longer a surprise that the race and ethnicity of a patient influence their health outcomes. But back in the 1990s, when Lisa Cooper, MD first documented and published findings that supported the role of patient race on the quality of physician-patient interactions, these were groundbreaking, even radical ideas. Today, Dr. Cooper, a physician and social epidemiologist, is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and a Bloomberg Distinguished professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has designed in...2023-07-0455 minThe Doctor's ArtHealing from Trauma | Bessel van der Kolk, MDThough often invisible in our society, studies have shown that more than seven out of ten people experience trauma at some point in their lives, whether it's physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or a life-threatening accident or illness. In this episode, we speak with Bessel van der Kolk, MD, a psychiatrist and pioneering researcher on post-traumatic stress. His 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, spent 27 weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. He...2023-06-2757 minThe Doctor's ArtStress and the Mind-Body Connection | Kelly McGonigal, PhDWe live in a culture that vilifies stress. Stress, we are told, is unhealthy both physiologically and emotionally, and something to be avoided at all costs. But Stanford University health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, PhD believes that by suppressing or ignoring it, we're missing out on the benefits of effective stress management. Kelly is also a bestselling author whose work focuses on the mind-body connection and the psychology of compassion and mindfulness. In this episode, Kelly shares the personal experiences that led her to this work, the myths and misconceptions surrounding stress, the role of...2023-06-2059 minThe Doctor's ArtVision for the Future of Medicine Michael F. Chiang, MDFor over 50 years, the National Eye Institute (NEI) has been a driving force for cutting-edge vision research, education, and public health guidance. In this episode, we speak with Michael F. Chiang, MD, Director of the NEI. A pediatric ophthalmologist by training, Dr. Chiang's work focuses on the application of biomedical informatics to ophthalmology, in areas ranging from telehealth to artificial intelligence to health data management. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Chiang describes the elegant intricacies of the human eye, shares what excites him most...2023-06-1350 minThe Doctor's ArtEveryday Wonder in Medicine and Beyond | Dacher Keltner, PhDAwe is a feeling we've all experienced but often struggle to articulate. Whether it's the sheer scale of a skyscraper, the infinite expanse of a starry night sky, or the miracle of childbirth, moments of awe can strike us at unexpected times, leaving us speechless, inspired, and even profoundly transformed. In this episode, we speak with Dacher Keltner, PhD, a psychologist at UC Berkeley, where he is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and the host of The Science of Happiness podcast. Keltner is a leading researcher on human emotion whose work focuses on the socio-biological...2023-06-0652 minThe Doctor's ArtWhy It’s Hard to Put Patients First | Wendy Dean, MDFirst used in the context of Vietnam war veterans, the term "moral injury" refers to the psychosocial, behavioral, and spiritual distress that comes from perpetuating or witnessing events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs. In recent years, moral injury has increasingly been used to describe one of the main challenges clinicians face in modern medicine — the challenge of knowing what care patients need but being unable to provide it due to constraints beyond the clinicians control, such as limited time or misaligned financial structures. Even more than emotional exhaustion and detachment, moral injury leads to profound shame and guilt. On...2023-05-301h 01The Doctor's ArtLeading Through Crisis at the WHO | Soumya Swaminathan, MDWhen COVID-19 rapidly emerged, the World Health Organization (WHO) was thrust into an unprecedented challenge. The global pandemic response was in disarray; health care resources were limited and inequitably distributed; and misinformation burgeoned. At the center of this maelstrom was Soumya Swaminathan, MD, who served as the WHO’s first Chief Scientist, from 2019 until 2022. Dr. Swaminathan not only spearheaded efforts to disseminate the latest scientific findings about the coronavirus and vaccine development, but also became one of the major public faces of the WHO. In this episode, we discuss Dr. Swaminathan's formative years becoming a...2023-05-2343 minThe Doctor's ArtNavigating My Father's Alzheimer's as a Doctor | Sandeep Jauhar, MDNavigating the unforgiving hours and ethical challenges of medical training while holding onto humanism; the medical and cultural history of the human heart; the moving journey of a doctor as he wrestles with his duties as a son and caregiver for a father with dementia. These are just some of the diverse subject matters our guest in this episode, Sandeep Jauhar, MD, has written about. Dr. Jauhar is the director of the Heart Failure Program at Long Island Jewish Medical Center and a multiple-time bestselling author whose writings have also appeared in the 2023-05-1652 minThe Doctor's ArtEvidence-Based Lessons on Living a Good Life | Robert Waldinger, MDSince 1938, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has followed the lives of hundreds, and eventually thousands, of American adults, with the goal of discovering what enables people to live healthier, more meaningful lives. Joining us in this episode is Robert Waldinger, MD, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the current director of the study. He is the author of the book The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness. Over the course of our conversation, we explore the origins and evolution of the study...2023-05-0952 minThe Doctor's ArtThriving After Cancer | Tara Sanft, MDWhen we hear about people with cancer, the stories often end when the treatments end—either the battle has been won and the cancer cured, or in more tragic circumstances, the cancer takes the patient's life. But for patients who survive, that's not where the story ends. Cancer has fundamentally transformed their lives. How are they to make sense of the existentially threatening experience they have gone through? That's where cancer survivorship comes in. Joining us in this episode is Tara Sanft, MD, director of the survivorship clinic at Yale Cancer Center, where she hel...2023-05-0252 minThe Doctor's ArtA Space for Purposeful Rest | Judith ShulevitzIn the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Sabbath is a day of rest during the week. Our guest in this episode, Judith Shulevitz, is a journalist and literary critic who has thought deeply about what the secular world can learn about meaningful rest from the practice of the Sabbath. In her book The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time, she explores how, despite our culture of workaholism, we can still discover the restorative joy of rest, reflection, and family. Shulevitz is also a regular contributor to the ...2023-04-2559 minThe Doctor's ArtAnthropology and Medicine from the Bottom Up | Eric Reinhart, MDWe are joined in this episode by Eric Reinhart, MD, an anthropologist, psychoanalyst, and psychiatry resident at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. While Dr. Reinhart is the first resident-in-training we've had on this program, his path has been far from straightforward. Prior to residency, Dr. Reinhart conducted ethnographic work in Chicago's South Side, India, South Africa, and migrant communities in Southern Europe. Through this research, he addresses the multifaceted effects of poverty and social inequities on community health. In this conversation, we discuss how he applies his anthropology training to create culturally sensitive...2023-04-1854 min