Searching for Medicine’s Soul
47 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 days ago - ★★★★★ - 17 ratingsHosted 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.
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Episodes
Dasha Kiper on Supporting Dementia Caregivers
April 25, 2024 13:20 - 40 minutes - 73.7 MB“On this episode, Aaron is joined by Dasha Kiper, author of Travelers to Unimaginable Lands: Stories of Dementia, the Caregiver, and the Human Brain and a clinical trainer at Renewal Memory Partners. Aaron and Dasha discuss the impact dementia has on caregivers. Through cultural pressures, family dynamics, and a lack of support, caregivers have become what Dasha calls “invisible victims.”
Marc-David Munk on Emergency Medicine in Africa
March 28, 2024 12:00 - 43 minutes - 80.1 MBEpisode description: On this episode, Aaron is joined by Dr. Marc-David Munk, author of Urgent Calls from Distant Places: An Emergency Doctor’s Notes about Life and Death on the Frontiers of East Africa. Dr. Munk discusses his travels to the Middle East and Africa, Christianity’s role as a trusted institution in places where government has failed, and how to bring the focus back to patients in the American healthcare system.
Doron Gothelf on Traumatized Israeli Children After October 7th
March 14, 2024 16:45 - 1 hour - 113 MBOn this episode, Aaron is joined by Doron Gothelf, a professor of child psychiatry at Tel Aviv University and an integral member of the medical team involved in treating Israeli children hostages who have been released. Aaron and Doron discuss childhood trauma, how traumatic events affect the young, and Doron’s work with the victims of Hamas’ violence.
Lewis Grossman on Drug Regulation
January 04, 2024 13:00 - 56 minutes - 103 MBOn this episode, Aaron is joined by Lewis Grossman, professor of law at American University and author of the book Choose Your Medicine, to discuss the history of drug regulation and medical freedom.
Jim O’Connell on Medicine for the Homeless
December 14, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 127 MBOn this episode, Aaron talks with Dr. James O’Connell, author of Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor. Dr. O'Connell discusses his work providing medical care for the homeless in Boston, his experience working as a doctor for the homeless during the AIDS crisis, and the perverse incentives of the medical profession.
Dr. Samuel Shem on Our Hospital
November 16, 2023 13:00 - 33 minutes - 60.6 MBIn this episode, Aaron is joined by psychiatrist and novelist Samuel Shem, who wrote the satirical novel House of God. Aaron and Samuel discuss Samuel’s latest and final novel in the House of God series, Our Hospital. The book serves as a reflection of the truth of medicine during COVID in which hospitals are driven by profit over humanity.
Drs. Worsham and Jena on Natural Experiments and Doctors’ Biases
October 12, 2023 12:00 - 55 minutes - 102 MBIn this episode, Aaron is joined by Drs. Christopher Worsham and Anupam B. Jena, professors at Harvard Medical School and authors of Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health. The three discuss natural experiments and the biases and outside forces that impact doctors and health policy.
Ronald Dworkin on Educating Doctors in the Liberal Arts
September 28, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 70.2 MBIn 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.
MORAL MATTERS GUEST EPISODE: Jerry Muller on the Tyranny of Metrics
September 21, 2023 12:00 - 40 minutes - 37.1 MBWhat 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.
Norman Doidge on Mainstream Medicine and Methodology [Part 2]
September 14, 2023 12:00 - 57 minutes - 78.5 MBIn 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...
MORAL MATTERS GUEST EPISODE: Lawton R. Burns on the High Costs of Big Med
September 07, 2023 12:00 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBThe 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.
Norman Doidge on Neuroplasticity and Training the Brain [Part One]
August 31, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 119 MBIn the first 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 discuss the mind-body problem and how the brain’s ability to change pr...
Ilana Yurkiewicz on the Broken State of American Healthcare
August 17, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 110 MBIn 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 ...
Wendy Dean on Moral Injury in Healthcare
August 10, 2023 18:44 - 43 minutes - 59.7 MBIn 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 ...
Simon Whitney on Institutional Review Boards
August 03, 2023 13:24 - 44 minutes - 61.1 MBIn 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.
Elisabeth Rosenthal On American Healthcare Dysfunction
June 01, 2023 12:00 - 58 minutes - 80.9 MBIn 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.
David Yaden on Psychedelics and Spiritual Experiences
April 20, 2023 11:00 - 56 minutes - 77.2 MBIn 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.
Aaron Kheriaty on the Biomedical Security State
April 10, 2023 16:23 - 1 hour - 91.9 MBIn this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by fellow EPPC scholar Dr. Aaron Kheriaty. Drs. Rothstein and Kheriaty discussed the biomedical security state, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jim Capretta on Government and Rising Healthcare Costs
December 22, 2022 17:46 - 52 minutes - 71.9 MBIn this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron is joined by Jim Capretta, Senior Fellow and Milton Friedman Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. In the face of rising healthcare costs, the pair discuss the government's role in healthcare policy with an eye for providing patients with meaningful choice in quality treatment.
David Slusky on American Health Economics
December 15, 2022 13:00 - 36 minutes - 50.7 MBOn this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron interviews Dr. David Slusky of the University of Kansas. David is the Executive Director of the American Society of Health Economists as well as the De-Min and Chin-Sha Wu Associate Professor of Economics at KU. He is a co-founder and co-organizer of the Electronic Health Economics Colloquium, for which he recently successfully negotiated a partnership with ASHEcon for the spring. He is also the founder and the lead organizer of the Kan...
Economic Opportunity and Healthcare with Avik Roy
December 08, 2022 13:00 - 1 hour - 87.3 MBIn this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron is joined by Avik Roy, the President of the Foundation For Research on Equal Opportunity, a non-profit think tank focused on expanding economic opportunity to those who least have it. He trained as a scientist at MIT and as a physician at Yale Medical School. In 2012, Avik joined Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a health care policy advisor. By 2014, Avik was Forbes’ Opinion Editor. In 2015, Avik ran the foreign and domestic poli...
The Anticipatory Corpse with Jeffrey P. Bishop
November 24, 2022 13:00 - 1 hour - 86.7 MBIn this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron is joined by Jeffrey P. Bishop, M.D., Ph.D. Jeffrey is Professor of Philosophy and Theological Studies at St. Louis University where he also holds the Tenet Endowed Chair in Bioethics. He is the author of The Anticipatory Corpse and most recently the co-author of Biopolitics After Neuroscience: Morality and the Economy of Virtue. The two discuss the confluence of medical practice and human mortality in light of Jeffrey's research and ex...
Reimagining Chronic Illness with Meghan O’Rourke
October 27, 2022 14:24 - 48 minutes - 66.8 MBOn 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 a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Radcliffe Fellowship, and a Whiting Nonfiction Award, she resides in New Ha...
Every Deep Drawn Breath with Dr. Wes Ely
September 15, 2022 12:00 - 49 minutes - 67.7 MBOn 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 sedation, cognitive rehabilitation from neurological diseases, changing treatments acute cases ...
Tearing Us Apart with Ryan Anderson and Alexandra DeSanctis Marr
September 08, 2022 12:00 - 52 minutes - 52.9 MBOn 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 objections including the famous fetal violinist argument, and how the handling of the abortion i...
The Heart of Medicine with Danielle Ofri
September 01, 2022 12:00 - 52 minutes - 71.6 MBOn 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 the application of the adversarial patient compensation system to unintended medical errors. Se...
Fraudulent Science with Charles Piller
August 25, 2022 11:00 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBCharles Piller joins Aaron to discuss his latest investigative reporting for Science on potentially fraudulent Alzheimer's research.
From Survive to Thrive with Dr. Margaret Chisolm
August 17, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 62.6 MBDr. 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.
A Medical Missionary in the Nuba Mountains with Dr. Tom Catena
May 12, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBDr. 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. He volunteered at St. Mary’s Hospital in Nairobi for six years before helping establish the M...
Samuel Shem, part 2
April 28, 2022 11:00 - 54 minutes - 50.1 MBSamuel 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 by Publishers Weekly as #2 on its list of “The 10 Best Satires of All Time” (#1 Don Quixote, #3 ...
The Grieving Brain with Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor
April 07, 2022 11:00 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBDr. 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 University of Arizona in 2004 and completed a fellowship at UCLA. Following a faculty appointment ...
African Mission Healthcare with Dr. Jon Fielder
March 25, 2022 11:00 - 1 hour - 59.8 MBDr. 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 physician at AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kenya from 2002 to 2006, overseeing a US government-funded...
Samuel Shem
March 03, 2022 12:00 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBSamuel 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 Weekly as #2 on its list of “The 10 Best Satires of All Time” (#1 Don Quixote, #3 Catch-22). Grad...
The Other Victims of Covid-19 with Dr. Christine Hancock
February 10, 2022 12:00 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MBDr. 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 joint medical program and she completed her residency in Family Medicine at the Santa Rosa Family ...
Brain Death and Its Controversies with Dr. Ariane Lewis
February 03, 2022 20:26 - 37 minutes - 34.8 MBDr. 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 Project, is an observer on the Determination of Death Act Drafting Committee, and is the internatio...
The Art of Dying with Dr. Lydia Dugdale
January 27, 2022 13:06 - 57 minutes - 52.5 MBDr. 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 Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics and founding Co-Director of the Program for Medicin...
Covid-19 and Science with Ari Schulman
January 20, 2022 20:00 - 1 hour - 49 MBAri 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, Commentary, First Things, and Slate. He has previously been a research assistant in the Opinion depa...
Psychiatric Misadventures with Dr. Paul McHugh
January 06, 2022 12:00 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MBDr. 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 career that began with his training at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Ma...
Medicine‘s Weaknesses with Ross Douthat
December 16, 2021 12:00 - 58 minutes - 53.6 MBRoss 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 Memoir of Illness and Discovery, which was published in October 2021. His other books include To Cha...
Spirituality, Burnout, and Primary Care with Dr. Kristin Collier
December 10, 2021 12:00 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBDr. 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 and chief medical resident year at the University of Michigan Health System. Her special clinical...
Trust, Partisanship, and Medical Science with Yuval Levin
November 24, 2021 12:00 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MBYuval 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 senior editor at The New Atlantis, a contributing editor at National Review, and a contributing o...
Theology, Ethics, and Medicine
November 11, 2021 11:30 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBProfessor 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.
Theology, Ethics, and Medicine with Professor Charles Camosy
November 11, 2021 11:30 - 59 minutes - 54.7 MBProfessor 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 which artificially pit liberals and conservatives against each other. Instead, Camosy finds com...
The Way of Medicine
November 04, 2021 10:30 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBDr. 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 Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information
The Way of Medicine with Dr. Farr Curlin and Professor Christopher Tollefsen
November 04, 2021 10:30 - 1 hour - 58.7 MBDr. 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 Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information
Bioethics, Autonomy, and a Vaccine Lawsuit with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
October 28, 2021 10:30 - 59 minutes - 54.1 MBOn 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 Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI...
Introducing Searching for Medicine‘s Soul
October 26, 2021 13:50 - 3 minutes - 2.83 MBHosted 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 the Ethics and Public Policy's Bioethics and American Democracy program page for more information