The Art of Improvisation in Traditional Medicine

Part One

What if the body wasn’t a fixed map, but a living, improvisational landscape?

In this conversation with Lan Li, a historian, filmmaker, and rhythm-savvy thinker at the crossroads of medicine and imagination, we explore how anatomy is more than skin and sinew—it’s a set of metaphors, shaped as much by culture as by scalpels. Lan brings insight from her work in neuroscience, film, and Chinese medicine to help us consider how maps of the body aren’t just drawn—they’re felt, narrated, and revised in real time.

Listen into this discussion as we explore the improvisational nature of clinical work, the metaphoric structure of anatomy, the interplay between nerves and meridians, the persistence of imagination in medical history, and why ancient images might still be some of our most useful tools.

This episode invites a reimagining of what it means to know, feel, and practice medicine. Especially when inquiry is more like music than math.