Death and grief are much more “hidden” from society today than they once were. The medicalization of dying means that death now occurs more frequently in hospitals and care facilities than at homes. The secularization of society means that traditional religious or communal rituals surrounding death and mourning have diminished. The fast pace and optimistic lens of consumer culture means less contemplation of aging, mortality, and grief.

But Mikołaj Sławkowski-Rode, PhD, a professor of philosophy at the University of Warsaw and research fellow at Oxford University, argues that experiences of mourning and grief are crucial to the human condition. They allow us to foster empathy and connect with others’ suffering. They encourage us to reflect on how we value life, relationships, and the responsibilities we have towards others, both living and deceased. They revitalize communal rituals and practices, creating a sense of shared humanity.

Professor Sławkowski-Rode has written widely on the philosophical and ethical dimensions of mourning, grief, and memory, and his works have appeared in The New York Times as well as various academic publications. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the nature of grief as a multifaceted emotional response, extending beyond a psychological state and reaching into existential realms; the role of memory in the grieving process; why love and grief are fundamentally inseparable; how the atomization of modern society affects our ability to mourn; and more.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:20 - The focus of Sławkowski-Rode’s current work and what his day looks like as a philosopher

8:10 - The value of philosophy in society

12:42 - How Sławkowski-Rode became inspired to study grief

14:57 - Why grief has become more “hidden” in society over the past century

23:49 - How the “cult of individuality” leads our society to ignore aging and death

33:45 - How Sławkowski-Rode defines “human flourishing”

36:31 - How the atomization of modern society affects our ability to mourn

50:00 - Practical advices for clinicians on how to navigate grief and mourning for themselves and their patients

Mikołaj Sławkowski-Rode is the author of the New York Times op ed It’s OK to Never ‘Get Over’ Your Grief and numerous academic publications.

Dr. Sławkowski-Rode can be found on Twitter/X at @MikolajRode.

Works and past episodes discussed:

The Hours of Our Death by Philipe Aries

Episode 21: Pain, Pleasure and Finding the Balance | Anna Lembke, MD

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024

For a profession like medicine in which suffering — be it physical, psychological, existential, or spiritual — is so commonly encountered and experienced, we have developed remarkably little shared vocabulary to talk about what suffering means. That is, if we even have the conversations at all.

In early June 2024, during the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual conference in Chicago, we hosted a live podcast event at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, gathering Sunita Puri, MD and Jay Wellons, MD, MSPH to explore the great problem of suffering. Dr. Puri, a palliative care physician and author of the best selling book That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the 11th Hour (2019), last joined us on Episode 74: The Beauty of Impermanence. Dr. Wellons, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and author of the memoir All That Moves Us: A pediatric neurosurgeon, His Young Patients and Their Stories of Grace and Resilience (2022), last joined us on Episode 28: The Brain and All That Moves Us.

The four of us, the guests and co-hosts, start by sharing our personal encounters with suffering, both in our patients and in ourselves, before discussing our philosophical approaches to and practical strategies for accompanying patients through suffering, managing spiritual distress, contextualizing our own humanity in these encounters, maintaining our own well-being, and searching for meaning amid these tragic moments, if it is possible. After our main discussion, we also answer audience questions about managing the sometimes unrealistic and complicated expectations patients have of clinicians, and the role of interfaith discussions among healthcare professionals.

We thank Kelly Michelson, MD, MPH and the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Northwestern University for making this event possible.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:58 - Stories of confronting suffering, both in professional and personal contexts

29:02 - Practical tips for coping with suffering and uncertainty as a physician

31:53 - The importance of psychological safety in feeling and expressing your emotions as a physician

36:52 - Being present in the moment while accompanying patients through difficult times

40:00 - Helping doctors re-connect with the deeper reason of why they feel called to medicine

42:24 - The inexplicable relationship between love and loss

52:04 - The deep sense of meaning inherent in the work of a physician and what makes it “real”

54:41 - Q&A: How physicians can better navigate the challenging expectations patients have as well as medical skepticism

1:04:05 - Q&A: How we can better incorporate interfaith dialogue into medical training and practice

Dr. Jay Wellons is the author of All That Moves Us (2022) and can be found on Twitter/X at @JayWellons5.

Dr. Sunita Puri is the author of That Good Night (2019) and can be found on Twitter/X at @SunitaPuriMD.

Most of us take free will for granted — from the biggest of life decisions to choosing an ice cream flavor, we are generally capable of freely deciding how to think and how to behave without outside influence. But Robert Sapolsky believes our decisions cannot be disentangled from our genetics, environment, and neurobiology. In other words, to him, free will does not exist.

Dr. Sapolsky, a neuroscientist and primatologist at Stanford University, is a leading thinker on the biology of stress, human behavior, neurodegenerative diseases, and the science of free will and determinism. He is the author of multiple bestselling books, including Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers (1994), Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017), and Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will (2023). His works have been featured widely in the popular press, from National Geographic to The New York Times.

Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Sapolsky presents his arguments against free will, along the way making detours through chaos and complexity theory, philosophy, ethics, and neuroscience. He shows how subtracting free will from the way culture thinks about crime, mental health, and human development have resulted in more humane health, justice, and educational systems. Finally, we contemplate together what human flourishing even means in the context of a life without free will.

His ideas have profound implications not just on our society, but also on our understanding of human nature, challenging our perceptions and provoking deep reflection on how we navigate the choices in our lives.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:08 - How Dr. Sapolsky chose a career straddling both neuroscience and primatology

5:04 - The moment when Dr. Sapolsky realized he did not believe humans have free will

16:16 - How society becomes more humane when free will is factored out

23:29 - The deep implications that free will and determinism could have on criminology

34:13 - How a belief in a lack of free will can negatively affect motivation on a societal scale

43:11 - What does human flourishing look like in a world without free will?

48:07 - The best moments in life in which to utilize this understanding of free will

Dr. Robert Sapolsky has authored numerous publications, a full bibliography of his works can be found here.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky can be found on Instagram at @robert.sapolsky.

Works and past episodes discussed:

What’s Expected of Us by Ted Chiang

Episode 79: Transcendence in the Age of Science | Alan Lightman, PhD

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2024