The Doctor's Art

What happens to the practice of medicine when machines begin to reason, summarize and even empathize — at least in the linguistic sense — better than humans do? In this episode, we meet with Michael Howell, MD, MPH, Chief Clinical Officer at Google, to explore the seismic shifts underway in healthcare as artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in clinical workflows. Dr. Howell, a pulmonary and critical care physician, has spent his career at the crossroads of clinical excellence and systems innovation. Before joining Google, he served as chief quality officer at University of Chicago Medicine. At Google, he leads the development and implementation of AI technologies intended to support scalable, safe and equitable medical care. Over the course of our conversation, we examine what AI is and isn't. We delve into how large language models are reshaping the cognitive labor of clinicians, the implications of machines that may someday outperform humans in diagnosis, and whether there is something inherently human about healing that algorithms will never capture. Along the way, we discuss not only the promises of AI, but also its hidden dangers, ethical landmines, and the enduring question — in a future defined by ever smarter machines. What does it mean to be a good doctor?In this episode, you’ll hear about: 2:43 - Dr. Howell’s path to medicine and eventually to becoming Chief Clinical Officer at Google 6:45 - Why examining the differences between theory and implementation of technology matters17:35 - The evolution of AI and its clinical capabilities26:05 - The definition of “thinking” in the age of AI36:11 - How AI could change the landscape of healthcare on a global scale50:26 - The ethics of using — and not using — AI in medicine54:36 - The role of a doctor in 20 years 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 2024

If you could be plugged into a machine that simulated the perfect experience — limitless joy, deep connection, a sense of purpose — yet you knew it wasn't real, would you choose to stay plugged in? This isn't just a philosophical exercise. As our lives become increasingly digitized, our relationships filtered through screens, our emotions managed by algorithms, our attention parceled out to feeds and notifications, we are confronted with a deeper question: what does it mean to have an authentic experience anymore? Our guest on this episode is Christine Rosen, a writer and cultural critic whose book The Extinction of Experience (2024) explores how the virtualization of our world is transforming not just our habits, but our inner lives. Drawing from philosophy, neuroscience, and her own reflections, Rosen examines what we lose when direct embodied experience gives way to digital mediation, whether that's our connection to the natural world, our relationships, or even our own sense of self. The repercussions for medicine are profound. In an era where care is often delivered through screens, where patients track their bodies through apps and data, and where wellness is increasingly conflated with optimization, how do we preserve what is human in the doctor-patient relationship, and how do patients navigate their own sense of health and wholeness in a world that so often substitutes simulation for substance? This is a conversation that cuts deep into one of the most pressing cultural currents of our time and its implications for how we connect, how we heal, and how we find meaning in being alive.In this episode, you’ll hear about: 3:00 - How Rosen came to focus her career on the history of technology5:51 - Why we should think proactively about the effects of technological advances on our behavior and society11:40 - How modern technology has encouraged impatience and disconnect with other humans27:06 - Why we should stop seeing technology as a means to “solve” or “overcome” human behavior 37:23 - The epidemic of loneliness that exists despite unprecedented levels of technological interconnectivity 45:37 - The moral challenges in our society’s attempt to end boredom, discomfort, and suffering 54:28 - How to think and act critically about the relentless march of technology57:17 - What we can do to make our lives flourishVisit 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

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 medicine6:30 - The general scope of focus for a neuro-oncologist 16:07 - Understanding the brain from both medical and existential perspectives 26:36 - The mission of The Hippocratic Society40:45 - Why “virtue” is central to the focus of The Hippocratic Society 49:34 - How to get involved with The Hippocratic SocietyVisit 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

Neurosurgery is known as one of the most precise and demanding specialties in medicine. It requires absolute technical mastery in a surgical field where a millimeter’s difference can be the deciding factor between lifelong disability or a life restored. But what happens when a surgeon trained to be objective and detached experiences deep personal loss? How does it reshape the way they practice medicine? In this episode, we are joined by Joseph “Jody” Stern, MD, a neurosurgeon and the author of Grief Connects Us: A Neurosurgeon's Lessons on Love, Loss, and Compassion (2021). His book is an honest, deep, personal reflection on how losing his sister shattered the emotional armor he had built as a surgeon — and in doing so, made him a better doctor. Over the course of this conversation, Dr. Stern discusses the complexity of neurosurgery and what it teaches about the fragility of life; why the way we talk to patients and families matters just as much as the procedures we perform; how his own grief changed the way he approaches medicine; and the pressure in medicine to stay emotionally detached and why that might actually be harming both doctors and patients. This is a conversation that extends beyond grief. It's about how we, as doctors, patients, and people, can show up for each other in ways that truly matter.In this episode, you’ll hear about:  2:37 - How Dr. Stern became drawn to neurosurgery and what has kept him in the field 6:00 - Dr. Stern’s quest to integrate palliative care into neurosurgery 10:06 - Why medical training often makes it hard for trainees to remember their humanistic calling15:54 - The importance of shifting medical training to focus to more on patient-centered care23:41 - Rethinking medicine to better honor the humanity of the patient 31:41 - Developing “emotional agility” as a physician 37:09 - The personal and professional insights that Dr. Stern experienced when he helped his sister through her battle with leukemia 47:47 - How to overcome compassion fatigue54:15 - Dr. Stern’s advice for new clinicians 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

In medicine, we are trained to fight for life — to extend it, preserve it and restore it. But sometimes the goal shifts from curing to comforting. That, in brief, is the essence of palliative care. It compels us to ask what it means to truly care for a person at the end of life, not as a failure of medicine but as a profound act of love. In this episode, we enter a space where time slows down, where every moment is cherished, and where medicine is tantamount to presence, dignity, and grace. George Mark Children's House in California is the first freestanding pediatric palliative care center in the United States, a place where children with serious, life-limiting conditions can spend their time in a home-like setting and live fully, where families find respite, and where end-of-life care is infused with humanity and meaning. It's a place that helps families navigate one of the hardest journeys imaginable, offering not just medical support, but also emotional and spiritual care. Joining us is Shekinah Eliassen, CEO of George Mark Children's House, who has dedicated her life to reimagining how we care for children with complex and terminal illnesses. She opens up about how the loss of her first son drives her work to this day. We'll explore the essence of pediatric palliative care, the misconceptions, the difficult conversations, the small joys, and the profound impact of honoring life, no matter how brief. This is a conversation about medicine at its most intimate and compassionate.In this episode, you’ll hear about: 2:53 - The family tragedy that introduced Eliassen to George Mark Children’s House15:08 - Eliassen’s personal experience with pediatric palliative care and how her understanding has evolved19:26 - How palliative care differs from physician aid in dying23:21 -  George Mark Children’s House’s approach to pediatric palliative care 28:09 - The importance of “savouring the moment”37:04 - Limiting factors that currently prevent pediatric palliative care from expanding 41:44 - The role that spirituality and religion play at George Mark Children’s House48:17 -  Eliassen’s advice to her past self on how to prepare for the life-changing experience of child lossShekinah Eliassen can be found on Instagram at @shekinahceliassen.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

Damon Tweedy, MD, is a physician and author known for his works on race and medicine. He discusses the challenges of navigating medical school as a Black man, including the pressure to be 'twice as good' and the feeling of invisibility among peers. Tweedy reflects on how his upbringing shapes his approach to patient care, emphasizing trust and humility. He also highlights the need for cultural competency in medicine, exploring how racial disparities impact healthcare and the importance of empathy in building clinician-patient relationships.

Physicians are trained to diagnose and treat disease, but they're not always taught how to lead. Yet in an era of increasing administrative burdens, evolving healthcare policies, and growing physician burnout, leadership skills have never been more essential. How can physicians reclaim their voices in healthcare decision making? What makes an effective physician leader in today's complex landscape? Here to answer these questions is Peter Angood, MD, President and CEO of the American Association for Physician Leadership, an organization dedicated to empowering physicians with the tools and strategies to lead successfully. With years of experience as a trauma surgeon and a leader of patient safety at organizations ranging from The Joint Commission to the World Health Organization, Dr. Angood has thought deeply about expanding the role of physicians beyond the bedside.Over the course of our conversation. Dr. Angood first takes us into the mind of a trauma surgeon dealing with split-second life-or-death decisions, then discusses the evolving role of physician leadership, trends that concern and excite him about modern healthcare, and concrete skills all clinicians can develop to lead meaningful changes.In this episode, you’ll hear about: 2:23 - How Dr. Angood became drawn to a career in medicine 5:58 - The day-to-day experience of a trauma surgeon 18:39 - How Dr. Angood expanded his role beyond the operating room21:44 - The role of the Joint Commission23:02 - Finding the balance between patient safety, teamwork, and physician autonomy 31:37 - Dr. Angood’s leadership philosophy 41:40 - Why all physicians should be seen as leaders43:45 - Dr. Angood’s advice for how to be successful in a leadership role 53:57 - Dr. Angood’s advice for new clinicians Dr. Angood is the author of Inspiring Growth and Leadership in Medical Careers: Transform Healthcare as a Physician Leader (2024) and All Physicians are Leaders: Reflections on Inspiring Change Together for Better Healthcare (2020). 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 American diet is the leading cause of death among Americans. Accumulating medical evidence now shows that poor diet not only contributes to heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, but also to cancer, Alzheimer's disease, liver disease, and much more. Despite its direct and indirect roles in causing half or more of all deaths, food is not something doctors learn about in their training, nor is it something that's emphasized enough to patients by the medical establishment. Our guest on this episode is Michael Greger, MD, a specialist in lifestyle medicine and one of the most trusted voices in evidence based nutrition and public health. He is the internationally best selling author of How Not to Die (2015), How Not to Diet (2019), and How Not to Age (2023). Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Greger shares his approach to healthy living, focusing on the surprising power of whole-food, largely plant-based diets in transforming our bodies at a molecular level. He discusses strategies for helping patients and ourselves achieve behavioral change and explores how our brains and palates are rewired by processed foods, how we can reverse this, the ethics of patient counseling around lifestyle interventions, why there is such a mismatch between nutrition beliefs and behaviors among physicians, and his most high-yield recommendations for starting your journey to eating well.In this episode, you’ll hear about: 2:45 - How Dr. Greger’s grandmother’s miraculous recovery due to diet change inspired him to build a career in nutrition science6:58 - The disconnect that exists between the American medical system and the science of nutrition 13:57 - Why nutrition education is lacking in American medical training 21:31 - Issues with compliance among patients trying to adopt a lifestyle of healthy eating28:00 - Supporting patients who are not interested in preventative healthcare measures 35:15 - Navigating the confusing and often conflicting landscape of nutritional studies 43:20 - Whether there is a universal dietary recommendation46:49 - Simple ways to improve your diet, starting todayVisit 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 2024

In recent years, it has become evident that loneliness is one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time — so much so that the US Surgeon General has labeled it an epidemic with far reaching consequences. The pain of isolation doesn't merely gnaw at our sense of belonging: it undermines our physical wellbeing, erodes our mental health, and places an invisible strain on communities. In this climate of ever widening personal and cultural divides, the collective call for deeper human bonds feels both urgent and universal. Our guest on this episode is Julia Hotz, a journalist and passionate advocate for social prescribing, the practice of directing people to community activities and social support networks as part of their health care. She is the author of the book The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service and Belonging (2024), in which she argues that whether it's group classes, volunteer opportunities, or simply forging new friendships, true well-being is as much about our social fabric as it is about physical health. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the psychology of isolation and loneliness, the tangible health effects of loneliness, the historical societal forces that drive humans increasingly apart, the role of social media in connecting and separating us, and how patients and physicians alike can take proactive and creative steps in making human connection an integral part of living well.In this episode, you’ll hear about: 2:50 - What social prescribing is and how it became Hotz’ focus as a journalist5:32 - How loneliness became a crisis in the era of social media 18:46 - The ways in which social prescribing can change the conversation between doctors and patients28:24 - The impact that our relationships and environments have on our physiological wellbeing 38:29 - How doctors and health care systems can leverage the power of social prescribing 45:00 - How social prescribing is beginning to find its place in the American healthcare system 56:03 - How social prescribing can bring a stronger sense of meaning into the lives of both patients and doctors To learn more about how you can get involved in the social prescribing movement, Julia recommends visiting Social Prescribing USA and socialprescribing.co. 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 2024

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 medicine35:29 - The challenges doctors face when approaching “financial toxicity”40:00 - Tabery’s worries about medical genetics and AI49:51 - How innovation be controlled in order to better align with ethical concernsJames Tabery can be found on Twitter/X at @jamestabery. 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 2024