House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy

In this special Q&A episode, the Surgeon General sits down with his long-time medical school mentor, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, to talk about their journeys to becoming healers. Dr. Remen is the creator of a medical training course called “The Healer’s Art,” which Dr. Murthy took as a medical student.  As a follow-up to their House Calls episode “Can We All Be Healers?” , the pair decided to reun...

What does it mean to show up for someone?    What does it mean to sit with another person’s pain?    And if we are hurting, why can it be so difficult to ask for help?  Part of being human is learning how to accompany people through hard times. Yet our culture looks at pain as a sign of imperfection, and vulnerability a sign of weakness. In this conversation, the Surgeon General and Rabbi Brous sh...

Do you have times when you miss your loved ones and just want to feel more connected?   Maybe a friend or family member is sick and you can’t connect in person. Maybe you’re traveling or are away for school. I know I have these moments. And when I do, I have a meditation I turn to, one that helps me feel loved and more connected. It only takes a few minutes, but it has the power to change my day....

Can spirituality enhance our mental health? That is the question that psychologist and researcher Dr. Lisa Miller has pursued through her career. During her clinical internship after graduate school, she observed how while some of her patients had symptoms of major depression that required medication, other patients carried a sadness that carried life’s big questions: What is the purpose of life?...

Do you wish it felt easier to make connections with others? In this episode, recorded live from the Barclays Center in NY, the Surgeon General and Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and composer Jon Batiste share their experiences with reaching out to others. Even with complete strangers or in brand new situations, their approaches have countered loneliness and paved the way for new relations...

Do you know someone who is struggling with loneliness? Do you ever feel the definition of success you’ve been sold your whole life isn’t right?    These are some of the questions the Surgeon General and our guest, actor Matthew McConaughey, posed recently to an auditorium full of students at the University of Texas at Austin. In response, almost every hand in the young audience went up.   In this...

Do you want to improve your mental and physical health?  Deepen your friendships?  Help reduce loneliness?     Our relationships are an important part of our health and well-being. In this bonus episode, the Surgeon General announces the 5-for-5 Connection Challenge: to take 5 actions over 5 days to build social connection. Already underway at many college campuses, this challenge is a way for all...

In this episode, we re-visit a conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of Yale University’s famed “happiness” course (which has been adapted into a free online course taken by 4+ million people). As we address a youth mental health crisis, the U.S. Surgeon General and Dr. Santos talk about ways college students can find greater happiness through simple changes in behavior and mindset. In a...

Yo-Yo Ma and the Surgeon General continue the conversation about the power of music. Yo-Yo reflects on how music was an antidote to his father’s loneliness while trapped in Paris during WWII, and how Yo-Yo shared his music to comfort people during the pandemic. Continuing with personal stories about connection, the conversation turns to parenting, why it seems harder for men to connect, and what M...

Healing can come in many forms. For world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, he sees his music as a way to create touch between humans. Tirelessly performing around the world, Yo-Yo shares his musical gift generously and collaborates with many musicians, knowing that music brings healing, solace and inspiration. Music is what gives his own life meaning.  In this conversation about the healing power of mus...

Nature matters to our ability to connect — with each other and ourselves. In this episode of House Calls, we explore how being in nature – whether it’s your local green space, or a national park, or somewhere in between – can build deep and important connections. Who better to take us on this journey than Baratunde Thurston, host of the PBS series “America Outdoors” and the podcast “How To Citizen...

In this episode of House Calls, the Surgeon General talks with actress and activist Ashley Judd, who brings along three friends she calls sisters in her chosen family. This five-way conversation explores the meaning of friendship, trust, and supporting one another in times of joy and hardship. From experiencing daily life to the devastating death of Ashley’s mother, country singer Naomi Judd, Ashl...

The end of summer and the arrival of fall marks a time of transition. Vacation time ends and school begins. No matter your age, for many of us, these kinds of transitions mean change, and change can give rise to anxiety. We all have anxiety. It’s part of being human. The question is whether we can transform that uncomfortable feeling of being anxious into a positive? To help us think through, and...

How can we become healers?   In these times of disconnection, we all search for sources of healing. One powerful, often untapped source is the healing we can provide for each other. For this conversation, I turned to my long-time medical school mentor, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. Rachel is widely known for launching the course The Healer’s Art, which has been taught to over 30,000 medical students, in...

As we enjoy the final swing of summer, we’re sharing one of our most memorable episodes.  What is the feeling you get when a sad, familiar song tugs at you? Or the exquisite pain that comes with the awareness of passing time and loves lost? Best-selling author Susan Cain identifies the simultaneous mixture of joy and sorrow in life as “bittersweetness.” In this conversation with the Surgeon Genera...

As we enjoy the final swing of summer, we’re sharing one of our most memorable episodes on building connection.   Why is food a foundation for human connection? Chef José Andrés has spent a lifetime of cooking for friends & family at home, in his many restaurants, and for people stricken by disaster around the world. For José, sharing and providing food spreads the empathy he believes people n...

Note: This episode was recorded in June 2023, prior to the SAG-AFTRA union declaring a strike.  Rainn Wilson describes himself as an actor and an artist, who writes some books about spirituality on the side. As well-known as Rainn is on the screen and stage, particularly for playing Dwight on the TV series “The Office,” we invited him on House Calls to talk about spirituality – specifically how sp...

As we face an epidemic of loneliness in our country, how are men and boys struggling for connection? What’s driving the increasing rate of suicide among men? And how does our culture affect the ways in which men and boys form friendships?  The Surgeon General and scholar Richard Reeves explore these questions and more. They discuss the complicated and troubling picture about how men and boys are f...

Friendships don’t just happen; they take nurturing to grow and deepen.  This episode is dedicated to friendships and the meaningful ways friends make our lives better. In this episode, the Surgeon General is joined by his two pals Sunny and Dave. Together, they have what’s called a moai.  Moais are a friendship tradition from Okinawa, Japan – essentially, it is a friend circle that starts in child...

Judy Woodruff is not done asking questions. A decorated and respected journalist, she anchored the PBS NewsHour for 15 years until she stepped down in 2022. Now, at age 79, she is traveling the country to answer: what is at the root of the division and disconnection our country faces today? And how do we fix that? To understand across different perspectives requires the ability to listen. At 79, J...

Whether it’s watching a young person struggle with a social situation, lose sleep to social media, experience loss, feel school stress, consider self-harm, or try to support a friend, so many adults worry about how kids are coping emotionally in an increasingly complex world. How can we adults help?  Dr. Lisa Damour, a psychologist and author, who has spent decades working as a clinician and resea...

How can vulnerability and openness help us through our darkest times and find our truest selves?    For Eric Nam, a voice loved by millions around the world, this was not an easy question to answer. In his rise to K-pop stardom he wrestled with mental health, experiencing feelings of anxiety, depression and ‘otherness.’ And he’s seen fellow stars succumb to mental health issues. But instead of hid...

Loneliness is an experience so many of us have. But what’s surprising is how loneliness impacts both our mental and physical health. To mark this week’s release of a groundbreaking new Surgeon General’s advisory on loneliness & social connection, Dr. Murthy answers the most common questions he’s asked about loneliness. He also shares some of the surprising science around the positive health ef...

How well do you balance your ideas of success with your happiness? And do you really understand what makes you happy?   In Part Two of their conversation about stress, the Surgeon General and Dr. Rangan Chatterjee talk about how our culture of striving for more can undermine our happiness. But if we can identify a few simple things that bring us joy, we can develop the skill of happiness. As an ex...

How do you experience stress? Does it come from a hard day at work? Or being stretched too thin supporting others? Worrying about food? Living in a difficult environment?   So many factors can contribute to stress, and we’re all feeling it. Dr. Rangan Chatterjee believes our stress levels are higher than ever and that it’s making us sicker. Dr. Chatterjee is a physician who practices lifestyle med...