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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When a religious person is isolated from their community, whether due to hospitalization or military service, they can often rely on a chaplain for spiritual support. But where does a non-religious person turn when facing the same circumstances? And what tools do they have for meaning making?
Our guest is Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT and author of the New York Times bestselling book Good Without God. As a humanist chaplain, Greg has spent his career building ethical communities that are united around the idea that human sociality and interdependence are a sufficient foundation for a meaningful life. Greg’s writings have been published widely, including in TIME magazine and The Washington Post, and he is a prominent public speaker in humanist and interfaith communities.
In our conversation, Greg explains the role of a humanist chaplain, why a humanist chaplain is not necessarily an oxymoron, and how he guides individuals on their meaning-making journey. We discuss Greg’s candidate for the world’s most powerful word and a humanist’s argument for pursuing the work of healing over wealth. And finally, Greg walks us through the thesis of his most recent book Tech Agnostic – how technology has become a religion of its own, with a particular set of downsides.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:30 - Mr Epstein’s personal definitions of ‘chaplain’ and ‘religion’
8:23 - How Mr. Epstein uses a humanist framework to guide meaning-making
24:35 - Is there an absolute ‘good’?
33:25 - The risks of technology as a religion
45:30 - Advice for medical professionals engaged in the work of healing while operating within a system built for profit
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2025
The Morals and Morale of Healthcare Providers | Farr Curlin, MD
Episode 157
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 • Duration 01:01:57
Many medical trainees are driven to medicine by their moral or religious principles — only to find that they are expected to check their principles at the patient’s door. When this happens, physicians and patients may lose the opportunity for deeper, more healing relationships.
From a young age, Dr. Curlin was intrigued by the moral dimensions of medicine. As a medical trainee, he began to study how the religious backgrounds of physicians inform their practice. He is the co-author of The Way of Medicine, in which he challenges the modern “provider of services” model and calls for a recovery of medicine’s spiritual foundations as a healing profession. Now, at Duke Divinity School, he spends significant time helping physicians re-center their practice around the question: “What is Good?”
Over the course of our conversation, we discuss attitudes toward religion in the medical profession and how many medical professionals worry that being openly religious may make them seem retrograde — or worse. We explore striking the balance between offering physician wisdom while respecting patient autonomy, consider whether the project of medicine makes sense when viewed through the lens of secular humanism, and reflect on how the physician attributes of humility and respect enable physicians to productively bring their full selves to the bedside, all while practicing medicine within a morally pluralistic society.
Virtue and Good Medicine | John Rhee, MD, MPH
Episode 148
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 • Duration 55:18
There is something uniquely haunting about many neurological diseases. These conditions often don't only affect the body — they reshape the very foundation of who we are, our memories, our personalities, our language. When the brain begins to fail, the boundary between illness and identity start to blur; the person we know begins to fade even before their life has ended.
In this episode, we are joined by John Rhee, MD, MPH, a neuro-oncologist and palliative care physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, whose work sits at the intersection of science, suffering, and the soul. He cares for patients with brain tumors and neurodegenerative diseases, conditions that challenge our deepest assumptions about selfhood, dignity, and what it means to live a meaningful life. Dr. Rhee is also the co-founder and executive director of The Hippocratic Society, a community of clinicians that aims to cultivate virtues that characterize good medical practitioners and ideals that make medicine a sacred profession.
Over the course of our conversation, we talk about suffering — not just physical pain, but the existential kind. We explore how the brain anchors our identity, how its decline confronts us with profound questions, how medical education can improve by training doctors to be more reflective in their work, why an element of spirituality remains critical to medicine, what it means to accompany someone through decline, and more.
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
3:00 - Dr. Rhee‘s path to medicine
6:30 - The general scope of focus for a neuro-oncologist
Anthropology and Medicine from the Bottom Up | Eric Reinhart, MD
Season 1 · Episode 58
Tuesday, April 18, 2023 • Duration 54:40
We 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 systemic changes and how healthcare providers can play a more active role in engaging with their communities.
In this episode, you will hear about:
How having a deaf brother led Dr. Reinhart to medicine - 1:54
Dr. Reinhart’s observations of the disconnect between the ideals he heard in medical school and the reality of how profit-driven hospitals operate - 5:59
Why Dr. Reinhart pursued a study in anthropology to learn how to address contemporary social ills - 12:46
How a case study of drug-resistant tuberculosis in Russian prisons informed Dr. Reinhart’s evaluation of pandemics - 19:37
What drew Dr. Reinhart to psychoanalysis and psychiatry, and how he applies them to his field studies - 26:41
A discussion of the power structures inherent to medico-social field work and how to properly determine what a community needs - 32:04
Advice on how doctors and medical trainees can become empowered to help change the systems they work in - 41:21
How Dr. Reinhart hopes to apply his experiences to improve community-based care - 48:42
You can follow Dr. Eric Reinhart on Twitter @_Eric_Reinhart.
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Self-Care, the Right Way | Pooja Lakshmin, MD
Season 1 · Episode 57
Tuesday, April 11, 2023 • Duration 57:11
The wellness industry saturates our cultural consciousness, with juice cleanses, organic skincare, and spa retreats flooding our social media feeds. But what does this plethora of dazzling — and often-expensive — lifestyle products all amount to? Not much, argues Pooja Lakshmin, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in women's mental health and clinical assistant professor at George Washington University School of Medicine. As she writes, "our understanding of self-care and wellness is incomplete at best and manipulative at worst. We cannot meditate our way out of a 40 hour workweek without childcare. These wellness products keep us looking outward, comparing ourselves with others or striving for perfection." She details her ideas for achieving true wellness in her recently released book, Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness. In this episode, Dr. Lakshmin joins us to discuss how she overcame her own struggles working in medicine and details practical strategies for real self-care, which, in her words, "isn't a thing to do or buy, but a way to be."
In this episode, you will hear about:
How Dr. Lakshmin’s rocky initial foray into medicine led her a career in psychiatry - 2:15
Dr. Lakshmin’s disillusionment with medicine, her two years away from the profession, and what she learned from immersing herself in the wellness industry - 5:34
Reflections on the state of the wellness industry - 10:42
An overview of Dr. Lakshmin’s book Real Self-Care and what real self-care looks like - 15:52
A deeper dive into the first principle of real self-care: boundary setting - 18:47
A discussion of how the American healthcare system often exploits doctors and nurses - 24:25
The second principle of real self-care: self-compassion - 32:08
The third principle of real self-care: knowing your values - 38:44
The fourth principle of real self-care: empower oneself to create change - 45:09
Dr. Lakshmin’s advice on getting control of your self-care journey - 50:43
Seeing Beyond Disability | Dashiell Meier
Season 1 · Episode 56
Tuesday, April 4, 2023 • Duration 39:51
Approximately 1 in 700 babies in the United States are born with Down Syndrome. Yet, despite how common this condition is for people, we don’t often have the chance to hear their stories. In this episode, we are joined by Dashiell Meier, a young aspiring filmmaker and disability advocate who has Down Syndrome. Over the course of our conversation, we have the wonderful opportunity to explore how Dashiell sees the world as he reflects upon the stereotypes that society holds against people with disabilities, discusses what makes his favorite doctors stand out, shares his passion for storytelling, and offers advice to clinicians on how to better connect with patients who have disabilities.
In this episode, you will hear about:
How Dashiell currently helps Stanford medical students learn to communicate with patients with disabilities - 1:47
Dashiell’s academic interests and career aspirations in the entertainment world - 3:22
Dashiell’s interactions with doctors and what makes his favorites stand out - 5:22
A discussion of the stereotypes that people with Down Syndrome face - 7:42
What Dashiell wishes people knew about Down Syndrome - 11:00
The movement for people with disabilities that Dashiell is spearheading, and what he hopes to achieve through it - 19:10
Advice on building good relationships with people who have disabilities - 27:00
The projects Dashiell intends to create as a filmmaker - 32:04
How to develop greater empathy for people with disabilities - 34:46
Advice to new clinicians and trainees on how best to interact with patients with disabilities - 37:10
You can follow Dashiell’s film and video projects on his YouTube channel. You can also follow him on Twitter @DashiellMeier.
Visit our website where you can find transcripts of all episodes.
Adventures Through the Human Body | Jonathan Reisman, MD
Season 1 · Episode 55
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 • Duration 59:18
From Tanzania to India, from Tibet to Antarctica, Jonathan Reisman, MD, our guest in this episode, has practiced medicine in truly diverse regions of the world. Dr. Reisman's talents and passions are unparalleled in their variety; he is, among many things, an emergency physician, naturalist, food writer, travel writer, and wilderness survival expert. He is the author of The Unseen Body, an exploration of the human anatomy through all of its miraculous, mundane, bizarre, and surprising parts, presented through the eyes of a lifelong adventurer. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Reisman shares his experiences traveling through the most remote areas of the world, what his voyages have taught him about health and illness, the impact of emerging digital technologies on the doctor-patient relationship, and much more.
In this episode, you will hear about:
How a love of the natural world led young Dr. Reisman to travel abroad and ultimately to the medical profession - 2:04
Dr. Reisman’s early adventures studying sociology in the Russian Far East - 5:30
The parallels between exploring the natural world and the human body - 9:26
The puzzle-solving aspects of medicine and the impact of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence - 12:18
Dr. Reisman’s reflects on his time practicing medicine in India, Tanzania, Nepal, and Antarctica, and the importance of the physical exam in these settings - 21:15
The strengths and limitations of the physical exam, especially as they relate to the clinician-patient relationship - 31:53
How artificial intelligence will complement human physicians in the future - 36:38
What Dr. Reisman believes is critical to the future of medical education - 46:12
Dr. Reisman’s advice to young clinicians on how to keep their curiosity alive - 55:10
Supporting the Mental Wellness of Physicians | Caroline Elton, PhD
Season 1 · Episode 54
Tuesday, March 21, 2023 • Duration 53:22
For all the deeply rewarding moments medicine offers, it is also a profession often intensely challenging on both systemic and personal levels. Our guest in this episode is Caroline Elton, PhD, an occupational psychologist who has devoted her career to counseling doctors and medical trainees in the National Health Service and various medical schools in the UK. She is the author of Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors, which discusses the physical, mental, and emotional toll of medical training and practice. Among other issues, she writes about how doctors deal with guilt and shame, gender and racial discrimination in health care training, the erosion of the clinician-patient relationship in modern medicine, and how clinicians can build emotional resilience. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Elton shares what led her to this work, exposes the many shortcomings in how doctors are trained today, and explores how we can create a more humane path forward.
In this episode, you will hear about:
What led Dr. Elton to her unique work in counseling physicians - 2:04
Reflections on both the compassion and the callousness Dr. Elton witnessed as she observed physicians (her patients) in their working environments - 10:01
A review of medical training in the UK versus the US - 15:16
The kinds of patients Dr. Elton sees in her present work - 25:00
How institutional cultures can come to valorize toxic, brutal expectations placed on physicians - 27:03
How Dr. Elton’s managed her first patient, a doctor who was planning on quitting medicine just weeks after beginning her postgraduate training - 32:49
A discussion of how sexism and other forms of bigotry factors into burnout - 38:20
Why the screening process for selecting future doctors should be improved - 43:37
Shaping American Medicine | Jack Resneck Jr., MD
Season 1 · Episode 53
Tuesday, March 14, 2023 • Duration 58:15
The American Medical Association (AMA) is the largest professional association of physicians in the United States, comprising more than 270,000 clinicians across all medical specialties. It is involved in all aspects of American medicine, from establishing standards of care, to reforming medical education, to lobbying for health care policies. Our guest in this episode is Jack Resneck Jr., MD, chair of the department of dermatology at the University of California San Francisco and President of the AMA from 2022 – 2023. In this conversation, we explore Dr. Resneck's personal journey in medicine, how the AMA is addressing physician burnout, how the AMA is coming to terms with its own history with race relations, how digital health is transforming medicine, how health care reimbursement rates are determined, and how doctors can play a more active role in advocating for their own work.
In this episode, you will hear about:
Dr. Resneck’s early years as a self-described ‘policy nerd’ and growing up in a physician family - 2:10
How Dr. Resneck first became involved with the AMA - 6:01
A brief review of the history and mission of the AMA - 8:23
A discussion of the epidemic of burnout and how the AMA is addressing it - 12:45
A survey of the AMA’s current policy priorities - 23:42
A conversation around the incentive discrepancies around primary care medicine and how the AMA’s Relative Value Update Committee (RUC) is addressing this - 29:26
How artificial intelligence and other new technologies are shaping the future of medicine, and why physicians must take an active role in their development - 36:25
Matters of faith and spirituality are seldom openly discussed in medicine. But for our guest in this episode, pediatric palliative care doctor Elisha Waldman, MD, these issues are a daily fixture of his work. Dr. Waldman is former associate chief of the Division of Pediatric Palliative Care at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and former medical director of pediatric palliative care at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is the author of the memoir This Narrow Space, in which he describes his seven years working as a pediatric oncologist at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, while grappling with the ethical and political complexities that came with treating his Muslim, Jewish, and Christian patients. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Waldman discusses his formative religious upbringing, delves deep into what it means to be present with patients in moments of suffering and existential anguish, and examines what his experiences have taught him about the enigmas of life, death, faith, and identity.
In this episode, you will hear about:
How Dr. Waldman’s early interest in religious studies influenced his pursuit of a career caring for children with cancer - 2:12
Dr. Waldman’s religious upbringing as the son of a conservative Jewish rabbi - 7:00
A discussion of spiritual care in medicine and what it means to be a “spiritual generalist” versus a “spiritual specialist” - 13:49
Reflections on what brought Dr. Waldman to Jerusalem and what it was like to practice medicine in such a diverse and politically complex city - 23:01
How Dr. Waldman finds the emotional fortitude to continue giving care and comfort to children who are seriously ill - 26:11
In this episode, you’ll hear about:
2:48 - Dr. Curlin’s path to medicine and what drew him to a career at the intersection of religion and medicine
19:30 - Dr. Curlin’s thoughts on why doctors often feel they cannot be openly religious
35:45 - How Dr. Curlin would change medical training to create a deeper focus on personal commitments and moral conviction
41:15 - Exploring the limitations of artificial agnosticism at the patient’s bedside
51:50 - How fostering a spiritual connection to the work of healing can mitigate burnout
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2025
16:07 - Understanding the brain from both medical and existential perspectives
26:36 - The mission of The Hippocratic Society
40:45 - Why “virtue” is central to the focus of The Hippocratic Society
49:34 - How to get involved with The Hippocratic Society
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Dr. Pooja Lakshmin is the founder and CEO of GEMMA, a women’s mental healthcare education community focused on impact and equity.
You can follow Dr. Pooja Lakshmin on Twitter @PoojaLakshmin.
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023
.
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023
How a trainee can prepare themselves for the psychological demands of a medical career - 48:00
Advice to administrators and executives of how best to serve the psychological demands of their medical workforce - 50:34
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023
Dr. Resneck’s optimistic view of the future of the profession - 55:08
In this episode we discussed several reports and articles, including:
The Flexner Report, a 1910 survey of the medical profession that was used to standardize medical education.
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023
A discussion of powerful and beautiful moments in accompanying patients through suffering - 33:40
How pain differs from suffering and what physicians can do once they recognize that difference - 48:13
Dr. Waldman’s advice to young clinicians on being present and curious with patients - 57:25
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 info@thedoctorsart.com.
Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2023
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