Book Club: Recent Episodes
ReachMD
Join our hosts as they explore various genres in medical literature either for intellectual sustenance or for joy and entertainment. The ReachMD Book Club Series will introduce authors and topics to enliven and transform your reading experience. This series features a diverse array of medically-centered genres such as biographies and autobiographies, historicals, and contemporary fiction/non-fiction.
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, Author of "The Locum Life: A Physician's Guide to Locum Tenens"
Guest: Ronald Pies, MD
Does psychiatry want to become almost exclusively focused on biology and medication? We’ll hear Dr. Pies’ perspective on psychiatry as he speaks about his book, titled Psychiatry at the Crossroads: Can Psychiatry Find the Path to a Truly Humanistic Science? Tune in with Dr. Andrew Wilner and Dr. Ronald Pies, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at State University of New York Upstate Medical University and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Paul Craddock, PhD
Beginning in the mid-16th century up until present day, medicine has evolved tremendously. How did transplant surgery play an important role in doing so? Dive into the teachings with Dr. Paul Craddock, author of the book titled, Spare Parts: The Story of Medicine Through the History of Transplant Surgery, as he joins Dr. John Russell to dissect the surprising history of modern medicine.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Heidi Skolnik, MS, CDN, FACSM
For older adults, losing weight can be an almost impossible task…which then begs the question: have we been giving the wrong advice? And can stopping age-related weight gain and muscle loss be done in six simple steps? To find out, Dr. John Russell speaks with nutritionist and exercise physiologist Ms. Heidi Skolnik, co-author of The Whole Body Reset.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc
From immigrant child to public health leader, emergency physician and medical expert Dr. Leana Wen sits down with Dr. John Russell to share her journey. Together, they’ll discuss the personal experiences that have framed her career.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Paul Farmer, MD, PhD
Dr. John Russell meets with Dr. Paul Farmer, the Chair of Global Health at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Partners in Health, to review past pandemics and outbreaks while discussing things we can do as a community to lower the risk of these events.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Adam Hill, MD
Dr. John Russell is joined by pediatric oncologist Dr. Adam Hill, author of “Long Walk Out of the Woods,” to discuss depression among healthcare professionals and address trauma faced in the medical field.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Rose George
Dr. John Russell is joined by Rose George, the author of the book “Nine Pints," to take an in-depth look into everything we know about blood.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Christopher Haines, MD, MA
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the field of medicine. To better understand the science behind this virus while putting this pandemic into historical perspective, Dr. Christopher Haines shares his experiences caring for patients during the pandemic and describes what drove him to write his book: COVID-19 Essays from the Front: The First Six Months.
Host: Princy Mathew
Guest: J.W. Freiberg JD, PhD
Did you know that 47 percent of adults in American are affected by loneliness? And now that the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this health threat, Princy Mathew sits down with Dr. J.W. Freiberg to discuss his book Surrounded by Others and Yet So Alone and how we can help our patients who suffer from chronic loneliness.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Elaine Birchall
Although hoarding was only recently added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, understanding what exactly this disorder it and how it impacts approximately 21 million Americans is essential. So to help shed light on this often-overlooked disorder, Dr. Maurice Pickard is joined by Elaine Birchall, co-author of Conquering the Clutter: Strategies to Identify, Management, and Overcome Hoarding.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Christy Harrison, MPH, RD, CDN
Fad diets are extremely popular and widely used when it comes to losing weight, yet there’s often no scientific evidence to support them. That’s why Christy Harrison, author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through INTUITIVE EATING, is here to dive into diet culture, fads, and intuitive eating.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Dov Fox
Reproductive negligence occurs in three major areas: deprived pregnancy or parenthood, imposed pregnancy, and confounded efforts. Joining Dr. Maurice Pickard to explain each of those areas—and why there’s such a controversy surrounding them—is Dov Fox, a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law where he directs the Center for Health Law Policy and Bioethics.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Katherine Eban
Joining Dr. Maurice Pickard is award-winning journalist and author of Bottles of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom Katherine Eban, who investigates the health concerns that are beginning to surface on a global scale due to the rise in generic drug use.
Guest: Mary Beth Pfeiffer
With cases being reported in every state and across 80 countries, Lyme disease has become one of the fastest growing vector-borne illnesses in the world. But have you ever wondered how this global health threat came to be? That’s what journalist Mary Beth Pfeiffer investigates in her book, Lyme: The First Epidemic of Climate Change, and with the ReachMD team.
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
Hysteria is nothing new, but looking at how the spread of misinformation affects this disorder is a new concept. Providing an update to a blog he wrote back in 2012 entitled An Explanation for Mass Hysteria that was also featured in his book Bullets and Brains, Dr. Andrew Wilner dives into the contemporary problem of mass hysteria.
Host: Matt Birnholz, MD
Guest: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
To get a detailed picture of physicians’ personal experiences with locum tenens work, Dr. Matt Birnholz speaks with a very special guest: Dr. Andrew Wilner. Not only is he the author of The Locum Life: A Physician’s Guide to Locum Tenens, but he’s also one of ReachMD’s esteemed hosts!
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
Even with quick thinking and timely action, the chances of a neurosurgeon being able to do more than taking out the bullet, administering antibiotics, and stopping the bleeding isn’t likely, and surviving a bullet to the brain can unfortunately be just the beginning of a patient’s struggles. Focusing on the title story of his book Bullets and Brains, Dr. Andrew Wilner discusses the serious aftermath congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords experienced while recovering from a headshot.
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
As a follow-up to the Microgravity: A New Risk Factor for Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension essay he wrote back in 2012, Dr. Andrew Wilner investigates whether there have been any updates on the 27 astronauts who had significant microgravity exposure.
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
As physicians, we know that vaccines help protect people from preventable diseases, but somehow this message is getting lost among our patients. With more parents than ever choosing to skip the needle, Dr. Andrew Wilner dives into the 16th chapter of his book, Bullets and Brains, where he discusses the widespread benefits of vaccines and how they not only protect your patients’ children, but all of us.
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
Up until 2011, there was no FDA-approved antivenom for scorpion stings—until a very concerned pediatrician created one that came with seemingly miraculous results. Dr. Andrew Wilner breaks down this overlooked health threat and the development of its antivenom, which he explores in his book of essays called Bullets and Brains.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Haider Warraich, MD
Dr. Haider Warraich, author of The New York Times article “Dr. Google is a Liar,” speaks with Dr. Maurice Pickard on the growing pandemic of fake medical news and its startling repercussions for healthcare providers and their patients.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Victoria Sweet, MD
After her father was admitted to the hospital with a wrong diagnosis and consequently received the wrong treatment, Dr. Victoria Sweet found that no doctor would speak with her face to face. This eye-opening experience left her with the following question: What has gone missing from medicine?
This became the motivation for her book, Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing. Dr. Sweet joins Dr. John Russell to divulge on the logic, love, and beauty of slowing down in healthcare.
Host: Matt Birnholz, MD
Guest: Mimi Secor, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP
Compelled to share her personal experience, Dr. Mimi Secor, author of Debut a New You: Transforming Your Life at Any Age, speaks with Dr. Matt Birnholz about her journey from busy and stressed to happy and healthy.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Kate Moore
During World War I, hundreds of young women—some as young as eleven—flocked to the clock factories, thrilled at the chance to land wartime work as radium-dial painters. Blended with historical and scientific significance, their personal stories are unveiled in Kate Moore's The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women. Moore spares us no shelter from understanding the pain in which they were living and the fight they inevitably began.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Bob Baker, MD
Dr. Maurice Pickard connects with Dr. Bob Baker, author of The Performance of Medicine: Techniques from the Stage to Optimize the Patient’s Experience and Restore the Joy of Practicing Medicine, who shares his strategies and techniques that you should be implementing in your practice to boost the doctor-patient relationship.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Aaron Carroll, MD
Over the years, the world of food has taken drastic swings, such as the demonization of butter in the '70s and today’s obsession with gluten-free foods to cut out carbs. Dr. Aaron Carroll, author of The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully, dives into the myths surrounding nutrition and why common sense might just be the answer to eating healthy.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Sam Quinones
Weaving together two classic tales of capitalism and the unintended collision laying waste to communities across the country, Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland, introduces an unforgettable cast of characters, including pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents, to share what he believes is at the root of the opiate addiction epidemic.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Beth Macy
Beth Macy’s Dopesick is a heartbreaking trajectory that illustrates how America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction has persisted for this long and has become so firmly entrenched in practically every corner of our country—from desolate cities to once idyllic farm towns.
Tune in as Beth Macy joins Dr. Maurice Pickard to illuminate the persistent and often conflicting gaps in the treatment and criminal-justice landscapes while shining a hopeful light on the heroes battling the worst drug epidemic in American history.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Allison Pataki
Five months pregnant, on a flight headed for Hawaii, Allison Pataki's life took a sudden turn when she witnessed her husband, Dave Levy, lose consciousness. After an emergency landing and evaluation, Levy was found to have had suffered a rare stroke.
When he woke the next day, he had amnesia, leaving the young couple holding onto hope for recovery. True to form, Pataki began to write letters to her husband—letters that became the foundation for Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience.
Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO
Career burnout is unfortunately all too common in the healthcare industry, with over half of physicians suffering from at least one symptom of burnout. Not only that, but the rates of depression and suicide in this industry are significantly higher than others.
To discuss this very real threat to health care providers, Dr. Jennifer Caudle is joined by Dr. Shawn Jones, ENT physician and author of Finding Heart in the Art: A Surgeon's Renaissance Approach to Healing Modern Medical Burnout, who recants his own personal journey in overcoming career burnout.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Bob Mitchell
Quite suddenly, Bob Mitchell became very sick. He would endure three near-fatal episodes of ventricular tachycardia due to a heart muscle comprised of 54% scar tissue, as well as heart surgeries, two harrowing months of waiting on the transplant list for a new heart on life-supporting IV drips (during which time a malignant tumor was detected in his kidney), partial nephrectomy surgery to remove the cancer, another month of waiting, a 12-hour heart and kidney transplant surgery, and 100 days on life support in four different hospitals.
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard talks with novelist Bob Mitchell, author of Time for a Heart-to-Heart: Reflections on Life in the Face of Death about his inspiring story of the triumph of hope in the face of the direst of circumstances.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Carl Hart, MD
Carl Hart, who grew up in one of Miami’s toughest neighborhoods, escaped a life of crime and drugs and avoided becoming one of the crack addicts he now helps treat as the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. His landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction and demonstrates how personal experience and scientific study can inform and validate each other for a deeper understanding of human behavior and addiction.
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard talks with Dr. Hart, author of the book High Price, about the relationship between drugs and pleasure, choice, and motivation, both in the brain and in society. They explore how his research sheds new light on common ideas about race, poverty, and drugs, and explain why current policies are failing.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
As a young critical care physician, Dr. Rana Awdish was transfigured from a doctor into a critically ill patient in an instant. This transposition, coincidentally timed at the end of her medical training, instantly laid bare the vast chasm between the conventional practice of medicine and the stark reality of the prostrate patient.
Host Dr. John Russell chats with Dr. Rana Awdish about this transformation and how she came to understand the fatal flaws in her profession, from her own past actions as a physician to the perils of navigating her own illness. She presents a new paradigm and rationale for embracing the emotional bond between doctor and patient and outlines the redemptive possibilities of dismantling the barriers to connection in all relationships.
Dr. Awdish is the author of In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope and Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Meredith Wadman, BM, BCh, M.S.
Until the late 1960s, tens of thousands of American children suffered crippling birth defects if their mothers had been exposed to rubella, popularly known as German measles, while pregnant; there was no vaccine and little understanding of how the disease devastated fetuses.
In June 1962, a young biologist in Philadelphia, using human tissue samples sent from Sweden, produced a line of cells that allowed the creation of vaccines against rubella and other common childhood diseases. Two years later, in the midst of a massive German measles epidemic, the vaccine that would one day wipe out homegrown rubella was introduced. This vaccine has since protected more than 150 million people in the United States, and its development method has also led to other vaccines that have protected billions of people around the world from polio, rabies, chicken pox, measles, hepatitis A, shingles, and adenovirus.
Host Dr. John Russell chats with Meredith Wadman, author of The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease, about the story of both the science of this urgent race and the political and ethical controversies that nearly ended it prematurely.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Revolutionary advances in medical knowledge have caused doctors to become so focused on their narrow fields of expertise that they often overlook the simplest fact of all: their patients are suffering.
Dr. John Russell welcomes Dr. Thomas Lee, Chief Medical Officer at Press Ganey and author of An Epidemic of Empathy in Healthcare: How to Deliver Compassionate, Connected Patient Care That Creates a Competitive Advantage. Their discussion focuses on the growing divide between world-class medical treatment and compassionate care, and why the two are not mutually exclusive.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Do pets help prevent allergies? Does the 5-second rule actually exist? And is dirt really good for a child’s immune system?
Host Dr. John Russell talks with Jack Gilbert, Ph.D., Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago and Director of the Microbiome Institute. Dr. Gilbert is author of the book Dirt is Good,answering questions about the potential benefits of exposure to germs and bacteria. He and Dr. Russell sift through common misconceptions about microbiomes to better understand their actual risks and benefits for the body's immune system, explaining its role in disease and health.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Bonnie Rochman
With the ever-expanding array of prenatal and postnatal tests, from carrier screening to genome sequencing, parents’ access to this previously unknown information is altering perceptions of disability, redefining the question of what sort of life is worth living, and who draws the line. Is this technology a triumph of modern medicine or a Pandora’s box of possibilities?
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard chats with Bonnie Rochman, author of the book The Gene Machine: How Genetic Technologies are Changing the Way We Have Kids - and the Kids We Have, about the new frontier of gene technology and how it is transforming medicine, bioethics, health care, and the factors that shape a family.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Robert Pearl, MD
Most patients wrongly assume the “best” care is dependent mainly on the newest medications, the most complex treatments, and the smartest doctors. But according to physician and author Dr. Robert Pearl, Americans tend to look for healthcare solutions in the wrong places.
Host Maurice Pickard chats with Dr. Pearl, author of Mistreated: Why We Think We’re Getting Good Health Care—And Why We’re Usually Wrong, about the subconscious misperceptions that have become so commonplace in medicine today. Dr. Pearl explains how modifying the structure, technology, financing, and leadership of American healthcare could radically improve quality outcomes.
Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP
Guest: Signe Whitson
What is passive-aggressive behavior, and what can (or should) people do when confronted with it?
Host Brian McDonough sits down with Signe Whitson, author of the book The Angry Smile: The New Psychological Study of Passive-Aggressive Behavior at Home, at School, in Marriage & Close Relationships, in the Workplace and Online. Ms. Whitson is an educator on bullying, crisis intervention, and child and adolescent emotional and behavioral health. She offers real-world examples and empowering, practical strategies for individuals confronted with passive aggressiveness.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Danielle Ofri, MD
Despite modern medicine’s infatuation with high-tech gadgetry, the single most powerful diagnostic tool is the doctor-patient conversation, which can uncover the lion’s share of illnesses. However, what patients say and what doctors hear are often two vastly different things.
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard chats with Dr. Danielle Ofri, Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU and author of What Patients Say, What Doctors Hear. The two discuss ways in which refocusing conversations between doctors and their patients can lead to better health outcomes.
Host: Andrew Wilner, MD, FACP, FAAN
Guest: Michael Weisberg, MD
What happens when you are admitted to the hospital as a patient, and the physician assigned to be your doctor has never seen you before and knows absolutely nothing about you?
Says Dr. Michael Weisberg, gastroenterologist and author of The Hospitalist, situations like these are increasingly common in modern medicine and can have disastrous consequences for patients.
Dr. Weisberg joins host Dr. Andrew Wilner to talk about his novel, which underscores how doctors are now at heightened risk of being thwarted by the modern health care system.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Annette Hanson, MD
Is forced treatment helpful or harmful? Battle lines have been drawn over involuntary treatment for psychiatric patients.
Psychiatrist Dr. Annette Hanson offers a thought-provoking and engaging account of the controversy surrounding involuntary psychiatric care in the United States. She brings the issue to life with first-hand accounts from patients, clinicians, advocates, and opponents. Committed takes on the difficult question of psychiatry's role in preventing violence, suicide, and mass murder.
Hosted by Dr. Maurice Pickard.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Elijah Nealy, PhD
These days, it is practically impossible not to hear about some aspect of transgender life, and kids are coming out as trans at younger and younger ages. But what resources are available to parents, teachers, and mental health professionals who need to support these children?
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard chats with Elijah C. Nealy, therapist and former deputy executive director of New York City’s LGBT Community Center. Mr. Nealy is the author of Transgender Children and Youth: Cultivating Pride and Joy with Families in Transition, which provides insights about the physical, social, and emotional aspects of transition and the best practices to support trans kids.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Peter Dawson, MD
In the male-dominated world of medicine, she dared to step forward and fight for fairness—graduating from Johns Hopkins Medical School with honors in the year 1900. But for physician Dorothy Reed Mendenhall, MD, the battle for equality was just beginning.
In the name of improving the standards of care for women and infants, she faced the scorn of prejudiced doctors in an establishment marked by its unwillingness to change. Still, through the Gilded Age, two World Wars, and beyond, she kept up her fight—in the process, discovering new breakthroughs and saving lives, all while outperforming many of her male peers.
Dorothy in a Man’s World is an inside look at the life and career of Dr. Mendenhall, documented by physician and pathologist Dr. Peter Dawson. This biographical tribute to one of medicine’s great female pioneers showcases the struggles women faced to make a name for themselves in the world of health care—in addition to the drastic improvements which have been made in the specific area of care for women and their infants.
Dr. Dawson sits down with host Dr. Maurice Pickard as they explore Dr. Mendenhall's extraordinary life.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: H. Gilbert Welch, MD, MPH
The central problem with health care, according to physician and author Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, is that too much of it has too little value.
Host Dr. John Russell chats with Dr. Welch about his book Less Medicine, More Health: 7 Assumptions that Drive Too Much Medical Care and the issues of the American healthcare system today. They talk about how the American public has been sold the idea that seeking medical care is one of the most important steps to maintaining wellness. Dr. Welch argues that more medical care is not, in fact, well correlated with good health; by contrast, the opposite may be true.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Infectious disease has the terrifying power to disrupt everyday life on a global scale, overwhelming public and private resources and bringing trade and transportation to a grinding halt.
Host Dr. John Russell sits down with Dr. Osterholm to talk about the book Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. They talk about how we could wake up to a reality in which many antibiotics no longer cure, bioterror is a certainty, and the threat of a disastrous influenza pandemic looms ever larger. Only by understanding the challenges we face can we prevent the unthinkable from becoming the inevitable.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
After sitting at the feet of Martin Luther King at the University of Michigan in 1963, Larry Brilliant was swept up into the civil rights movement, marching and protesting across America and Europe. As a radical young doctor he followed the hippie trail from London over the Khyber Pass with his wife Girija, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm commune to India. There, he found himself in a Himalayan ashram wondering whether he had stumbled into a cult. Instead, one of India’s greatest spiritual teachers, Neem Karoli Baba, opened Larry’s heart and told him his destiny was to work for the World Health Organization to help eradicate killer smallpox. He would never have believed he would become a key player in eliminating a 10,000-year-old disease that killed more than half a billion people in the 20th century alone.
Host Dr. John Russell sits down with Dr. Larry Brilliant to discuss his book, Sometimes Brilliant and talk about his amazing journey from Detroit to counter-culture San Francisco to an ashram in India and beyond.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Host Dr. Russell sits down with Dr. Steven Hatch, an infectious disease specialist and author of the book, Inferno: a Doctor's Ebola Story, about his experience in Liberia during the heart of the Ebola crisis.
Dr. Steven Hatch first came to Liberia in November 2013, to work at a hospital in Monrovia. Six months later, several of the physicians Dr. Hatch had mentored and served with were dead or barely clinging to life, and Ebola had become a world health emergency. Hundreds of victims perished each week; whole families were destroyed in a matter of days; so many died so quickly that the culturally taboo practice of cremation had to be instituted to dispose of the bodies. With little help from the international community and a population ravaged by disease and fear, the war-torn African nation was simply unprepared to deal with the catastrophe.
A physician’s memoir about the ravages of a terrible disease and the small hospital that fought to contain it, Inferno is also an explanation of the science and biology of Ebola: how it is transmitted and spreads with such ferocity. And as Dr. Hatch notes, while Ebola is temporarily under control, it will inevitably re-emerge―as will …
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States alone, 16,000 people die each year as a result of prescription opioid overdose. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the prescription drug epidemic is that it’s built on well-meaning doctors treating patients with real problems.
Host Dr. John Russell chats with Dr. Anna Lembke, Chief of Addiction Medicine and an Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Lembke is the author of Drug Dealer, MD: How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop, exploring how the prescription drug epidemic is a symptom of a faltering health care system, the solution for which lies in rethinking how health care is delivered.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Dr. Maurice Pickards talks with Dr. Edward Shaw about his book Keeping Love Alive as Memories Fade: The 5 Love Languages and the Alzheimer's Journey. Dr. Shaw shares how love can lift a corner of dementia’s dark curtain to cultivate an emotional connection amid memory loss. The book provides focused help for those feeling overwhelmed by the relational toll of Alzheimer’s.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Damon Tweedy, MD
How do black doctors grapple with race, bias, and the unique health problems for black Americans?
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard chats with Dr. Damon Tweedy, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Duke University Medical Center and author of the book Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor's Reflection on Race and Medicine, which examines the complex ways in which black doctors and patients must both navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
What if Americans put aside their differences and worked together to fix America's broken healthcare system? What changes need to be made in order to make health care both accessible and affordable without compromising excellent quality of care standards for patients? These and other crucial questions form premise behind the book We CAN Fix Healthcare: The Future is NOW.
Host Dr. John Russell sits down with Dr. Stephen Klasko, President and CEO of Jefferson University and Jefferson Health and author of We CAN Fix Healthcare: The Future is NOW.
Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP
Guest: Harley Rotbart, MD
Dr. Brian McDonough speaks with Dr. Harley Rotbart, Professor of Pediatrics at University of Colorado School of Medicine and author of the book Miracles We Have Seen: America's Leading Physicians Share Stories They Can't Forget.
This collection of remarkable stories offers a compelling glimpse into the lives of physicians—their humanity and determined devotion to their patients and their patients' families. It reminds us that what we don't know or don't understand isn't necessarily cause for fear, and can even be reason for hope.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Guest: Sanjiv Chopra, MD, FACP
Dr. John Russell talks with Dr. Sanjiv Chopra, author of The Big Five: Five Simple Things You Can Do to Live a Longer, Healthier Life. They discuss 5 easy changes that anyone can implement to improve their overall health.
The book delves into how the underlying promise of every exciting medical discovery, diet, and exercise program is the same: do this, buy this, or eat this and you will look better, live longer, and be healthier. But few books can make the promise of this one: if you adapt these five simple, virtually-free suggestions you will live a longer and healthier life, guaranteed.
This is no fad study. Each of the recommendations outlined in this book has been proven by an overwhelming number of tests, trials, and studies to increase health and lifespan. There are no gimmicks, no catches, no ifs, ands, or buts.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Guest: Rebecca Alexander
Born with a rare genetic mutation called Usher Syndrome type III, Rebecca Alexander has been simultaneously losing both her sight and hearing since she was a child, and was told that she would likely be completely blind and deaf by age 30. Then, at 18, a fall from a window left her athletic body completely shattered.
In Not Fade Away, Rebecca tells her extraordinary story, by turns harrowing, funny and inspiring. She meditates on what she’s lost—from the sound of a whisper to seeing a sky full of stars, and what she’s found in return—an exquisite sense of intimacy with those she is closest to, a love of silence, a profound gratitude for everything she still has, and a joy in simple pleasures that most of us forget to notice.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
While modern medicine produces miracles, it also delivers care that is too often unsafe, unreliable, unsatisfying, and impossibly expensive. For the past few decades, technology has been touted as the cure for all of healthcare’s ills.
But medicine stubbornly resisted computerization – until now. Over the past five years, thanks largely to billions of dollars in federal incentives, healthcare has finally gone digital.
Yet once clinicians started using computers to actually deliver care, it dawned on them that something was deeply wrong. Why were doctors no longer making eye contact with their patients? How could one of America’s leading hospitals give a teenager a 39-fold overdose of a common antibiotic, despite a state-of-the-art computerized prescribing system? How could a recruiting ad for physicians tout the absence of an electronic medical record as a major selling point?
Logically enough, we’ve pinned the problems on clunky software, flawed implementations, absurd regulations, and bad karma. It was all of those things, but it was also something far more complicated. And far more interesting . . .
Written with a rare combination of compelling stories and hard-hitting analysis by one of the nation’s most thoughtful physicians, The Digital Doctor examines healthcare at the dawn …
Host: John J. Russell, MD
A fascinating and shocking historical exposé, The Malaria Project is the story of America's secret mission to combat malaria during World War II—a campaign modeled after a German project which tested experimental drugs on men gone mad from syphilis. Karen M. Masterson, a journalist turned malaria researcher, uncovers the complete story behind this dark tale of science, medicine and war.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Have you ever wondered what that 1 outlier would say when you see commercials and products boasting that 9 out of 10 doctors recommend something? Dr. H. Eric Bender, co-author of the book 1 Out of 10 Doctors Recommends: Drinking Urine, Eating Worms, and Other Weird Cures, Cases, and Research from the Annals of Medicine, provides real answers that you wouldn't have even thought possible.
Entertaining and informative (and sometimes just plain gross), 1 Out of 10 Doctors Recommends examines the strangest and most unusual medical practices, including: drinking your own urine to fight infection, using live eels to relieve constipation, and licking a patient's head to diagnose Cystic Fibrosis.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
STDs are widespread in all walks of life, regardless of gender, race, social status, or education. Seduced into complacency by the notion that "it can't happen to me" many sexually active teens and young adults are stunned when they are diagnosed with an STD.
In Seductive Delusions: How Everyday People Catch STDs, author and physician Dr. Jill Grimes reveals the truths about sexually transmitted diseases through narrated accounts of young men and women, their exam room conversations with doctors, and both the physical symptoms and the emotional reactions that can accompany infection.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
After having a nationally televised panic attack, Dan Harris, co-anchor of “Nightline” and the weekend edition of “Good Morning America” on ABC News, knew he had to make some changes. Mr. Harris realized that the source of his problems was the very thing he always thought was his greatest asset: the incessant, insatiable voice in his head, which had propelled him through the ranks of a hypercompetitive business, but had also led him to make decisions that provoked his on-air panic attack.
Eventually Harris stumbled upon an effective way to rein in that voice, something he always assumed to be either impossible or useless: meditation, a tool that research suggests can do everything from lower your blood pressure to essentially rewire your brain.
10% Happier, an autobiographical account of Harris's discovery of meditation, takes readers on a ride from the outer reaches of neuroscience to the inner sanctum of network news to the bizarre fringes of America’s spiritual scene, leaving takeaway for readers to make meaningful changes in their lives.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Dr. Maurice Pickard speaks with psychologist Dr. Bernard Golden, an anger management specialist and author of Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work.
Dr. Golden draws on both compassion-focused therapy―a model for change that encompasses and expands on cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness, and practices in compassion and self-compassion―and theories of emotional intelligence to offer concrete tools for turning destructive anger into healthy anger. This in turn can have positive health effects on a range of disease states, from cardiovascular disease to diabetes to depression.
Bernard Golden, PhD has been a practicing psychologist for almost forty years. He specializes in working with children, teens and adults on anger management issues, utilizing cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness techniques and practices in compassion and self-compassion. Dr. Golden is the author of Overcoming Destructive Anger: Strategies That Work (John Hopkins University Press, 2016), which teaches readers to recognize, sit with, and move beyond the triggers that cause destructive anger. Emphasizing anger’s link to the old brain (limbic cortex) and habits of mind, Dr. Golden offers multiple strategies for engaging the “rational brain” (prefrontal cortex) to overwrite established neural pathways and form new patterns of behavior.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In recent years, malaria has emerged as a cause celebre for voguish philanthropists. Bill Gates, Bono, and Laura Bush are only a few of the personalities who have lent their names--and opened their pocketbooks--in hopes of stopping the disease. Still, in a time when every emergent disease inspires waves of panic, why aren't we doing more to tame one of our oldest foes? And how does a pathogen that we've known how to prevent for more than a century still infect 500 million people every year, killing nearly one million of them?
In The Fever, journalist Sonia Shah sets out to answer those questions, delivering a timely, inquisitive chronicle of the illness and its influence on human lives. Dr. John Russell hosts this fascinating discussion about her book.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Over the past fifty years, more than three hundred infectious diseases have either newly emerged or reemerged, appearing in territories where they’ve never been seen before. Ninety percent of epidemiologists expect that one of them will cause a deadly pandemic sometime in the next two generations. But which one, and how?
In Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond, prizewinning journalist Sonia Shah interweaves history, original reportage, and personal narrative to explore the origins of contagions, drawing parallels between cholera, one of history’s most deadly and disruptive pandemic-causing pathogens, and the new diseases that stalk humankind today.
Host: Jennifer Caudle, DO
On this episode of Everyday Family Medicine, host Dr. Jennifer Caudle welcomes Dr. Antonio J. Webb to discuss his book, Overcoming the Odds: From the War on the Streets of Louisiana to the War on Terrorism in Iraq. Dr. Webb is an orthopedic surgeon in residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. He is also a motivational speaker and mentors underprivileged middle and high school students interested in medical careers.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor—the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly gave way to hopes of simply surviving hospital life, where confidence was hard to come by and no amount of med school training could dispel the terror of facing actual patients.
In his memoir, The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly, Dr. McCarthy offers a window on to hospital life that dispenses with sanctimony and self-seriousness while emphasizing the black-comic paradox of becoming a doctor: How do you learn to save lives in a job where there is no practice?
Host: Thomas C. Wright, Jr., MD
Guest: Patricia Sulak, MD
Dr. Thomas Wright joins Dr. Patricia Sulak, renowned OB/GYN and author of Should I Fire My Doctor? Eleven Essential Elements to Living Well Aware, to discuss the key principles outlined in her book. Should I Fire My Doctor details the self-induced nature of common health problems today and how patients can take ownership of these issues by applying essential elements of health and happiness, with the potential to dramatically decrease depression, disability and death. Additionally, the potential for this approach to reduce the need for office visits, prescription medications and surgeries has made it a popular read for clinicians as well.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Thought of as the seat of our soul, then as a mysteriously animated object, the heart is still more a mystery than it is understood. Rob Dunn, evolutionary biologist and author of The Man Who Touched His Own Heart, tells the raucous, gory, mesmerizing story of the heart, from the first "explorers" who dug up cadavers and plumbed their hearts' chambers, through the first heart surgeries-which had to be completed in three minutes before death arrived-to heart transplants and the latest medical efforts to prolong our hearts' lives, almost defying nature in the process.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
A traumatic brain injury is a life-changing event, affecting an individual’s lifestyle, ability to work, relationships―even personality. In The Traumatized Brain: a Family Guide to Understanding Mood, Memory, and Behavior after Brain Injury, co-author and neuropsychiatrist Dr. Sandeep Vaishnavi explains how traumatic brain injury, whether mild, moderate, or severe, affects the brain. He describes how emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, mania, and apathy can be treated; how behavioral symptoms such as psychosis, aggression, impulsivity, and sleep disturbances can be addressed; and how cognitive functions like attention, memory, executive functioning, and language can be improved.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
No substance on earth is as hotly debated as marijuana. Opponents claim it’s dangerous, addictive, carcinogenic, and a gateway to serious drug abuse. Conversely, fans claim it as a wonder drug, treating cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, glaucoma, arthritis, migraines, PTSD, and insomnia. In Stoned: A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana, palliative care physician Dr. David Casarett investigates with researchers, doctors, and patients around the globe how marijuana works—and doesn’t—in the real world. Dr. John Russell hosts a discussion with Dr. Cararett on this fascinating work.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Wealth, or the appearance thereof, is often portrayed in American popular culture not by the allocation of one's assets, but rather the number of assets. As such, the most common mechanism by which healthily employed Americans get into financial trouble is, simply, from owning "too much stuff." Health care professionals, especially those in higher income positions, are particularly susceptible to this problem after experiencing delayed financial gratification for so many years in training. What is the seasoned clinician in financial crisis to do?
Dr. John Russell welcomes James Hemphill, Chief Investment Strategist and Managing Director of TGS Financial Advisors, and author of Changing Outcomes: A Financial Recovery Strategy for Peak-Career Physicians. Mr. Hemphill discusses strategies for making significant changes to a troubled financial portfolio, from pushing savings to making assets more functional and productive.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Dr. Thomas Dent Mütter was an audacious medical innovator who pioneered the use of ether as anesthesia, the sterilization of surgical tools, and a compassion-based vision for helping the severely deformed, which clashed spectacularly with the sentiments of his time in the mid 19th century. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, author of Dr. Mütter’s Marvels, interweaves an eye-opening portrait of nineteenth-century medicine with the riveting biography of a man once described as the "P. T. Barnum of the surgery room."
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Not too long ago, there was no coming back from death. But now, with revolutionary medical advances, death has taken on the appearance at times of just another serious complication. In Shocked, author Dr. David Casarett chronicles his exploration of the cutting edge of resuscitation and reveals just how far science has come. Dr. John Russell hosts.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In the 1940's, popular American President Franklin D. Roosevelt developed a serious illness that went undetected by the media and general public. That illness was severe hypertensive heart disease, and unbeknownst to everyone outside the White House, the medical staff may have been hiding its progression to protect the President's image during his last campaign. Did the secrecy cost him his life prematurely, or were treatments too limited at the time to make a fundamental impact? Furthermore, had it been known by everyone, would the President have been reelected?
Joining Dr. John Russell to discuss the fascinating history of a possible White House medical conspiracy of old is Dr. W. Bruce Fye, author of Caring for the Heart: Mayo Clinic and the Rise of Specialization,
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Physicians are expected to memorize and maintain an enormous amount of clinical information on a wide variety of topics. But when it comes to financial management, it's this particular population that often comes up the shortest. Perhaps the most at-risk individuals within this community are the young physicians just out of training. For this group, having endured anywhere from 8 to 15 years of low wage training, financial disasters are just a few instant gratification purchases away.
Dr. John Russell welcomes James Hemphill, author of PAY YOURSELF FIRST: A Financial Guide for Doctors Entering Practice, Mr. Hemphill is Chief Investment Strategist and Managing Director of TGS Financial Advisors.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In the late 19th century, America’s most popular spectator sport drew thousands of fans, created celebirty athletes, endured scandals for performance-enhancing drugs, and opened doors for immigrants, African Americans, and women. But this sport wasn’t baseball, boxing, or horseracing—it was competitive walking. Dr. John Russell speaks with Matthew Algeo, author of Pedestrianism, about competitive walking’s peculiar appeal and popularity, its rapid demise, and its enduring influence in American spectator sports.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Up to 24 million Americans of all ages and genders suffer from eating disorders: binge eating disorder, anorexia, and bulimia—linked todepression, they have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Yet, only 1 in 10 people with eating disorders receive treatment. Host Dr. Maurice Pickard welcomes author Sarahjoy Marsh to review the steps and stages of recovery from disordered eating patterns including yo-yo dieting, emotional eating, binge eating, compulsive eating, restricting, obsessive food thoughts, and body-centered shame and self-hatred.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Renowned trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk has spent over three decades working with trauma survivors. In his book, The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. van der Kolk adds to modern understandings of traumatic stress, revealing how it literally rearranges the brain’s wiring—specifically areas dedicated to pleasure, engagement, control, and trust. He discusses how these areas can be reactivated through innovative treatments including neurofeedback, mindfulness techniques, play, yoga, and other therapies.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Stress and other negative emotions contribute to about 25 percent of heart attacks. But recent cutting-edge research shows that positive emotions can cause a chemical change in your body that directly improves your overall cardiovascular health. Dr. Maurice Pickard welcomes Dr. Michael Miller to discuss his book, Heal Your Heart: The Positive Emotions Prescription to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease. Dr. Miller is a Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Mediicne and is the Director of the Center of Preventive Cardiology.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Dr. Bruce Fye's unique book, Caring for the Heart: Mayo Clinic and the Rise of Specialization, weaves together three important themes. It describes major developments in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in the twentieth century, explains how the Mayo Clinic evolved from a family practice in Minnesota into one of the world's leading medical centers, and reveals how the invention of new technologies and procedures promoted specialization among physicians and surgeons. Join Dr. John Russell in overviewing with Dr. Fye this pivotal epoch in American medical history.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Internationally respected neurologist Frances E. Jensen, M.D. speaks with host John Russell, MD about her book, The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide To Raising Adolescents And Young Adults. This insightful book offers new findings and dispells myths and also provides practical advice for parents and teenagers.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
A cure for HIV? Two men, known in medical journals as the Berlin Patients, were cured of HIV in distinct yet related ways. The two patients’ disparate cures came twelve years apart, but Nathalia Holt, an award-winning scientist at the forefront of HIV research, connects the molecular dots of these cases for the first time. Her book, CURED: How The Berlin Patients Defeated HIV and Forever Changed Medical Science, explores this new field of investigation and paradign shift in HIV treatment inspired by the Berlin Patients. Dr. John Russell hosts.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
The beginning of AIDS epidemic has been traced to a single event, localized rather precisely in place and time. David Quammen's book, The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest explores these origins. Dr. John Russell's interview with David Quammen explores the real story of AIDS—how it originated with a virus in a chimpanzee, jumped to one human, and then infected more than 60 million people.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Dr. John Russell welcomes author Gerald Imber, MD to talk about his book, Genius on the Edge: The Bizarre Double Life of Dr. William Stewart Halsted, an intriguing biography about the 19th century doctor who invented modern surgery. Halsted was a brilliant and driven physician, but he was also haunted by a lifelong addition to cocain and other pain killers. Despite his internal struggles, he is credited with taking surgery from the horrific, dangerous practice it once was to what we now know as a lifesaving art.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
When was it decided that exercise could only be good for you? In his recent book, Exercise Will Hurt You: Concussion, Traumatic Brain Injury, and How the Dangers of Sports and Exercise Can Affect Your Health, leading neurosurgeon Dr. Steven Barrer calls for a change in the way we think about exercise in the United States. His work arises from an extensive career treating exercise-related injuries, anecdotal experiences from his own personal exercise injuries over the years, and scientific data culled from the latest research.
Dr. Barrer is Director of the Neurosciences Institute and Chief of the Division of Neurosurgery at Abington Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Dr. John Russell welcomes author Deborah Blum to talk about her book, The Poisoner's Handbook.
In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
An award-winning memoir that goes far beyond its riveting medical mystery, Brain on Fire is the powerful account of one woman's struggle to recapture her identity. When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she'd gotten there. Only days earlier, she had been leading an exciting life at the beginning of her promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?
Susannah's memoir tells the astonishing true story of her descent into madness, her family's inspiring faith in her, and the lifesaving diagnosis of an exceedingly rare disease which led to her complete recovery.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
It's a common rite of passage for parents to have "The Talk" with their kids about the beginning of life (aka the birds and the bees). But as parents age, the "Other Talk" focusing on their later years of life is equally important. Yet this discussion between parents and adult children is frequently neglected, leaving both parties with no contingency plans or options after a health crisis hits. In The Other Talk: A Guide to Talking with Your Adult Children About the Rest of Your Life, author Tim Prosch explores critical questions for later life planning such as how parents should manage their finances and budget for unknown needs, where to live if assistance is required, and which medical treatments and advocates should be sought. Dr. Maurice Pickard hosts.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Personal recognition of mental illness can be frightening for many people, but there are added implications for those in the world of fine arts, where the lines between creative genius, artistic license, and erratic brain health become blurred. Host Dr. Maurice Pickard welcomes Ellen Forney, author of the graphic memoir, Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me. Darkly funny, intensely personal, and visually dynamic, Forney's graphic memoir provides a visceral glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on the artist's work. Her story seeks the answer to the question of whether a correlation exists between creativity and mood disorders, and whether an artist's bipolar disorder should be viewed as a curse or a gift.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Obesity and sedentary activities have contributed to an epidemic of diabetes mellitus in the US. Is there an answer that is not simply a "fad" diet? Joining host Dr. Maurice Pickard to address this important question is Dr. Osama Hamdy, Medical Director of the Weight Management Program at Joslin Diabetes Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hamdy is co-author of Diabetes Breakthrough: Better Health in Just 12 Weeks.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
A New Orleans hospital, after Hurricane Katrina, was surrounded on all sides by several feet of water. The power was out, and as time went on without restoration of basic operations, rumors began circulating of the hospital being overrun by looters. It was a period of total chaos with breakdowns in institutional leadership, compromises in patient care, and in some cases, clinical decisions with deadly consequences. Dr. Sheri Fink, author of Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, takes us on a tour of the aftermath of these events, and the public outcries that both villified and defended the healthcare workers involved.
Click here for Part 1 of this fascinating two-part exploration of the disaster, a hospital's response, and the repercussions that have rippled through its affected staff, patients, and families years later.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard welcomes award-winning journalist Katy Butler. In her book, Knocking on Heaven's Door, shespeaksfor the twenty-four million Americans who are helping their parents through their final years. Ms. Butler's memoir and investigation reports on the modern complications of technology, medicine, and business toward the process of dying. Knocking on Heaven's Door helps encourage readers to have the difficult conversations with loved ones that are needed in order to discover paths toward a better way of death.
Download and listen today!
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Strange Medicine is an account of the practice of medicine throughout the ages that highlights the most bizarre treatments, medical blunders, and odd medical behavior that seem to do more harm than good. Author Nathan Belofsky joins host Dr. John Russell to discuss a variety of medical oddities across the timeline of history.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Have your patients shared with you paranormal experiences? Have there been unexplained medical mysteries resolved? Sharing case studies and analyses from respected medical journals, Dr. Robert Bobrow researches various instances that do not fit into the normal lexicon of medical diagnoses. He encourages health care providers to be aware of unexplainable phenomena in order to experience opportunities to advance science. Tune in to listen to host Dr. John Russell reviewing Dr. Bobrow's book, The Witch in the Waiting Room: A Physician Investigates Paranormal Phenomena in Medicine.
Dr. Bobrow has practiced general medicine for over thirty years and is currently a clinical associate professor at Stony Brook University. Dr. Bobrow's articles have been published in numerous journals such as American Family Physician, New York State Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, and Psychology Today. He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards including Family Medicine Faculty Teacher of the Year 2003.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Host Dr. John Russell chats with author Thomas Goetz about his recent book, The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest To Cure Tuberculosis. The book chronicles the lives of two men: Robert Koch, great German scientist, who convinced the world of the germ theory of disease; and Arthur Conan Doyle, trained physician and author of Sherlock Holmes stories. The Remedy traces the history of tuberculosis, the people who brought its diagnosis, etiology, and treatment approaches to light, and ways in which scientific discoveries evolved into everyday realities. Mr. Goetz is a writer, entrepreneur and health care innovator.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Host Dr. Maurice Pickard welcomes author, Richard Colgan, MD, Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In this second interview, Dr. Colgan highlights the importance of developing the personal skill sets beyond the technical skills taught in medical school and residency, such as communicating with patients, having empathy, and being respectful.
Download and listen today!
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Ha! The Science of When We Laugh and Why wirtten by Scott Weems, PhD examines the internal process of how the brain and the mind operate in interpreting humor. Dr. Weems will also review humor as an exercise for the brain, the psychological and intellectual benefits of humor and what happens physiologically. Dr. Weems' career began as an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, where he served as communications officer in Kodiak, Alaska. His travels then took him to New Orleans, Boston, Los Angeles, Annapolis, and Little Rock, where he earned graduate degrees in psychology, education, creative writing, and a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from UCLA along the way.
Download and listen today!
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
The healing professions have an ancient and venerable tradition of service, honor, and humanism that is often communicated from teacher to student in anecdotes and bits of wisdom told quickly in passing. In his book, Advice to the Healer: On the Art of Caring, Dr. Richard Colgan, Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, expertly gathers together this type of valuable information in one place. Joining host Dr. Maurice Pickard, this discussion features biographies of historical luminaries in medicine, tales from everyday practice, inspirational quotes, and advice for new and veteran healers alike.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Author and journalist Molly Caldwell Crosby joins host Dr. John Russell to discuss her second book, Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries. Asleep is another fascnating look into medical history. In the 1920s and '30s, a team of neurologists investigated a rare but disturbing group of patients spread across various hospitals and insane asylums to try to solve the worldwide epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness.
Tune in and listen today!
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Host Dr. John Russell welcomes author and journalist Molly Caldwell Crosby to discuss her first book, THE AMERICAN PLAGUE: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History. The discussion focuses on one of history's most controversial human studies - the story of yellow fever and how it overshadowed this country, and in Africa, where even today it strikes thousands every year.
Download and listen today!
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In her book, Five Days at Memorial, physician and reporter Sheri Fink reconstructs 5 days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos. Drawing from a culmination of six years of reporting, Dr. Fink unspools the mystery of what happened in those days, bringing listeners into a hospital fighting for its life and into a conversation about the most terrifying form of health care rationing.
Click here for Part 2 of this fascinating two-part exploration of the disaster, a hospital's response, and the repercussions that have rippled through its affected staff, patients, and families years later.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In December 2005, the National Football League produced a scientific paper concluding that "professional football players do not sustain frequent repetive blows to the brain on a regular basis." That judgment, implausible even to a casual fan, also contradicted the opinion of a growing cadre of neuroscientists who worked in vain to convince the NFL that it was facing a deadly new scourge: a chronic brain disease that was driving an alarming number of players -- including some of the all-time greats -- to madness. In this conversation with Mark Fainaru-Wada, author of League of Denial, the NFL's apparent efforts to cover up and deny mounting evidence of the connection between football and brain damage over a period of nearly two decades are put into the spotlight.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
From the 15th to the mid-19th centuries, scurvy caused more deaths at sea than storms, shipwrecks, combat and all other diseases combined, according to author Stephen Bown. In this remarkable discussion, Bown talks about the harrowing path toward the cure for scurvy. While ranking among the greatest of human accomplishments, its impact on history has, until now, been largely ignored.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
A horrifying epidemic of smallpox was sweeping across North America when the War of Independence began, and until now we have known almost nothing about it. Author Elizabeth A. Fenn is the first historian to reveal how deeply Variola affected the outcome of the war in every colony and the lives of everyone on the continent. Join Dr. John Russell in exploring Fenn's innovative work, which brings to light how this megatragedy was met and what its consequences were for the young republic.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
When the next pandemic arrives, what will it look like? From which innocent host animal will it emerge? Will we be ready? Addressing these and other questions is David Quammen, author of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. Mr. Quammen's book illuminates the origins and dynamics of Ebola, SARS, bird flu, Lyme disease, and other emerging threats.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Hospitalized with a freak case of tropical pneumonia and ashamed of a middle-aged body best described as "a python that swallowed a goat," author A.J. Jacobs felt compelled to change his ways and get healthy. In his book, Drop Dead Healthy, Jacobs encapsulates his experiences of consulting an army of experts and subjecting himself to dozens of different workouts, diets, and devices - from Finger Fitness to Strollercize sessions, and from veganism to "extreme chewing."
Host: John J. Russell, MD
At the turn of the last century, a powerful smallpox epidemic swept the United States from coast to coast. The age-old disease spread swiftly through an increasingly interconnected American landscape: from southern tobacco plantations to the dense immigrant neighborhoods of northern cities to far-flung villages on the edges of the nascent American empire. In Pox, award-winning historian Michael Willrich offers a gripping chronicle of how the nation's continentwide fight against smallpox launched one of the most important civil liberties struggles of the twentieth century.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Author Christopher McDougall's book, Born To Run, is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does my foot hurt? Isolated by Mexico's deadly Copper Canyons, the blissful Tarahumara Indians have honed the ability to run hundreds of miles without rest or injury. Mr. McDougall set out to discover their secrets. In the process, he has journied from science labs at Harvard to the sun-baked valleys and freezing peaks across North America, where ever-growing numbers of ultra-runners are pushing their bodies to the limit, and, finally, to a climactic race in the Copper Canyons that pits America's best ultra-runners against the tribe.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In his book, The Wildlife of Our Bodies, biologist Rob Dunn from the Department of Biology at North Carolina State University opines that while "clean living" has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others. We are trapped in bodies that evolved to deal with the dependable presence of hundreds of other species. As Dunn reveals, our modern disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and other scientists are only beginning to understand.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
In 1998 Andrew Wakefield, a British gastroenterologist with a history of self-promotion, published a paper with a shocking allegation: the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine might cause autism. The media seized hold of the story and, in the process, helped to launch one of the most devastating health scares ever. Yet despite the numerous studies that failed to find any link between childhood vaccines and autism, it has since been popularized by media personalities, and declining vaccination rates have led to outbreaks of deadly illnesses like Hib, measles, and whooping cough. In The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind the Vaccine-Autism Controversy, author Seth Mnookin draws on interviews with parents, public-health advocates, scientists, and anti-vaccine activists to tackle a fundamental question: How do we decide what the truth is?
Host: John J. Russell, MD
500,000 Americans died over a 6 week period; is this the latest thriller from Hollywood, or a piece of American history? Joining host Dr. John Russell to elaborate is Gina Kolata, acclaimed reporter for The New York Times and author of Flu:The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It. In Flu, Ms. Kolata unravels the mystery of this lethal virus. From Alaska to Norway, from the streets of Hong Kong to the corridors of the White House, Kolata tracks the race to recover the live pathogen and probes the fear that has impelled government policy ever since. A gripping work of science writing, Flu addresses the prospects for a great epidemic's recurrence and considers what can be done to prevent it.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
When Dr. Pauline Chen began medical school, she dreamed of saving lives. What she could not predict was how much death would be a part of her work. Almost immediately, she found herself wrestling with medicine's most profound paradox-that a profession premised on caring for the ill also systematically depersonalizes dying. Drawing from her authored work, Final Exam, Dr. Chen describes the course of her education and practice as she struggled to reconcile the lessons of her training with her innate sense of empathy and humanity. Hosted by Dr. Maurice Pickard.
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Dr. Maurice Pickard welcomes author Scott McGaugh to discuss the subject of his book "Surgeon in Blue: Jonathan Letterman, the Civil War Doctor Who Pioneered Battlefield Care." Through their discussion, listeners will discover how one lone surgeon, Jonathan Letterman, reshaped military medicine over the course of four major Civil War battles and a single year. Letterman, confronted by thousands of wounded lying abandoned on the battlefield, a sickly and malnourished Union army, and obscenely filthy military camps, took steps that make battlefield survival possible for our soldiers today.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
One of the age-old questions on human behavior is why we do the things we do. Are our habits ingrained, and if so, how do we break the behavioral cycles they produce? Investigating these and other questions is Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, whose work takes readers to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Hosted by Dr. John Russell.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital is the last almshouse in the country, a descendant of the Hôtel-Dieu (God's Hotel) that cared for the sick in the Middle Ages. Ballet dancers and rock musicians, professors and thieves - "anyone who had fallen, or, often, leapt, onto hard times" and needed extended medical care - ended up there. Dr. Victoria Sweet ended up there herself, as a physician. And though she came for only a two-month stay, she remained for twenty years.
God's Hotel tells the story of a hospital, which - as efficiency experts, politicians, and architects descended, determined to turn it into a modern "health care facility" - revealed its truths about the cost and value of caring for body and soul.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
A maddened creature, frothing at the mouth, lunges at an innocent victim and, with a bite, transforms its prey into another raving monster. It's a scenario that underlies our darkest tales of supernatural horror, but its power derives from a very real virus, a deadly scourge known to mankind from our earliest days. In this fascinating exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy speak with host Dr. John Russell about the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies as described in their book "Rabid."
Host: John J. Russell, MD
Matthew Miller had just pedaled up a mountain pass. He was 20, a member of the University of Virginia triathlon club, so fit his resting pulse was 42! He was on top of the world in so many ways, in love, with dreams of attending medical school. And then, cycling along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia, tragedy struck. The real story is not what happened, but what happened after.
Host Dr. John Russell is joined by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Vitez to share the humbling story of Matt's survival and recovery. The author first chronicled Matt Miller's story for his newspaper, The Philadelphia Inquirer. The response from readers was so overwhelming - and Matt's continued recovery so remarkable - that Vitez immersed himself in Matt's world. The Road Back is not only about a young man's drive to reclaim his life, but about the people who rode with him, rescued him, helped him heal, and saw up close his amazing comeback.
Host: John J. Russell, MD
An extraordinary yet almost unknown chapter in American history is revealed in this extensively researched exposé by author Matthew Algeo. On July 1, 1893, President Grover Cleveland boarded a friend's yacht and was not heard from for five days. During that time, a team of doctors removed a cancerous tumor from the president's palate along with much of his upper jaw. When an enterprising reporter named E. J. Edwards exposed the secret operation, Cleveland denied it and Edwards was consequently dismissed as a disgrace to journalism. Twenty-four years later, one of the president's doctors finally revealed the incredible truth, but many Americans simply would not believe it. After all, Grover Cleveland's political career was built upon honesty-his most memorable quote was "Tell the truth"-so it was nearly impossible to believe he was involved in such a brazen cover-up. "The President Is a Sick Man" is the first full account of the disappearance of Grover Cleveland during that summer more than a century ago. Dr. John Russell hosts this fascinating conversation with author Matthew Algeo.
Guest: Marc Galanter, MD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Medicine and spirituality have always been linked, we have struggled as a profession with how to introduce spirituality and religion into the general hospital setting. Host Dr. Leslie Lundt discusses such a program with Dr. Mark Galanter, professor of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, and author of Spirituality and the Healthy Mind: Science, Therapy and the Need for Personal Meaning.
Guest: Laurie Edwards
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Better technology and treatments mean that people with serious childhood illnesses such as cystic fibrosis and type one diabetes are reaching adulthood in unprecedented numbers. That means they are also struggling with college, relationships, fertility and employment. Laurie Edwards, a health journalist and author of Life Disrupted, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss these issues.
Guest: Steve McKee
Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD
Hear Steve McKee, author of the book, My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey, as he discusses why it was so difficult for him to make the decision to take a statin for his heart disease.
Guest: Steve McKee
Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD
Steve McKee's paternal grandfather died of a heart attack at age 53, his father died of a heart attack at age 50 and he discovered he had heart disease at the age of 52. Hear author Steve McKee as he discusses his experience with heart disease in his book, My Father's Heart: A Son's Journey.
Guest: Gayle Greene, PhD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
How much do you know about the woman who first identified the cancer-causing effects of X-rays in pregnancy? British physician Dr. Alice Stewart was persecuted professionally and financially for her unpopular research. Dr. Gayle Greene, Professor of Literature and Women’s Studies at Scripps College, Claremont, California and author of The Woman Who Knew Too Much, joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss Alice Stewart’s life.
Guest: Masha Gessen
Host: Michael Greenberg, MD
Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies is the work of Moscow-based author and journalist, Masha Gessen. Ms. Gessen discusses her book, based in part upon her experience as a carrier of the BRCA gene, with host Dr. Michael Greenberg.
Guest: Robert Klitzman, MD
Host: Maurice Pickard, MD
Dr. Robert Klitzman , author of When Doctors Become Patients, discusses how by being on the other side of the stethoscope the doctor/patient may gain insight, empathy and a better understanding of the needs of those he treats. Join host Dr. Maurie Pickard to learn some of the first hand lessons Dr. Klitzman gained as a patient as well as those lessons learned by other physician patients who contributed to the research of this fascinating book.
Guest: Gayle Greene, PhD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
What is it like to be a patient with insomnia? To be told it’s your fault, to just rela, or to take any one or combination of a myriad of medications? Dr. Gayle Greene weaves together her personal experience with insomnia and the latest sleep science from her book Insomniac with host Dr. Leslie Lundt.
Guest: Gary Small, MD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Dr Gary Small is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and the Parlow-Solomon Professor on Aging at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is a leading expert on memory and aging, joining host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss his latest book, The Longevity Bible.
Guest: Sandeep Jauhar, MD
Host: Gary Kohn, MD
Dr. Gary Kohn speaks with Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, physicist, cardiologist, medical writer, and director of the Heart Failure Program at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York regarding his book, Intern: A doctor's initiation.
Guest: Sandeep Jauhar, MD
Host: Gary Kohn, MD
Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, physicist, cardiologist, medical writer, and Director of the Heart Failure Program at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York City speaks with your host, Dr. Gary Kohn about the transitional period of internship in his book, "Intern: A Doctor's Initiation". Dr. Jauhar relates common experiences through highlights of his own career move towards medicine, and his evolution as a doctor.
Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD
Guest: Robert Schimmel
Robert Schimmel, named one of Comedy Central's 100 greatest Comics, had Showtime and HBO specials, best selling CDs, a Fox TV pilot, and consistently sold-out club dates. He was a recipient of the Celebration of Life Award from the National Lymphoma Society. Mr. Schimmel discussed his book, Cancer on $5 a day Chemo Not Included: How Humor Got Me Through the Toughest Journey of My Life.
Guest: George Makari, MD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Sex, conflict, ids and egos – our guest today has authored “The Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis” which instructs us in the history of this movement and how innovators like Freud and Jung can be viewed through the lens of their cultural times. Host Dr. Leslie Lundt welcomes the Director of the Institute for the History of Psychiatry at Cornell Weill Medical College, George Makari, MD to discuss his latest book.
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Guest: Aine Collier, EdD
“A mysterious epidemic, hitherto unknown, which had struck terror into all hearts by the rapidity of its spread, the ravages it made, and the apparent helplessness of the physicians to cure it.” This 16th century writer was discussing syphilis. Author Aine Collier joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to explore the history of sexually transmitted disease and the early treatments used to combat them.
Guest: Aine Collier, EdD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Rarely do we encounter an issue in medicine as divisive as contraception. Author Aine Collier from the University of Maryland discusses the history of birth control with host Dr. Leslie Lundt.
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Guest: Aine Collier, EdD
The history of the condom is a fascinating saga of sex, money, science, and politics. Professor Aine Collier chats with host Dr. Leslie Lundt about her book, The Humble Little Condom.
Guest: Sandeep Jauhar, MD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
How does the process of training to become a physician change us and our preconceptions of doctoring and medicine? And how has our understanding of that process shifted over time? Cardiologist and author Dr. Sandeep Jauhar joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss his career as a physician writer and his chronicle of a grueling time, Intern: A Doctor’s Initiation (2006, Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Guest: Taner Edis, PhD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Why is the US more religious than Western Europe? Why does stem-cell research stir up so much controversy? ReachMD Book Club host Dr. Leslie Lundt welcomes author Taner Edis, PhD to discuss his book, Science and Nonbelief.
Guest: Taner Edis, PhD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Richard Dawkins is famous for saying science supports religious nonbelief, but many good scientists, such as Francis Collins, are religious and strongly oppose Dawkins's position. Where do you stand on this question? Physics professor and author Taner Edis, PhD discusses his book, Science and Nonbelief with host Dr. Leslie Lundt on the ReachMD Book Club.
Guest: David Kertzer, PhD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
We all know that sometimes the answers to today’s problems can be found in the past. Our guest today will take us to 19th century Italy where we will have a glimpse into a dark page of social and medical history. At one time, up to 10% of European men had syphilis – its victims were rumored to include Beethoven, Van Gogh, Baudelaire, Oscar Wilde, Flaubert. But the syphilis epidemic had another side that hasn’t gotten much attention. Dr. David Kertzer of Brown University has written a detailed account of how one Italian woman contracted syphilis from an infant. He joins host Dr. Leslie Lundt to discuss his latest book, “Amalia’s Tale”.
Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD
Guest: Richard Blau, MD
Dr. Richard H. Blau is the founder and Medical Director of The Arthritis Institute of Long Island in Long Island, New York and a Founding Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology. Hear Dr. Blau as he discusses his book, Too Young to Feel Old: The Arthritis Doctor's 28-Day Formula for Pain-Free Living.
Guest: Stanley Kardatzke, MD
Host: Michael Greenberg, MD
Dr. Stanley Kardatzke, author of Decisive Surgery for a Dying Healthcare System, discusses affordable medical care with the cost-effective, prepaid medical plan used in his practice.
Guest: Dan Shapiro, PhD
Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD
Dr. Dan Shapiro, Director of the Medical Humanities Program and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of Arizona in Tuscon, Arizona, discusses his book, Delivering Amelia: The Story of a Young Gifted Obstetrician's Mistake and the Psychologist Who Helped Her.
Guest: Dan Shapiro, PhD
Host: Susan Dolan, RN, JD
Dr. Dan Shapiro, Director of the Medical Humanities Program and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of Arizona, discusses his book: Mom's Marijuana: Life, Love and Beating the Odds.
Guest: Mani Bhaumik, PhD
Host: Larry Kaskel, MD
Does wealth equate to happiness? Today’s guest, scientist and co-inventor of the technology that made Lasik surgery possible, found that wealth did not equal happiness for him. What can we as physicians learn from Dr. Bhaumik’s story and his search for life's meaning?
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
Guest: Jennifer Ackerman
Jennifer Ackerman reminds us that Don Quixote called hunger "la major salsa del mundo" the world’s best sauce. What have we learned about appetite, hunger and digestion in recent years? Join ReachMD Book Club host Dr. Leslie Lundt as she welcomes the author of Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream.
Guest: Jennifer Ackerman
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
People magazine has said that Jennifer Ackerman is “blessed with a naturalist’s eye for detail and a poet’s soul’. Her book beautifully describes how the body is a system of finely tuned clocks. She weaves cutting edge science with poetic descriptions of the impact that circadian biology has on nearly every aspect of our lives. ReachMD Book Club host Dr. Leslie Lundt discusses “Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream” with author Jennifer Ackerman.
Guest: Allan Hobson, MD
Host: Leslie P. Lundt, MD
In this segment we learn from Dr. Allan Hobson, emminent Harvard neuroscientist and author of 13 Dreams Freud Never Had: The New Mind Science. Dr. Hobson talks about psychoanalysis, dreaming, and the latest in associated neuroscience research.