Searching for Medicine’s Soul

In this episode of Searching for Medicine’s Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Ronald Dworkin, a 30-year practicing anesthesiologist, professor of political philosophy at George Washington University, and author of Medical Catastrophe: Confessions of an Anesthesiologist. Aaron and Ronald discuss the importance of medical physicians having a liberal arts education and the consequences of a lack thereof. 

What we choose to measure can distort our organizations, impact our workforce, and hijack our attention and resources. In this episode shared from the Moral Matters podcast, Simon Talbot and Wendy Dean talk to Jerry Muller, professor emeritus of history at the Catholic University of America and the author of The Tyranny of Metrics, about how that happens and how to create metrics that matter. Listen to more episodes from Simon and Wendy here.

In the second installment of a two-part conversation, Aaron is joined by Dr. Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who served on the faculty at Columbia University's Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Doidge is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Brain that Changes Itself, and The Brain’s Way of Healing. Aaron and Norman turn their conversation to mainstream medicine, which in Dr. Doidge’s view, has neglected the human soul through the deification of science. They also discuss the corruption of the scientific method by industry and government overreach.

The US went from small scale, local healthcare institutions to multibillion dollar megaproviders in barely a generation. In this episode shared from the Moral Matters podcast, Simon Talbot and Wendy Dean talk to Lawton R. Burns, MBA about his perspective on how it happened, what the true costs are, and what we all can do about it. Listen to more episodes from Simon and Wendy here.

Dr. Norman Doidge, author of bestselling books about the brain's ability to change, discusses the mind-body problem and the impact of neuroplasticity on healing. They explore the disconnect between experts in physical and mental health, the reductionistic approach in medicine, the impact of toxins on newborns, the concept of the 'noisy brain' after a stroke, biases in medicine, and the role of the acoustic reflex in human hearing.

In this episode of Searching for Medicine’s Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Ilana Yurkiewicz, a physician practicing oncology and internal medicine at Stanford University, published medical journalist, and author of Fragmented: A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Health Care. Aaron and Ilana discuss how America’s healthcare system functions in a way that blocks physicians from possessing complete knowledge of a patient’s medical history, and the detrimental effects of physicians being partially blindfolded as they practice.

In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Wendy Dean, a physician trained in surgery and psychiatry who is now focusing on finding innovative ways to make medicine better for both patients and physicians through her nonprofit, Fix Moral Injury. She is the recent co-author of If I Betray These Words: Moral Injury in Medicine and Why It's So Hard for Clinicians to Put Patients First and co-host of the podcast Moral Matters, Moral Injury of Healthcare. Aaron and Wendy discuss the difference between moral injury of doctors and physician burnout, as well as how the healthcare system contributes to symptoms of moral injury. 

In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by ethicist Dr. Simon Whitney, author of From Oversight to Overkill: Inside the Broken System That Blocks Medical Breakthroughs—And How We Can Fix It. Aaron and Simon discussed the system of Institutional Review Boards that has come to dominate and distort our system of medical research.

In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, senior contributing editor at Kaiser Health News, former New York Times reporter, and New York Times Best Selling author of An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. Dr. Rothstein and Dr. Rosenthal talked about the failures of the American healthcare system and the untenable costs and burdens it foists on patients and doctors. 

In this episode, Aaron was joined by Dr. David Yaden, who studies the measurement and experimental manipulation of mental states called altered states of consciousness. The two discussed spiritual experiences, religion, psychedelics and mental illness, and the ability to embrace a positive worldview through psychedelic substances.