The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

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.

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Top 10 The Doctor's Art Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Doctor's Art episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Doctor's Art for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Doctor's Art episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

In Service of a Greater Cause | Dean Winslow, MD

The Doctor's Art

05/10/22 • 42 min

Dean Winslow, MD has led an extraordinarily multifaceted career as an infectious disease specialist and former US Air Force colonel. In his pioneering work at the front lines of the AIDS epidemic, he headed one of the first HIV clinics in the country and created HIV treatments and diagnostics still used today. During his multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq as a flight surgeon, he commanded field hospitals that treated military personnel and local civilians alike. As a long-time professor of medicine at Stanford, he has been a popular mentor to hundreds of medical professionals. In this episode, with his trademark cheerful and humble demeanor, Dr. Winslow shares the colorful, poignant, and amusing stories he has collected over his decades of service.

In this episode, you will hear about:

Dr. Winslow’s personal path that led him to medicine and his initial work during the early days of the AIDS epidemic - 2:51
How Dr. Winslow manages the emotional burden that comes with treating seriously ill patients with HIV - 20:24
Dr. Winslow’s experiences in military medicine and how they have shaped his medical career - 25:31
A humorous story on solving a tough infectious disease case through medical detective work - 32:09
Dr. Winslow’s advice to medical trainees who may be struggling with burnout, and what improvements should be made to the healthcare system to take pressure off medical professionals - 36:51

A narrative essay by Dr. Winslow about his military medical career: Treating the Enemy.

Follow Dr. Winslow’s work at StanfordHealthcare.org

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 2022

Choosing Happiness | John Leland

The Doctor's Art

02/07/23 • 51 min

In 2015, New York Times journalist John Leland set out to follow the lives of six people over the age of 85. What John learned shattered his preconceived notions about aging, loneliness, and loss. The resulting 2018 book, Happiness is a Choice You Make, became an international bestseller and delved into how these older individuals found wisdom and joy in the later stages of life. In this episode, John joins us to discuss the transformational exploration he undertook and lessons on living well he has discovered from this journey.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How a college music reviewer came to write for The New York Times - 1:41
How John’s exploration of aging began when he was initially—reluctantly—assigned to write a series of articles on old age and retirement - 5:04
Reflections on how John’s expectations of aging — including loss, sadness, loneliness — were transformed over the course of this writing project - 9:01
How John discovers his interview subjects - 11:38
A discussion of John’s book, Happiness is a Choice You Make, and the lessons he learned from his subjects -14:44
Advice to young clinicians on finding moments of happiness in their careers - 26:19
John’s surprising realization that elders are not “depressed all the time” - 33:53
A discussion of John’s recent article, in which he was documents the last days of Shatzi Weisberger, a nurse and prominent death educator - 36:53
Reflections on how John’s relationships with older adults have changed his perception of death - 40:07
Advice to clinicians on how they can better help older patients connect with what makes their lives meaningful - 45:03

John Leland is the author of the book Happiness is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old.

He is also a staff writer at the New York Times . In this episode we discussed his articles How Loneliness is Damaging Our Health, and She Preached About Death Without Fear. Could She Practice it?

You can follow John Leland on Twitter @JohnLeland.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023

The (Small-P) Politics of Medicine | Josh Sharfstein, MD

The Doctor's Art

10/24/23 • 49 min

For 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 the Commissioner of Health for Baltimore City, and is currently Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Sharfstein discusses why public health matters, how he handles partisanship in politics, and his career highs and lows and lessons learned on effective crisis management.

In this episode we discuss:

2:16 - How medicine and politics ended up being a twin focus of Dr. Sharfstein’s career

5:07 - The milestones of Dr. Sharfstein’s career in healthcare leadership

8:39 - Why healthcare arouses such intense partisan political feelings

13:51 - How public health’s messaging and communication must change in light of current advancements in information technology

18:42 - The formative public health crises that Dr. Sharfstein has dealt with throughout his career

26:33 - Ideas for strengthening the US’s weak public health system

29:28 - How COVID-19 revealed the flaws of our public health system

33:55 - Dr. Sharfstein’s advice for clinicians who are interested in working in public health

38:00 - Sustaining drive and momentum amid bureaucracy in public health

41:56 - A sampling of the unsafe products that Dr. Sharfstein has successfully gotten taken off of the market

Dr. Sharfstein is the author of The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times.

You can follow Dr. Joshua Sharfstein on Twitter @DrJoshS.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023

Personalized Medicine — A Threat to Public Health? | James Tabery, PhD

The Doctor's Art

12/31/24 • 57 min

We have featured many techno-optimists on this show — healthcare leaders who believe that precision medicine and emerging technologies promise to revolutionize and democratize medicine in the best of ways. But look under the glossy veneer of this optimism and we see a far more complex story, one that touches on questions of power, inequity and the troubling ways in which genetics can be wielded, intentionally or not, to shape society in potentially dangerous ways.

Our guest on this episode is James Tabery, PhD, a bioethicist, philosopher, and author of the book Tyranny of the Gene” Personalized Medicine and its Threat to Public Health (2024). Tabery gives us a tour of the rise of personalized and precision medicine, a field that promises to tailor treatments to our unique genetic profiles. Importantly, though, he highlights how the blind pursuit of these advances can distract us from larger public health challenges and exacerbate inequality. In our conversation, we explore the historical forces that have shaped modern genetics, ethical dilemmas involving the tension between patient autonomy and societal justice, and necessary guardrails around technological advances.

We hope this conversation will challenge your assumptions, whether you are a clinician, a patient, or simply someone fascinated by the ways science shapes our world.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:15 - How Tabery became drawn to his work in philosophy and bioethics

5:30 - Tabery’s view on the potential perils of the constant march of scientific progress

9:34 - The ways in which his father’s early experience with precision medicine shaped Tabery’s thinking on the topic

19:33 - Examining the promises and realities of precision medicine

30:12 - Navigating the inequities caused by the exorbitant cost of precision medicine

35:29 - The challenges doctors face when approaching “financial toxicity”

40:00 - Tabery’s worries about medical genetics and AI

49:51 - How innovation be controlled in order to better align with ethical concerns

James Tabery can be found on Twitter/X at @jamestabery.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Transcendence in the Age of Science | Alan Lightman, PhD

The Doctor's Art

09/12/23 • 45 min

When 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 humanist who holds a unique vantage point on topics fundamental to our existence: time, space, matter, and human consciousness. Dr. Lightman is Professor of the Practice of the Humanities at MIT, the author of numerous novels and books on science and philosophy, and the creator and subject of the 2023 PBS documentary series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss where our sense of awe comes from, the role of spirituality in a materialist world, whether or not human consciousness will ever be understood on a physical basis, the interplay of faith and reason in modern scientific practice, and more.

In this episode, we discuss:

3:58 - How Dr. Lightman found himself at the intersection of physics and creative writing

5:46 - The ways in which physics is the most “philosophical” science

9:13 - The definitions of ‘materialists’ and ‘vitalists’

11:56 - How Dr. Lightman conceptualizes his position as a ‘Spiritual Materialist’

16:07 - Contending with materialism despite awe-inspiring, transcendental experiences

22:30 - Whether or not Dr. Lightman considers himself a ‘reductionist’

25:28 - Where our sense of awe and appreciation of beauty come from

32:17 - The role of faith in scientific pursuits

34:20 - Finding meaning in a materialist world

In this episode, we discuss Bertrand Russel’s Free Man’s Worship.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023

Lessons on Mortality and Dying Well | Ira Byock, MD

The Doctor's Art

05/03/22 • 45 min

Ira Byock, MD is a leading figure in hospice and palliative medicine, having developed many practices and tools that now define the specialty. For him, this profession is a continual pursuit of balancing the scientific and human aspects of medical care, to address patient well-being in a way that transcends conventional concepts of disease and illness. In this episode, Dr. Byock joins us to discuss how palliative medicine developed into what it is today, how viewing death as a normal part of human living can allow patients to create meaning at the end of life, and what all clinicians can learn from palliative care about good doctoring.

In this episode, you will hear about:

Dr. Byock’s early work in family and rural medicine and the moral crisis that awakened him to the need for palliative medicine - 1:51
Dr. Byock’s experiences in pioneering the nascent field of palliative medicine - 7:53
Combating the prevailing notion that medicine is only about treating injuries and curing illnesses - 11:16
A story about a dying patient and the extra mile Dr. Byock went for her, which solidified his belief in the power of palliative care - 17:05
Reimagining our relationship to death, both from the clinician’s and patient’s perspectives - 24:10
The Four Things that Matter Most - 31:19
Lessons learned from patients experiencing the end of their lives - 35:52
Dr. Byock’s advice to young medical professionals and students - 39:31

Connect with Dr. Byock on Twitter @IraByock.

Dr. Byock is the author of several books:

Dying Well

The Four Things that Matter Most

The Best Care Possible

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2022

Coaching Doctors to Address the Burnout Crisis | Rebecca Merrill

The Doctor's Art

04/19/22 • 42 min

A crisis of burnout is rippling through the medical community; physicians are experiencing ever-increasing mental, physical, and social strain while the healthcare system offers little assistance with that burden. For leadership coach Rebecca Merrill, this crisis is a calling. For years, she has been coaching senior leaders in healthcare to help them reconnect with what brought them to medicine in the first place. In this episode, we speak with Merrill about how she helps clinicians lead a purposeful life and how healthcare institutions can better safeguard against workforce attrition.

In this episode, you will hear about:

What coaching is, how it compares to therapy, and how it can help doctors - 2:20
What makes physicians unique when it comes to coaching them - 10:40
How Merrill responds to skepticism of coaching - 14:44
The primary causes causes of physician burnout - 16:32
How healthcare administrators can balance patient satisfaction with physician well-being - 24:32
Merrill’s advice to medical professionals around self-care 38:06
Merrill’s advice to healthcare leaders and administrators who want to better support and protect their staff from burnout - 40:28

Merrill's website can be found at MerrillLeadership.com.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2022

Decoding Cancer | Harold Varmus, MD

The Doctor's Art

12/06/22 • 40 min

A pivotal development in the history of cancer research was the discovery that cancers can arise from mutations in genes already present in normal, healthy cells. Joining us in this episode is Harold Varmus, MD, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1989 with his colleague, J. Michael Bishop, for this discovery. Their work has enabled scientists to explore why certain cancers develop in the human body and how we can develop better cancer treatments that target these genetic mutations. In addition to his pioneering research, Dr. Varmus has served as Director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Scientific Advisor to the US Government, World Health Organization, and various other foundations and academic institutions. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Varmus describes his groundbreaking research, approach to institutional leadership, and his advocacy for the democratization of scientific knowledge through his role in the founding of PubMed Central and the Public Library of Science.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How Dr. Varmus' broad educational interests led him to pursue a medical career - 2:56
How working at the National Institutes of Health drove Dr. Varmus’s passion for research and the trailblazing path his career took - 8:48
A summary of Dr. Varmus’s research on retroviral oncogenes, which led to major advancements in cancer diagnoses and treatments - 16:35
How Dr. Varmus became involved in the politics of science after receiving a Nobel Prize - 27:13
Dr. Varmus’ mission while he was Director of the National Institutes of Health and his perspectives on the elements of effective healthcare institutional leadership - 30:28
A discussion of open access publishing, a mechanism of distributing the results of scientific research online for free - 32:37

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Life and Death in 12 Hours | Christin Thankachan, BSN, RN-BC

The Doctor's Art

11/29/22 • 45 min

For all the crucial work physicians do in the hospital, no one spends more time with hospitalized patients than nurses. This is especially true in the intensive care unit, where nurses serve as patients’ conduits with their medical team and perhaps even with the outside world. Joining us in this episode is Christin Thankachan, an ICU nurse at Stanford Health Care who cares for the most seriously ill cancer patients in the hospital. Over the course of our stirring conversation, we ask her to reflect on how she guides patients and their families, with a comforting and compassionate hand, through life’s darkest moments. In addition, Christin shares the unique challenges she has faced as a frontline worker during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how she has maintained hope and meaning through these trying times.

In this episode, you will hear about:

How Hurricane Sandy pushed Christin towards a career in nursing - 2:06
The differences between a nurse’s responsibilities in an intensive care unit and a medical/surgical unit - 5:13
What a typical day is like for an ICU nurse - 7:26
How Christin finds the physical, emotional, and psychological stamina to care for some of the sickest patients in the hospital - 10:22
The kinds of relationships Christin forms with her patients and how she strives to elevate the human connection - 13:49
The importance Christin places on recognizing the fullness of the humanity within each patient - 21:16
The power of hope for patients facing serious illnesses - 31:50
What it was like to serve as a frontline worker in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic - 36:38
Advice on how to stay connected to the most meaningful aspects of a healthcare profession, even in the darkest times - 40:47

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

Leading Through Crisis at the WHO | Soumya Swaminathan, MD

The Doctor's Art

05/23/23 • 43 min

When 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 pediatrician in India, specializing in treating children with tuberculosis and HIV, as well as the challenges she faced as a leader at the WHO in a time of eroding public trust.

In this episode, you will hear about:

Dr. Swaminathan’s experiences training to become a doctor in India - 2:05
How Dr. Swaminathan discovered the balance between her interests in clinical medicine and research - 6:00
Dr. Swaminathan’s reflections on the challenges of caring for children with tuberculosis and HIV - 9:38
A discussion of global research funding disparity - 14:08
How Dr. Swaminathan joined the WHO and eventually came to fill such a critical leadership role there - 19:04
Dr. Swaminathan’s recollections of the arrival of COVID-19 from her perspective as the WHO’s first Chief Scientist - 21:28
Lessons learned in health communication from the pandemic - 27:46
The experience of being a lightning rod for online harassment and misinformation - 35:07
Dr. Swaminathan’s advice to new clinicians who are considering pursuing a career in global health - 39:25

You can follow Dr. Swaminathan on Twitter @DoctorSoumya.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

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FAQ

How many episodes does The Doctor's Art have?

The Doctor's Art currently has 142 episodes available.

What topics does The Doctor's Art cover?

The podcast is about Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Medicine, Podcasts and Philosophy.

What is the most popular episode on The Doctor's Art?

The episode title 'Life and Death in 12 Hours | Christin Thankachan, BSN, RN-BC' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on The Doctor's Art?

The average episode length on The Doctor's Art is 51 minutes.

How often are episodes of The Doctor's Art released?

Episodes of The Doctor's Art are typically released every 7 days.

When was the first episode of The Doctor's Art?

The first episode of The Doctor's Art was released on Feb 28, 2022.

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The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Top 10 The Doctor's Art Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does The Doctor's Art have?

What topics does The Doctor's Art cover?

What is the most popular episode on The Doctor's Art?

What is the average episode length on The Doctor's Art?

How often are episodes of The Doctor's Art released?

When was the first episode of The Doctor's Art?

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