The Doctor's Art
The practice of medicine–filled with moments of joy, suffering, grace, sorrow, and hope–offers a window into the human condition. Though serving as guides and companions to patients’ illness experiences is profoundly meaningful work, the busy nature of modern medicine can blind its own practitioners to the reasons they entered it in the first place. Join resident physician Henry Bair and oncologist Tyler Johnson as they meet with doctors, patients, leaders, educators, and others in healthcare, to explore stories on finding and nourishing meaning in medicine. This podcast is for anyone striving for a deeper connection with their medical journey. Visit TheDoctorsArt.com for more information.
Episodes
132 episodes
At the Edge of Precision Medicine | Euan Ashley, MBChB, DPhil
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 pr...
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Episode 131
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1:07:30
From Gunshot Survivor to Trauma Surgeon | Joseph Sakran, MD, MPH
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 n...
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Episode 130
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52:23
The Link Between Love and Loss | Rachel Clarke
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 profou...
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Episode 129
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58:43
Food for Thought | David Perlmutter, MD
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 incr...
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Episode 128
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1:01:36
A Physician to the Soul | Miroslav Volf
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 unmoor...
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Episode 127
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1:01:42
Inside the World of Outbreak Response | Syra Madad, DHSc, MSc, MCP
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,...
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Episode 126
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42:05
Finding the Right Words When It Matters Most | Shunichi Nakagawa, MD
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
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Episode 125
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47:22
A Dual Struggle of Dementia and Dignity | Dasha Kiper
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 th...
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Episode 123
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56:05
A Resolve to Save Lives | Tom Frieden, MD, MPH
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, a...
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Episode 122
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51:14
Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Trauma | Mariel Buqué, PhD
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 ins...
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Episode 121
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55:53
“Ubuntu” and the Soul of Medicine | Christian Ntizimira, MD
The Genocide Against the Tutsi, occurring in Rwanda between April-July 1994, was a devastating episode of mass violence in which nearly 1 million people were killed over a period of 100 days. Fueled by longstanding ethnic tensions, political po...
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Episode 120
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57:14
A Philosophy of Grief | Mikołaj Sławkowski-Rode, PhD
Death and grief are much more “hidden” from society today than they once were. The medicalization of dying means that death now occurs more frequently in hospitals and care facilities than at homes. The secularization of society means that trad...
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Episode 119
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1:03:30
Encountering Suffering — A Live Discussion | Sunita Puri, MD and Jay Wellons, MD
For a profession like medicine in which suffering — be it physical, psychological, existential, or spiritual — is so commonly encountered and experienced, we have developed remarkably little shared vocabulary to talk about what suffering means....
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Episode 118
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1:14:35
Living Well Without Free Will | Robert Sapolsky, PhD
Most of us take free will for granted — from the biggest of life decisions to choosing an ice cream flavor, we are generally capable of freely deciding how to think and how to behave without outside influence. But
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Episode 117
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53:17
Evolution, Human Nature, and Our Purpose in Life | Samuel Wilkinson, MD
Conventionally, we are taught that evolution implies there is no ultimate purpose to our existence, that life lacks inherent meaning — we are the product of countless intricate molecular and genetic accidents. And to many, evolution leaves litt...
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Episode 116
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1:06:45
Cancer as a Family Affair | Mark Lewis, MD
For Mark Lewis, MD, cancer has defined his entire life. Growing up, he witnessed his father's valiant struggle with cancer before it eventuall...
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Episode 115
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53:32
A Life in Medical Innovation and Philanthropy | Sue Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of over $50 billion, is one of the largest and most influential philanthropic organizations in the world. With a focus on addressing globa...
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Episode 114
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49:27
Fostering Moral Leadership | Ira Bedzow, PhD
In today's world, the idea of “identifying your values” is so ubiquitous, appearing from corporate mission statements to self-help books, that it can seem trivialized to the point of meaninglessness. But in this episode,
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Episode 113
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49:27
Terminal Lucidity at the Edge of Life and Death | Alexander Batthyány, PhD
Terminal lucidity is a mysterious yet well-documented phenomenon in which someone at the end of life—including those who have suffered strokes or other brain injuries, or those afflicted by dementia—suddenly returns with mental clarity and i...
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Episode 112
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50:18
Leading the Leaders of Medical Education | David Skorton, MD
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) plays a crucial role in health care. As the organization that oversees medical education and thus the pipeline of future medical professionals in ...
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Episode 111
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54:03
The Sky Was Falling — Stories from a COVID Diary | Cornelia Griggs, MD
In spring of 2020, Cornelia Griggs, MD was finishing her nearly decade-long training to become a pediatric surgeon in New York City, when COVID-19 struck and life fell apart. The ho...
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Episode 110
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57:32
Rethinking Health in an Aging Society | Linda Fried, MD, MPH
To many health economists, the growing aging population is the greatest public health challenge facing America. The current fragmented and costly healthcare system is simply incapable of dealing with the complex medical and socioeconomic nee...
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Episode 109
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54:25
Tales from the Wild West of Cardiac Surgery | Gerald Imber, MD
The history of cardiac surgery is filled with tales of intrepid surgeons with larger-than-life personalities who pushed the limits of the human body and the bounds of what were then considered acceptable medical practices. The result? Heart tra...
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Episode 108
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48:04
To Create a Vaccine | Paul Offit, MD
Rotavirus, a highly contagious virus that causes severe diarrhea and vomiting, used to kill more than half a million children annually. But the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine has slashed that number dramatically, saving hundreds of thous...
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Episode 107
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57:07