Searching for Medicine’s Soul

On this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron is joined by Meghan O'Rourke . She is the author of the New York Times bestseller  The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness and The Long Goodbye , as well as the poetry collections Sun In Days , Once , and Halflife . Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, and more. The recipient of...

On this episode of Searching for Medicine’s Soul, Aaron is joined by Wes Ely, the Grant W. Liddle Endowed Chair in Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, physician-scientist, and author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath, a work chronicling the human element active in ICU medical practice. The two discuss Wes’ humanistic approach to his patients and how it shapes his views on the ethical use of...

On this episode of Searching for Medicine’s Soul, Aaron is joined by EPPC President Ryan T. Anderson and Fellow Alexandra DeSanctis. Ryan and Alexandra’s expert testimony from years of work in the pro-life movement and co-authorship of Tearing Us Apart: Why Abortion Harms Everything and Solves Nothing sheds light on the philosophical and medical grounds for the pro-life cause, common pro-abortion...

On this episode of Searching for Medicine’s Soul, Aaron Rothstein is joined by Danielle Ofri, Clinical Professor of Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and founder of the Bellevue Literary Review. The two discuss Ofri’s work chronicling the challenges to the relationship between doctor and patient: administrative creep in the medical field, nonprofit hospital (mis)behavior, and...

Charles Piller joins Aaron to discuss his latest investigative reporting for Science on potentially fraudulent Alzheimer's research. 

Dr. Margaret Chisolm joins Aaron to discuss her book, From Survive to Thrive, as well as human flourishing, the field of psychiatry, and the importance of visual arts in medicine.

Dr. Tom Catena joins Aaron to discuss his experience as a physician in the Nuba Mountains in the Sudan. Dr. Catena attended Brown University where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering, but felt called to missionary work. He attended the Duke University School of Medicine on a U.S. Navy scholarship. After graduating, he completed his Navy commitment and later began missionary work in Africa...

Samuel Shem joins Aaron to continue their conversation about The House of God, and its recent sequel, Man's 4th Best Hospital. Samuel Shem, Professor of Medicine in Medical Humanities at NYU Medical School, is a novelist, playwright, and activist. His first novel, The House of God, was called “one of the two most important American medical novels of the 20th century” by The Lancet and was chosen b...

Dr. Mary-Frances O'Connor joins Aaron to discuss her book, The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss. Mary-Frances O'Connor is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss, and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab in investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body. O’Connor earned a doctorate from the Uni...

Dr. Jon Fielder joins Aaron to discuss his medical mission work in Africa. Dr. Fielder has served as a medical missionary to Africa for almost 20 years. Graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Chemistry from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, in 1999, he earned his Doctor of Medical degree (MD) from The John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, in 2002. Dr. Fielder was a...

Samuel Shem joins Aaron to discuss his book, The House of God, and its recent sequel, Man's 4th Best Hospital. Samuel Shem, Professor of Medicine in Medical Humanities at NYU Medical School, is a novelist, playwright, and activist. His first novel, The House of God, was called “one of the two most important American medical novels of the 20th century” by The Lancet and was chosen by Publishers Wee...

Dr. Christine Hancock joins Aaron to discuss how she became interested in medicine and her experience serving an underserved population during the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Hancock is a medical director and family physician at Sea Mar Community Health Centers in Bellingham, Washington, and the clinical director for Sea Mar's opioid initiatives. She is an alumna of the UC Berkley UC San Francisco join...

Dr. Ariane Lewis joins Aaron to discuss the concept of death by neurologic criteria. Dr. Lewis is a professor in the departments of neurology and neurosurgery and the director of NYU Langone’s Division of Neurocritical Care. As an expert on end of life social ethical and legal controversies related to death by neurologic criteria, she served on the steering committee for the World Brain Death Proj...

Dr. Lydia Dugdale joins Aaron to discuss her book—The Lost Art of Dying—and the place of death and dying in our culture. Dr. Lydia Dugdale, MD is a New York City internal medicine primary care doctor and medical ethicist. She is Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University. Prior to her 2019 move to Columbia, she was the Associate Di...

Ari Schulman, editor of The New Atlantis, joins Aaron to discuss our mishandling of the pandemic, the faults of the CDC, and our misconceptions about science and scientific authority. Ari Schulman is editor of The New Atlantis, as well as editor of TheNewAtlantis.com and of the  New Atlantis Books  series. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, The Hedgehog Review, Comm...

Dr. Paul McHugh joins Aaron to discuss the purpose of psychiatry and psychiatric overreach in medicine. Dr. Paul R. McHugh is University Distinguished Service Professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he served as Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1975 to 2001. In a distinguished caree...

Ross Douthat joins Aaron to discuss his new book: The Deep Places. They address the difficulties of living with chronic illness and the weaknesses of modern medicine and the medical establishment. Ross Douthat joined The New York Times as an Opinion columnist in April 2009. Previously, he was a senior editor at The Atlantic and a blogger on its website. He is the author of The Deep Places: A Memoi...

Dr. Kristin Collier joins Aaron to discuss primary care, spirituality, and burnout in the medical profession. Dr. Collier is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the Health, Spirituality, and Religion program, and the Associate Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Training program at the University of Michigan Medical School. She completed her internal medicine residency an...

Yuval Levin joins Aaron to discuss scientific urgency and morality, political polarization, and mistrust in the institutions of science and medicine. Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founder and editor of National Affairs, he is also a se...

Professor Charles Camosy joins Aaron to discuss his new book: Losing Our Dignity. They address religion and medicine, secularized medicine, moral theology, medical ethics and the conundrum of limited resources in healthcare. Professor Charles Camosy is associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University. His work on bioethics and policy moves beyond stale and lazy arguments...

Dr. Farr Curlin and Professor Christopher Tollefsen join Aaron to discuss their new book: The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession. They address the purpose of medicine, physician burnout, patient and physician autonomy, conscientious objection, and the future of the profession. The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession Please visit the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethi...

On this inaugural episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Dr. Aaron Rothstein is joined by Dr. Aaron Kheriaty to discuss his journey as a physician, his work as a bioethicist, and his ongoing lawsuit over the University of California's vaccine mandate. Dr. Kheriaty is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he directs EPPC’s program in Bioethics and American Democracy. He is Profe...

Hosted by Dr. Aaron Rothstein and featuring expert guests, Searching for Medicine’s Soul explores medicine’s purpose: Why do physicians do what they do? How does the practice of medicine relate to scientific progress and human flourishing? The result is an in-depth analysis of the history and aim of medicine, and its collision with a thrilling and sometimes tragic age of discovery. Please visit th...