Searching for Medicine’s Soul
Hosted by Dr. Aaron Rothstein and featuring expert guests, Searching for Medicine’s Soul explores medicine’s purpose: Why do physicians do what they do? How does the practice of medicine relate to scientific progress and human flourishing? The result is an in-depth analysis of the history and aim of medicine, and its collision with a thrilling and sometimes tragic age of discovery.
Episodes
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
Norman Doidge on Neuroplasticity and Training the Brain [Part One]
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
In the first installment of a two-part conversation, Aaron is joined by Dr. Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who served on the faculty at Columbia University's Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research and the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Doidge is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Brain that Changes Itself, and The Brain’s Way of Healing. Aaron and Norman discuss the mind-body problem and how the brain’s ability to change provides a different perspective to the age-old debate.
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
Ilana Yurkiewicz on the Broken State of American Healthcare
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
Thursday Aug 17, 2023
In this episode of Searching for Medicine’s Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Ilana Yurkiewicz, a physician practicing oncology and internal medicine at Stanford University, published medical journalist, and author of Fragmented: A Doctor’s Quest to Piece Together American Health Care. Aaron and Ilana discuss how America’s healthcare system functions in a way that blocks physicians from possessing complete knowledge of a patient’s medical history, and the detrimental effects of physicians being partially blindfolded as they practice.
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Wendy Dean on Moral Injury in Healthcare
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
Thursday Aug 10, 2023
In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Wendy Dean, a physician trained in surgery and psychiatry who is now focusing on finding innovative ways to make medicine better for both patients and physicians through her nonprofit, Fix Moral Injury. She is the recent co-author of If I Betray These Words: Moral Injury in Medicine and Why It's So Hard for Clinicians to Put Patients First and co-host of the podcast Moral Matters, Moral Injury of Healthcare. Aaron and Wendy discuss the difference between moral injury of doctors and physician burnout, as well as how the healthcare system contributes to symptoms of moral injury.
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Simon Whitney on Institutional Review Boards
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
Thursday Aug 03, 2023
In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by ethicist Dr. Simon Whitney, author of From Oversight to Overkill: Inside the Broken System That Blocks Medical Breakthroughs—And How We Can Fix It. Aaron and Simon discussed the system of Institutional Review Boards that has come to dominate and distort our system of medical research.
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Elisabeth Rosenthal On American Healthcare Dysfunction
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
Thursday Jun 01, 2023
In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, senior contributing editor at Kaiser Health News, former New York Times reporter, and New York Times Best Selling author of An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. Dr. Rothstein and Dr. Rosenthal talked about the failures of the American healthcare system and the untenable costs and burdens it foists on patients and doctors.
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
David Yaden on Psychedelics and Spiritual Experiences
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
In this episode, Aaron was joined by Dr. David Yaden, who studies the measurement and experimental manipulation of mental states called altered states of consciousness. The two discussed spiritual experiences, religion, psychedelics and mental illness, and the ability to embrace a positive worldview through psychedelic substances.
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Aaron Kheriaty on the Biomedical Security State
Monday Apr 10, 2023
Monday Apr 10, 2023
In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron was joined by fellow EPPC scholar Dr. Aaron Kheriaty. Drs. Rothstein and Kheriaty discussed the biomedical security state, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Jim Capretta on Government and Rising Healthcare Costs
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron is joined by Jim Capretta, Senior Fellow and Milton Friedman Chair at the American Enterprise Institute. In the face of rising healthcare costs, the pair discuss the government's role in healthcare policy with an eye for providing patients with meaningful choice in quality treatment.
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
David Slusky on American Health Economics
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
On this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron interviews Dr. David Slusky of the University of Kansas. David is the Executive Director of the American Society of Health Economists as well as the De-Min and Chin-Sha Wu Associate Professor of Economics at KU. He is a co-founder and co-organizer of the Electronic Health Economics Colloquium, for which he recently successfully negotiated a partnership with ASHEcon for the spring. He is also the founder and the lead organizer of the Kansas Health Economics Conference, for which he was awarded a multiyear National Science Foundation grant. Slusky is also a co-editor at the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, serving in a managing editor capacity.
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Economic Opportunity and Healthcare with Avik Roy
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
In this episode of Searching for Medicine's Soul, Aaron is joined by Avik Roy, the President of the Foundation For Research on Equal Opportunity, a non-profit think tank focused on expanding economic opportunity to those who least have it. He trained as a scientist at MIT and as a physician at Yale Medical School. In 2012, Avik joined Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a health care policy advisor. By 2014, Avik was Forbes’ Opinion Editor. In 2015, Avik ran the foreign and domestic policy shops for Texas Governor Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. He writes frequently about healthcare economics and healthcare policy for numerous publications including Forbes and National Review. He serves on the Boards of Advisors of the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Sats Center, and on the Board of Directors of the Texas Bitcoin Foundation. Avik, thanks for joining the podcast.