How Power Destroys Empathy & Compassion
In 2007, after twelve years of training to become a doctor, I left the hospital, only seven years after completing my training. Why? Because, in my estimation, to rise in the medical hierarchy requires trading in empathy and compassion for power- and it’s a bad...
Coping With The Extent Of American Misogyny In The Wake Of The Epstein Files
After a week of shocking Epstein revelations, the powers that be are trying to change the subject. I’m no scholar in Middle East politics, so I won’t say anything other than I’m anti-genocide, I’m pro-human rights, and I don’t believe there’s any excuse for mass...
The Woman Who Was Loyal To Her Suffering
I'm about to co-teach a writing workshop with Memoir As Medicine author Nancy Slonim Aronie. It’s called ENOUGH ALREADY, and it's inspired by Nancy’s cousin Zelda. Learn more about ENOUGH ALREADY here. Zelda told Nancy that when she was a kid, she remembers hiding...
Improve Your Relationships, Improve Your Health
As Jeff Rediger and I finish up the final edits of our book RELATIONSICK, about the adverse health implications of unbalanced, non-reciprocal, or narcissistic relationships, I’ve found myself pondering why so few people talk about the very strong scientific link...
When Our Mentors, Heroes & Gurus Wind Up In The Epstein Files Or Otherwise Let Us Down
Yesterday, I wrote a Facebook post (you can read it here) about Deepak Chopra and Peter Attia in the Epstein files. It got over 350 comments in less than 24 hours, and so many of them were heartbreaking. The post included disturbing quotes from Epstein files...
We Must Widen Our Circles Of Empathy- STAT!
Right after finishing my OB/GYN residency at Northwestern, I worked at a public health clinic in San Diego County near Lemon Grove, California, where all of my patients were Somali immigrants and 100% of them had the most severe form of female genital mutilation...
What’s Happening When Someone Repeatedly Breaks Mutually-Made Plans
Melody and I used to make plans the way people do when they care about each other. We’d talk them through, check calendars, and imagine the future together, even if it was just a Tuesday night dinner or a weekend hike. When we’d land on a plan, I’d feel my body...
An Unexpected Love Affair
I didn’t mean to fall in love again. I really didn’t. I had already given my heart to Muir Beach—the fog that tucked me in at night like a damp wool blanket, the way the ocean hurled itself at the rocks with such theatrical despair, the sense that the land itself...