BJ Miller: Palliative medicine physician and educator on life and death and everything in between
Release Date: 03/10/2024
Aimee Boorman: Coaching Simone Biles beyond medals and perfection
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Amy Boorman is a decorated and globally respected gymnastics coach, whose career included twelve years coaching the sport’s all-time greatest, Simone Biles. She was named USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year four times and US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year in 2016. She was head coach of the US Women’s Gymnastics Team at the Rio Olympic Games and coached for the Dutch Gymnastics Federation in 2021, including at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Her book is titled: The Balance: My Years Coaching Simone Biles. Summary In this conversation, Aimee Boorman reflects on her evolution from a...
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Michael Grab: Rock Balancing Artist on Making the Impossible Possible
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Michael Grab is one of the world’s premier rock balancing artists. He has created rock art all over the world and has inspired a global movement for stone balancing art. Summary In this conversation, Michael Grab, a renowned rock balancing artist, shares insights into his creative process, the philosophy behind his art, and the technical aspects of balancing rocks. He discusses how he finds inspiration in nature, the evolution of his hobby into a professional pursuit, and the meditative state he enters while creating his sculptures. The conversation also touches on the...
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James Lawrence “aka” Iron Cowboy: 100 full distance triathlons in 100 days
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Adam Galinsky: Unlocking the formula to inspiring leadership
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Diane Boyd: Wildlife biologist and wolf conservationist
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Laurie Santos: The Happiness Professor on the science of well-being
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Laurie is a Professor of Psychology at Yale University. In addition to her work on the evolutionary origins of human cognition, Laurie is an expert on the science of happiness and the ways in which our minds lie to us about what makes us happy. Her Yale course, , teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years. The online version of the class— on Coursera—has attracted more than 4 million students. She...
info_outlineDr. BJ Miller is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He currently sees patients and families via telehealth through Mettle Health, a company he co-founded with the aim to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or caregiver who needs help navigating the practical, emotional and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability. Led by his own experiences as a patient, BJ advocates for the roles of our senses, community and presence in designing a better ending. His interests are in working across disciplines to affect broad-based culture change, cultivating a civic model for aging and dying and furthering the message that suffering, illness, and dying are fundamental and intrinsic aspects of life. His career has been dedicated to moving healthcare towards a human centered approach, on a policy as well as a personal level.
Some interesting insights from this episode:
· “I had a basic hunger and curiosity to understand the world in which I was living and to understand myself”.
· Early on, as he was recovering from the accident with three less limbs, he forced himself to reframe his situation. That life wasn’t going to be extra difficult going forward but just uniquely difficult. And that suffering is something we all deal with in our own way. Eventually his emotions would catch up with his mind whereby he truly felt that way.
· Studying art history in college taught him perspective. It taught him how he was in control as to how he perceived his life and how he framed his life experience.
· In palliative care, you don’t just treat the pain, you treat the suffering.
· “If you don’t know the depths of sorrow, you aren’t going to know the peaks of joy.”
· As dying patients reflect back upon their lives, it’s not so much regret over what decisions they made but how they imbued whatever decisions they made. Did they do it with love, did they infuse their spirit into whatever they were doing. That’s what matters most.
Notes:
The Center for Dying and Living
Book: A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death