This Podcast Will Kill You Special Episode: Gabriel Weston & Alive
Nov 18, 2025
Gabriel Weston, a surgeon and award-winning writer, captivates listeners with insights from her book Alive: Our Bodies and the Richness and Brevity of Existence. She discusses the personal connections we have with our anatomy, challenging the lifeless way anatomy is often taught. Weston shares her unique journey from English and philosophy to surgery, and reflects on the entwined experiences of being a doctor and a mother during challenging times. She emphasizes the importance of authentic communication in healthcare, urging listeners to embrace the stories behind our bodies.
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Episode notes
Anatomy Should Feel Alive
- Gabriel Weston reframes anatomy as living and personal rather than inert textbook facts.
- She argues anatomy teaching often feels dead and misses variations in women and people of color.
Conversion In The Operating Theater
- Weston left humanities to visit an operating theater and felt a near-religious conversion to surgery.
- That experience pushed her to retrain in sciences and eventually become a surgeon.
Skeleton Symbolism Masks Vitality
- Bones are dynamic living tissues constantly remodeled by osteoclasts and osteoblasts.
- The cultural symbol of the skeleton as death contradicts bone's ongoing vitality.
