Podcasts about mettle health

Palliative physician B.J. Miller asks: Is there a better way to think about dying? And can death be beautiful? SOURCES:B.J. Miller, palliative-care physician and President at Mettle Health. RESOURCES:A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, by Shoshana Berger and B.J. Miller and (2019).“After A Freak Accident, A Doctor Finds Insight Into ‘Living Life And Facing Death,'” by Fresh Air (W.Y.P.R., 2019).“Dying In A Hospital Means More Procedures, Tests And Costs,” by Alison Kodjak (W.Y.P.R., 2016).“The Final Year: Visualizing End Of Life,” by Arcadia (2016).“What Really Matters at the End of Life,” by B.J. Miller (TED, 2015).“The Flexner Report ― 100 Years Later,” by Thomas P. Duffy (Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 2011).“My Near Death Panel Experience,” by Earl Blumenauer (The New York Times, 2009).The Center for Dying and Living. EXTRAS:“Max Tegmark on Why Superhuman Artificial Intelligence Won't be Our Slave (Part 2),” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).“Max Tegmark on Why Treating Humanity Like a Child Will Save Us All,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).“Amanda & Lily Levitt Share What It's Like to be Steve's Daughters,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).“Edward Glaeser Explains Why Some Cities Thrive While Others Fade Away,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).“Sendhil Mullainathan Explains How to Generate an Idea a Minute (Part 2),” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).“Sendhil Mullainathan Thinks Messing Around Is the Best Use of Your Time,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).“How Does Facing Death Change Your Life?” by No Stupid Questions (2021).“How to Be Better at Death,” by Freakonomics Radio (2021).

When I first spoke with Dr. BJ Miller, I felt the weight of his experiences transform into something unexpectedly hopeful. BJ is a palliative care physician and he's also a storyteller of life's hardest truths, a triple amputee who turned personal tragedy into a mission to redefine how we approach suffering, dignity, and mortality. Years ago, I watched BJ Miller's TED Talk on What Really Matters at the End of Life, I was struck by his bold challenge to healthcare's design—how it was built around diseases rather than people. He spoke with a clarity that cut through the clinical detachment of modern medicine, emphasizing that suffering is not just something to be erased but an intrinsic part of being human. He invited us to see death and illness not as failures but as natural, even meaningful, parts of life. When my husband, Dan Rosenman, died suddenly of a heart attack while mountain biking 11 years ago, BJ's words became a lifeline. His reflection on the difference between necessary and unnecessary suffering helped me shift my perspective: rather than trying to “fix” my grief, I learned to live alongside it and open my eyes to see the beauty of grief. That's why I invited him here—to share how we might reshape our approach to life's most difficult realities with creativity, presence, and compassion. Known globally for that groundbreaking talk, he co-founded Mettle Health, a telehealth service providing support for patients and caregivers. His journey began with a life-altering accident at Princeton, where he lost three limbs—an event that reshaped his understanding of vulnerability and resilience. Through his work at UCSF, the Zen Hospice Project, and now Mettle Health, he has challenged medicine to prioritize humanity over cure rates, integrating art, spirituality, and raw honesty into care. Do you have thoughts on this episode or suggestions for future guests? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at hello@rosenmaninstitute.org.

Send us a Text Message.Welcome everyone to this very special episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast. As most of you listening to my show are cops, first responders, or someone who writes stories about first responders, I thought this episode would be extremely useful to you all. We all have dealt with, or are still dealing with, a high volume of death. Sometimes we don't deal with it at all. But I guarantee, it will come back to haunt us. So today on the show I have a very special guest, Dr. BJ Miller.Dr. Miller was the executive director of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project from 2011 to 2016. He's the co-author, with Shoshana Berger, of the book "A Beginner's Guide To The End: Practical Advice For Living Life And Facing Death." Dr. Miller is also known for his 2015 TED Talk, "What Really Matters at the End of Life". Miller has been on the teaching faculty at UCSF School of Medicine since 2007. Dr. Miller is no stranger to death, coming very close to himself by being electrocuted with 11,000 volts that resulted in several months in a burn unit, and eventually losing both legs and his left arm. Dr. Miller is also the co-founder of Mettle Health, an organization that provides 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.Dr. Miller is one of the most inspirational and knowledgeable persons I have ever spoken to regarding death, and life.In today's episode, we discuss:·      Clinton Eastwood quote from the movie, The Outlaw Josey Wales. “Death is easy for us; it's living that's tough.”·      My first time hearing Dr. Miller on the Tim Ferriss show back in 2016.·      Experiences with ghosts or the presence of a person after their death.·      The beauty of the mundane of death.·      Dr. Miller's unexplainable synchronicity with his patients.·      The difference between palliative care, end-of-life care, and hospice.·      When is it time to stop treatment and what do you do when a loved one pushes back against that?·      Visions or conversations with dead relatives? Sebastian Younger's new book, In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife on the James Altucher podcast.·      Assisted suicide or assisted dying.·      The role of child life specialists when helping children with death.·      Regrets at the end of life.                 The Netflix documentary featuring Dr. Miller, End Game.Visit BJ at Mettle Health.Watch BJ's TedTalk.Check out the new Cops and Writers YouTube channel!Check out Field Training (Brew City Blues Book 1)!!Enjoy the Cops and Writers book series.Please visit the Cops and Writers website. The Breakfast Jury by Ken Humphrey. Pick it up today at http://kenhumphrey.comSupport the Show.

Dr. 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 TED Talk: What Really Matters at the End of Life   

Dr. 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 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. BJ has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. Led by his 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 and a personal level. Listen in and learn how BJ and the staff at Mettle Health are creating Healing Ties all around us!

In 1982 Eric Cassell published his landmark essay: On the Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine.  Though his narrow definition of suffering as injured or threatened personhood has been critiqued, the central concept was a motivating force for many of us to enter the fields of geriatrics and palliative care, Eric and I included. Today we talk about suffering in the many forms we encounter in palliative care.  Our guests are BJ Miller, palliative care physician and c-founder of Mettle Health, and Naomi Saks, chaplain at UCSF.  We discuss: How to respond when a nurse or trainee says, “I think this patient is suffering,” but the family does not share that perception The trap in comparing one person's suffering to another person's suffering How to respond to suffering, from naming to rebirth Ways in which suffering can bring meaning and purpose, or at the very least co-exist alongside growth and transformation The extent to which elimination of suffering ought to be a goal of palliative medicine (with a nod to Tolstoy) A simple 2 sentence spiritual assessment Credit to my son Kai Smith on guitar on Everybody Hurts for those listening to audio only (hand still splinted at time of this recording) -@AlexSmithMD   Additional links: Screening for suffering: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27714532/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35195465/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31387655/ Evans CB, Larimore LR, Grasmick VE. Hospital Chaplains, Spirituality, and Pain Management: A Qualitative Study. Pain Manag Nurs. 2023 Dec 20:S1524-9042(23)00202-3. doi: 10.1016/j.pmn.2023.11.004. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38129210. Kleinman, A. (2020). The illness narratives suffering, healing, and the human condition.  Accepting This Poem by Mark Nepo https://marknepo.com/poems_accepting.php Saks, N., Wallace, C.L., Donesky, D., & Millic, M. (in preparation). “Profession-specific Roles in Palliative Care.” In Donesky, D., Wallace, C.L., Saks, N., Milic, M. & Head, B. (eds.), Textbook on Interprofessional Palliative Care. Oxford University Press.

In this enlightening episode of UNLOCKED host Phil Franks and guests, Sonya Dolan and BJ Miller, co-founders of Metal Health, dive deep into the wildly misunderstood world of palliative care, grief, and the human experience of life and death.They explore the five regrets of the dying, touching on the importance of living a life true to oneself and fully embracing all aspects of life. The conversation delves into the ways individuals can begin to engage with their own mortality, opening up about the role of grief in that process. Sonya and BJ emphasize that grief is not something to "get through" but a transformative journey of integrating loss into one's life, ultimately leading to personal growth and newfound perspectives on life and death.KEY TAKEAWAYS:Palliative care is about mitigating suffering and realizing joy, promoting quality of life irrespective of the outcome.Life and death are entwined, and appreciating both is essential for a fulfilled life.Learning to live with the hard emotions, including grief, is crucial for personal growth.Grief is not something to "get through"; it's an ongoing journey of integrating loss into your life.Embracing change and accepting the new version of yourself that emerges after loss can lead to personal growth and a deeper appreciation of life.ABOUT BJ & SONYA:BJ Miller is President & Counselor at Mettle Health, author, and renowned speaker. And is best known for his 2015 TED Talk, "What Really Matters at the End of Life" which has been viewed over 11million times.You may have seen BJ as the subject of Netflix's Academy Award-nominated short documentary, End Game[3] Or, most recently, on LIMITLESS, where he helps Chris Hemsworth confront and accept his mortality. He also co-authored a book for approaching the end of life titled A Beginner's Guide to the End. And wrote a chapter sharing his advice in Tim Ferriss' book Tools of Titans.Sonya Dolan is Co-founder and director of operations at Mettle Health. Sonya came to work in the field of hospice and palliative care after the death of her mother. This loss and the experience of being a caregiver greatly influenced her career trajectory. Her work with hospice, coupled with caregiving for her mother and being a breast cancer survivor has given her a keen awareness of what the healthcare system provides and where it is lacking.CONNECT WITH BJ & SONYA:Mettle Healthhttps://mettlehealth.com/https://www.instagram.com/mettle_health/Interested in registering for the Mettle Method?https://mettlehealth.com/curriculumGrab the book:https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Beginners-Guide-to-the-End/BJ-Miller/9781501157219LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bj-miller-md/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonya-dolan-36697631/CONNECT WITH OWL & KEYhttps://www.owlandkey.co/https://www.instagram.com/owl_and_key/https://linktr.ee/owlandkey

In this episode, host Shikha Jain, MD, speaks with Mettle Health's Claritza Rios, MD, and Bridget Sumser, SW, about misconceptions surrounding palliative care, communication training as self-care for physicians and more. •    Welcome to another exciting episode of Oncology Overdrive :50 •    About Sumser 1:07 •    About Rios 1:52 •    The interview 2:18 •    About Rios and how she got into palliative care 2:47 •    About Sumser's journey and how she ended up in the palliative care space 4:15 •    How do we approach the stigma of palliative care? How do we handle the misconception of palliative care and how can we change the narrative? 6:47 •    Palliative care and hospice care 15:26 •    Patient hope 24:21 •    Communication training as a form of self-care 28:52  •    Can you tell us about Mettle Health and how people can find you? 31:28 •    Holistic care for patients 33:27 •    Authenticity and being present for patients 36:58 •    If someone could only listen to the last two minutes of this episode, what would you want them to take away? 43:26 •    How to contact Rios and Sumser 45:52 •    Thanks for listening 47:05 Claritza Rios, MD, is a dedicated physician educator with extensive experience in emergency and internal medicine. Bridget Sumser, SW, became a social worker to help people living with serious illness. Over the course of the last 10 years, she has worked across settings, providing support and companionship to patients, families, community members, and providers. We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Jain at oncologyoverdrive@healio.com. Follow Healio on X, formerly known as Twitter, and LinkedIn: @HemOncToday and https://www.linkedin.com/company/hemonctoday/. Follow Dr. Jain on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ShikhaJainMD. Sumser can be reached via email bridget@mettlehealth.com. Rios can be reached on Instagram @claritzariosmd. Learn more about Mettle Health by visiting mettlehealth.com.  Disclosures:  Jain reports no relevant financial disclosures. Rios is an MD in Internal Medicine; Emergency Medicine; Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Sumser is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.

In 2017, illustrator Wendy McNaughton completed an artist-in-residency at the Zen Hospice Guest House in San Francisco. She got to know families, caregivers, staff, and the dying. What emerged is her new book, “How To Say Goodbye.” Drawn-from-life illustrations are paired with gentle advice on how to let someone go. “The person dying is in charge,” reflects MacNaughton, and her book offers simple ways to be witness to a loved one's last moments. And when mutual peace and understanding matters the most, she writes, simple declarations like,“I forgive you. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you. Goodbye” can offer closure. We'll talk to MacNaughton and a hospice caregiver. Guests: Wendy MacNaughton, illustrator; artist; graphic journalist - McNaughton's latest book is "How to Say Goodbye." She has illustrated or authored eleven books, including "Salt Fat Acid Heat," and "Meanwhile in San Francisco," and is the creator of DrawTogether, the educational drawing program for kids and adults Ladybird Morgan, co founder Humane Prison Hospice Project - Morgan is a registered nurse and clinical social worker and has worked in end of life care for over 20 years. She is currently a palliative care consultant with Mettle Health.

Join host Ned Buskirk in conversation with return guests & friends BJ Miller & Ladybird Morgan, talking about their work in the world, together with Mettle Health, & Mettle Health's Annual Convening happening in Nevada City, CA on August, 17th 2023, an event meant for everyone who will be touched by the subject of aging, illness, death, & grief...mettle health annual convening'swebsite: https://mettlehealth.com/annual-convening-2023 Produced by Nick JainaSoundscaping by Nick JainaAssociate Produced by Jasmine Pritchard”YG2D Podcast Theme Song” by Nick JainaTHIS PODCAST IS MADE POSSIBLE WITH SUPPORT FROM LISTENERS LIKE YOU.Become a podcast patron now at https://www.patreon.com/YG2D.

“There is nothing wrong with you for dying,” hospice physician B.J. Miller and journalist and caregiver Shoshana Berger write in A Beginner's Guide to the End. “Our ultimate purpose here isn't so much to help you die as it is to free up as much life as possible until you do.” An honest, surprising, and detail-oriented guide to the most universal of all experiences, A Beginner's Guide to the End is “a book that every family should have, the equivalent of Dr. Spock but for this other phase of life” (New York Times bestselling author Dr. Abraham Verghese). About Our Guest: Dr. 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. BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 11 million times and his work has also been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts, including Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, GOOP, Krista Tippett, Tim Ferriss and the TED Radio Hour. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, was co-authored with Shoshana Berger and published in 2019. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aimatmelanoma/support

Ren Pope has a passion for all things data, information, and knowledge, and he strives to make them more accessible, organized, and enduring. You may be surprised that this conversation about information architecture takes us back to classic Greek philosophy, specifically ontology, which is concerned with the nature of being—that is, what is real and not real. What is inside a computer cannot be seen, yet it is real in the sense that it has value and can impact reality. And as a modern ontologist, Ren wants to make information accessible and useful. That often starts with assigning names to things—nouns and verbs to label the functions of an organization so that things can be indexed, searched, retrieved, crosslinked, and so that relationships can be defined through metadata. It's a complicated process for small businesses and consultants, and the challenges rise exponentially for enterprises with multiple departments and silos. With 60 years of shared experience, Ren and Lou remember when companies were dependent on Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoint to manage the complexities of a living and evolving organization (many still are!). Today there are multiple options for organizing both structured and unstructured data, and thanks to ontologists like Ren, the tools are getting better. Lou and Ren's discussion spans from the philosophical to the practical. Ren shares some concrete ways to use ontological thinking in your everyday work: • Find all the nouns and verbs your organization uses to describe its functions. • Define what you are trying to accomplish. • Focus your scope. The narrower the domain, or the more specific the task, the easier your task will be. If you don't have a narrow, well-defined scope, you will probably over-collect data. • Find how the nouns and verbs interact. • Have a method for maintaining your data. Ren will be presenting at the upcoming 2023 Enterprise UX conference June 6-7: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/ What you'll learn from this episode: • About classic ontology and how it relates to the digital age • How information architecture has evolved over the last 30 years • What is ontological thinking and how to incorporate it into your work • The relationship between information architects, engineers, and the end user • About the upcoming Enterprise UX Conference in June: https://rosenfeldmedia.com/enterprise-ux-2023/ Quick Reference Guide • [0:00:58] Introduction of Ren Pope • [0:02:17] Ontologist vs information architect vs interactive designer vs knowledge manager • [0:06:00] Ontology within organizations and particular challenges for enterprises • [0:09:50] Metadata for structured and unstructured data • [0:14:01] LLM summaries, single metadata terms, abstracts, summaries – they all have their place and all can work together • [0:18:50] How normal people can benefit from ontology or better IA at an enterprise level • [0:23:28] Data needs to be captured, managed, and represented • [0:27:41] A glimpse of the back-in-the-day solutions, like Excel Spreadsheets and PowerPoint, and how far we've come • [0:29:40] The scale of volume and complexity of the enterprise environment keeps growing. Is technology keeping up? • [0:35:08] Ren's gift to the audience – Mettle Health: https://www.mettlehealth.com

Thirty years ago, Dr. BJ Miller had an accident that changed his life forever. He was out late one night messing around with his college buddies, jumped up on a train car, and was electrocuted with 11,000 volts of electricity. BJ went on to lose both legs and most of one arm. He spent a year in physical recovery and longer in emotional and psychological recovery. But all of these experiences led him to where he is today: interviewed by Oprah; profiled by “The New York Times Magazine”; and a leading figure in the death and dying realm. This week's practice is all about accepting our bodies — and our fears. As BJ Miller says, “The goal isn't to become fearless. The goal is to learn how to live with fear.”   Want to connect? Join the New Day Facebook Group!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/newdaypod   Learn more about today's guest: Read BJ's memoir, "A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death". Check out Mettle Health, which BJ Miller co-founded, and offers online palliative and holistic care to anyone in the United States.     Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.   Did you try one of these weekly practices? We want to hear about it! Call 833-4-LEMONADA (833-453-6662) or email us newday@lemonnadamedia.com    To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to lemonadamedia.com/show/newday/ shortly after the air date.   Follow Claire on IG and FB @clairebidwellsmith or Twitter @clairebidwell    Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.    Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We interview BJ Miller, author, TED speaker and President and Counselor at Mettle Health - the first of its kind for anyone confronting illness, disability, aging, or death.  While you can't change diagnosis, you can change the way you navigate it.In this episode:01:24 - How the Turkey earthquake has modified traditional Muslim burials07:47 - Interview with Dr. Miller - Why are services at Mettle Health needed today?22:02 - OutroWho is BJ Miller?Dr. Miller is a physician who has dedicated his career to moving healthcare towards a human-centered approach, on a policy as well as a personal level. 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 and dying are fundamental and intrinsic aspects of life.BJ has a tremendous backstory - be sure to visit our website for videos and links that will certainly inspire you!Follow us on Facebook | Instagram | Email us at mail@every1dies.orgClick on this link to Rate and Review our podcast!

BJ Miller is a renowned palliative care physician, author, and speaker. Well known for his 2015 TED Talk ”What Really Matters at the End of Life,” which has been viewed over 10 million times, BJ is a thought leader in the field of conscious dying. When he was a sophomore at Princeton University, BJ experienced a tragic accident that resulted in the loss of three of his limbs. He followed a path in the medical field, and fell in love with palliative care while in residency. He has been helping patients and their families ever since. In this live conversation at the Esalen Institute, BJ shares his insights on the differences between palliative and hospice care, the emotional and spiritual needs of patients facing terminal diagnoses, and the role of spirituality in end-of-life treatment. BJ also talks about his experiences working with patients and their families, how to help people come to terms with their own impending death, and how to help them become unstuck from a negative narrative. One of the most fascinating topics discussed in this conversation is the role of psychedelics in end-of-life care. BJ shares his thoughts on the recent Johns Hopkins study concerning psilocybin mushrooms and end-of-life anxiety in cancer patients, where up to 80% of participants reported significant reductions in anxiety and improved quality of life As we wrap up the conversation, BJ shares his thoughts on how he sees palliative care evolving in the future, and what role he sees himself playing in that evolution. He also talks about how his online palliative care service, Mettle Health, will free him up to do palliative care the way he wants to do it.

Paul F. Austin is joined by BJ Miller, M.D., co-founder of Mettle Health, for a discussion on psychedelics and living and dying well. Find episode links, summary, and transcript here. BJ Miller, M.D. is an established thought leader in the area of serious illness, end-of-life issues, and dying. He has been a physician for 19 years and has counseled over 1,000 patients and family members. This vast experience has led him to understand what people really need when dealing with difficult health situations. BJ has given over 100 talks, both nationally and internationally, on the themes of serious illness and dying, He has given over 100 media interviews, including podcasts, radio, and print. His TED Talk, What Really Matters at the End of Life has been viewed over 11 million times. He is co-author of the book, A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, published in 2019. Highlights: Powerful insights and perspectives from BJ's work in palliative and end-of-life care. From taboo to opportunity: examining attitudes towards death across cultures and history. How BJ became involved in the intersection of psychedelics and end-of-life. Looking at the data on psychedelic therapy for patients with end-of-life anxiety. “Anesthetics vs. Aesthetics”: BJ's insights into a helpful set and setting for dying well. Embracing regret and fear at the end of life. The power of love—during life and at the time of death. Mettle Health, BJ's service for patients and caregivers. Episode Links: Mettle Health Zen Hospice Project BJ Miller's TED Talk, "What really matters at the end of life" Ep. 136 - Jeremy Narby, Ph.D.: “More Than Molecules”: Plants as Living Teachers Presentation by Dr. BJ Miller & Dr. Justin Burke: "Exploring the Aesthetic Dimension of End-of-Life Care” Mettle Health on Youtube Mettle Health on Instagram Mettle Health on Twitter BJ Miller on Twitter This podcast is brought to you by Third Wave's Mushroom Grow Kit. Get the tools you need to grow mushrooms along with an in-depth guide to finding spores. This episode is brought to you by Apollo Neuro, the first scientifically validated wearable that actively improves your body's resilience to stress. Apollo was developed by a friend of Third Wave, Dr. David Rabin M.D Ph.D., a neuroscientist and board-certified psychiatrist who has been studying the impact of chronic stress in humans for nearly 15 years. Third Wave listeners get 15% off—just use this link.

In this episode Dr. Audrey Nath speaks with Dr. BJ Miller, a palliative care physician at Mettle Health in Mill Valley, California. Dr. Miller shares how an accident that resulted in the loss of three of his limbs challenged him to look at life and death in a new and positive perspective. Dr. Miller also talks about participating in the series Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, a series that explores overcoming the challenges of aging, featured in an article in Brain & Life.   Additional Resources:  https://www.mettlehealth.com/  https://www.abgtte.com/   https://disneyplusoriginals.disney.com/show/limitless-with-chris-hemsworth   https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/the-power-of-accepting-aging   https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/chris-hemsworth-pushes-limits-learn-how-brain-body-age   https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/when-is-palliative-care-appropriate https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/the-411-on-palliative-and-hospice-care   Social Media:   Guest: Dr. BJ Miller @bjmillermd (Twitter) Mettle Health @Mettle_Health (Twitter and Instagram)  Hosts: Dr. Daniel Correa @neurodrcorrea; Dr. Audrey Nath @AudreyNathMDPhD 

Only the first 1 hour and 4 minutes of this episode are available on the paywalled podcast version (the BLACK podcast logo). If you’d like to hear the full 2 hours and 13 minutes of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast, you’ll need to SUBSCRIBE here. If you’re already subscribed and on the private RSS feed, the podcast logo should appear RED. Sam Harris speaks with BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger about preparing for death. They discuss the difference between palliative care and hospice, the tension between getting the most out of life and not clinging to experience, planning for death while still healthy, the importance of an advance directive, navigating the healthcare system, pain control at the end of life, assisted suicide, psychedelic therapy for end-of-life anxiety, and other topics. BJ Miller, MD, 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. BJ has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. 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 TED Talk has been viewed over 15 Million times and he speaks internationally on themes of illness, death and loss. Website: www.mettlehealth.com Twitter: @bjmillermd Shoshana Berger is the Global Executive Editor of IDEO, where she has worked on projects related to organization transformation, the end of life, modern Judaism, and school lunch. Before joining IDEO, she was a Senior Editor at WIRED, where she launched WIRED Design, and prior to that, founder of the DIY magazine, ReadyMade, later turning it into a book, Ready Made: How to Make (Almost) Everything. She is the coauthor, with Dr. BJ Miller, of A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. She has written for The New York Times, TIME, WIRED, and Fast Company. Website: linkedin.com/in/shoshanaberger Twitter: @shoshanaberger Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.

REVISITING EPISODE 027:   BJ Miller is an American physician, author, and speaker. He is a practicing hospice and palliative medicine physician, and is best known for his 2015 TED Talk, "What Really Matters at the End of Life". BJ, who served as an executive director of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project, has been on the teaching faculty at UCSF School of Medicine since 2017, and is the subject of the Netflix Academy Award nominated short documentary, End Game. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, which he co-authored with Shoshana Berger, is an unflinching, compassionate, and intensely pragmatic guide to the end of life.   Today, BJ sees patients and caregivers through his online palliative care service, Mettle Health.   EPISODE SUMMARY   In this conversation we talk about: Growing up with a mother who lived with polio, and how that influenced his thinking. A severe accident early it life, which forced him to re-form his identity and informed the rest of his journey. His path in Palliative care - and the insight that the health establishment is designed to treat diseases, not humans. His insights into the meaning and wisdom one can find at the end of life.   It's been a rare pleasure to talk to someone like BJ, who is someone who steps into realms of experience most of us avoid at all costs, and to hear the precious types of wisdom he brings with him from there.   This episode, I think, is also a great introduction to the world of palliative medicine, which may be the first time the medical establishment put the patient's experience, quality of life, and constructed meeting at the heart of care, treating people as opposed to diseases. BJ and I discuss the ways the healthcare system and hospital system are badly designed, and what can be done about it.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS   [4:32] Life During Covid [7:23] Early Childhood Spirituality [12:30] An Accident and an Identity Crisis [18:25] The Significance of a Snowball [22:01] Palliative Care and the Dynamic Between Human Beings [29:51] A Badly Designed Healthcare System [32:20] Necessary vs Unnecessary Suffering [35:13] Lessons in Death [39:51] Wildness and Wonderment [47:54] A Beginner's Guide to the End [53:36] A Sermon on Life and Death   EPISODE LINKS BJ's Links

We're honored to feature hospice physician and innovator BJ Miller in an amazing discussion about strengths, trends, and the future of end-of-life care.  Dr. Miller is an advocate, thought-leader, and leader on the front lines of end-of-life care.  He has been a physician for 19 years and has counseled over 1,000 patients and family members. This vast experience has led him to understand what people really need when dealing with difficult health situations.   His TED Talk, What Really Matters at the End of Life has had over 11 million views. He's the co-author of A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, which was published in 2019.  BJ also served as medical director for Zen Hospice in San Francisco.  As a co-founder of Mettle Health, he and his team are on a mission to help people reframe the way we think about the road ahead, for ourselves, or someone we're caring for by dealing with issues “ranging from the practical to the emotional, to the existential.”  What an incredible discussion on the future of hospice care, attitudes towards death, and how end-of-life care is changing for the better! Connect with The Love Always Project by clicking here. Watch Dr. Miller's TEDtalk here.  Find out more about Mettle Health at mettleheatlh.com.  Find more podcast episodes from The Heart of Hospice here: https://theheartofhospice.libsyn.com/ Connect with podcast host Jerry Fenter at jerry@theheartofhospice.com. Connect with podcast host Helen Bauer at helen@theheartofhospice.com.  

It's time for us to talk about mental health! I'm so grateful for the counselors at Mettle Health for their teaching. I'll be sharing my learnings in bits and pieces alongside my regular interview format episodes. After helping Mettle Health establish their YouTube channel, offering some tips and tricks around social media (in August 2020-September 2021), I find myself now as a client of their wonderful services. There's so much I've learned in just one session. Counselors at Mettle Health can help us deal with issues ranging from the practical, to the emotional, to the existential. You may find some of their resources helpful: Free live events Book a 20-min complimentary session About mettle health: Too often, people are left to plan for the future without a roadmap. Our team of doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains provide hour-long confidential consultations to help you reframe the way you think about the road ahead, for yourself, or someone you're caring for. Founders: BJ Miller, MD BJ is an established thought leader in the area of serious illness, end-of-life issues and death. He has been a physician for 19 years and has counseled over 1,000 patients and family members. This vast experience has led him to understand what people really need when dealing with difficult health situations. BJ has given over 100 talks, both nationally, and internationally, on themes of serious illness and dying, and has given over 100 media interviews, including podcasts, radio and print. His TED Talk, What Really Matters at the End of Life has been viewed over 11 million times. He also co-authored the book, A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, which was published in 2019. Sonya Dolan Sonya came to work in the field of hospice and palliative care after the death of her mother. This loss and the experience of being a caregiver greatly influenced her career trajectory and she left the world of event management for hospice administration. Her experience at a non-profit hospice included working with teams of clinicians, patients, family members and outside vendors to provide care and services for hundreds of patients on a daily basis. Her work with hospice, coupled with caregiving for her mother and being a breast cancer survivor has given her a keen awareness of what the healthcare system provides and where it is lacking. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/feisworld/message

ABOUT THIS EPISODE:I've been a fan of today's guest for a long time so I'm thrilled to share my conversation with Dr. BJ Miller with you today. BJ is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. Led by his own experiences as a patient, BJ advocates for the roles of our senses, community, and presence in designing a better ending. We began our conversation with the story of how he came to be a patient after a catastrophic injury in his 20's. Together we explored the challenges of acknowledging grief and humanity in traditional systems of care and why it's important to grapple with the truth that suffering, illness, and dying are fundamental and intrinsic aspects of life. His warmth and wisdom and insight taught me so much throughout our conversation and I know you're going to learn so much too. EPISODE RESOURCES:Mettle HealthBJ's Ted Talk JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:(03:52) - BJ's earliest memory of loss (11:07) - BJ's injury and loss: How it lead him into palliative medicine(17:46) - What did palliative care look like when BJ entered that field (and how is it different from hospice)(25:44) - Notions of enthusiasm and resistance among patient population and fellow doctors(36:26) - Primary palliative care: How is the pandemic changing the perception around the palliative field? (40:06) - How BJ explores suffering to his patients(49:23) - How did Mettle Health come into existence and how is it helping people? EPISODE SPONSOR:Thanks to our sponsor Vida Health. Vida – healthcare designed for the body and mind! Visit Vida.com/bcbsil to learn more. ABOUT THE SHOW:If you love deep, honest, authentic conversations, get ready to love Grief is a Sneaky Bitch. From CEOs and social workers to best-selling authors, educators, filmmakers, and stay-at-home moms, her guests open up about the complexity, confusion, and even confidence they have gained by navigating a grief journey of their own. To learn more about the show and how host Lisa Keefauver is reimagining grief, sign up for her not-so-regular newsletter follow on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn or visit www.lisakeefauver.com today! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

BJ Miller is a physician, author, speaker,  practicing hospice and palliative medicine physician. In his current role, BJ sees patients and caregivers through Mettle Health, an online palliative care service. Previously,, BJ was the Executive Director of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project. Most importantly, BJ is a deep, soulful thinker with extraordinary compassion and a true desire to help ease and reduce suffering in our world. BJ is also someone who fully appreciates the beauty, connectedness and mystery of our existence so we are thrilled to have BJ as our first male guest on the podcast! BJ shares how he got on his career path and we discuss the ways his family and upbringing shaped his character.  We discuss the sources of BJ resilience, what BJ has learned about death and the ways society can make dying a better process. Listen in to hear BJ reveal what people who are able to deal with death peacefully  have in common. This is an extraordinary conversation with an extraordinary human. We are honored to share BJ's story and hope this conversation gives you new insights and maybe a little more peace in talkihng about death. Watch BJs famous Ted Talk Here   Mettle Health BJ NYT One Man's Quest to Change the Way We Die Follow us @meantforit on Instagram Reach out to us at contact@meanforit.com for future guests or if you are interested in sponsoring our podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please share with a friend, send us a note. We would be extra, extra grateful if you decide to leave us a review on itunes.  

BJ Miller is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician. He is the co-founder of Mettle Health, which aims to help patients and their families receive personalized and holistic consultation through navigating the existential issues that come with a serious illness or disability. He has worked in a variety of care settings and his main areas of speciality include 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. Dr. Miller serves as a Medical Advisor for the Partnership for Palliative Care, and is the Honorary Medical Chair to the Dream Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves terminally ill adults and their families.   In today's episode, Shay Beider and Dr. Miller discuss the difference between healing versus fixing, and how he found the perseverance to navigate a major accident that resulted in him becoming a triple amputee. BJ also talks about the importance of presence and empathy in life, particularly at the end of life. By allowing things to be as they are, people can live in the moment and experience compassion in the face of suffering. The acceptance of “what is” ultimately allows people to be able to sit with the human experience of pain. In this meaningful conversation, Dr. Miller delves into the importance of embracing the unknown to create connection and fully feel the aesthetic richness of the present moment. Transcripts for this episode are available at: https://www.integrativetouch.org/conversations-on-healing    Show Notes:   David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech  Find out more about the difference between Healing and Fixing with Rachel Naomi Remen Take a look at the Immersive Van Gogh Experience in a city near you Learn about Neuroaesthetics here Click here to find out more about the power of aesthetic in John Duey's book, Art as Experience Explore Mettle Health   This podcast was created by Integrative Touch, which is working to change the way people experience healthcare. A leader in the field of pediatric integrative medicine, the organization supports families whose children have any type of special health or medical need. This includes kids with cancers, genetic conditions, autism, cerebral palsy, traumatic stress, and other serious health issues. The founder, Shay Beider, pioneered a new therapy called Integrative Touch™ Therapy that supports healing from trauma and serious illness. The organization reaches thousands of people each year in hospitals and communities and offers unique Telehealth programs to families and healthcare providers during this challenging time. Thanks to the incredible support of volunteers and contributors, individuals are able to receive wellness education and integrative medical services at little or no cost.

“My goal isn't to not be afraid, my goal is to have a relationship with fear. So I presume fear is going to be part of the picture. So my goal is more to have a relationship to that fear so I can move with it so I can push back on it so I can learn from it. Um, and so it doesn't have so much power over me, but I, I've not, I've not met any truly fearless people. It's more that I've met people who understand their fear and have made peace with it.” So says BJ Miller, a remarkable doctor who specializes in palliative medicine and end-of-life care, which ironically means that he spends most of his time teaching people how to really live. When BJ was an undergrad at Princeton, he climbed an electrified train car and ended up as a triple-amputee and long-term patient. Understanding the healthcare system from the inside out inspired him to go to medical school—and it also put him into a deep and reflective dance with mortality, fear, and what it means to lean into life. He has become a cultural sherpa, showing us all what this looks like. These days, he is the founder of Mettle Health, which makes palliative care more accessible: He offers virtual consultations and guidance for individuals and families dealing with practical, emotional, and existential issues.  He joins me today as we discuss his work on life, death, and how we go about handling the in between. Our conversation covers the cultural numbness to death in the abstract and the concrete fear that arises when death becomes personal. We forget, BJ says, that suffering and dying are fundamental and intrinsic parts of life. When we allow ourselves to acknowledge the many small deaths that occur throughout our lives—whether it be the death of a relationship, of a career, or of a way of life - we can use these moments to practice losing and letting go, gaining clarity around what truly matters in the process. The goal, BJ tells us, is not to be unafraid of the end, but rather to cultivate a love of life so big, that it encompasses death as well. I am thrilled to call BJ a dear friend, and am even MORE thrilled to bring this conversation to you as we contemplate the year that just was, and the year to come.  EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Contemplating death and a fascination with life… Big deaths, small deaths… The illusive sweet spot of perspective… Stripping down… MORE FROM BJ MILLER A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE END by BJ Miller Mettle Health BJ Miller - What Really Matters at the End of Life - Ted Talk, 2015 One Man's Quest to Change the Way We Die - The New York Times Magazine After a Freak Accident, a Doctor Finds Insight into Living Life and Facing Death - BJ on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross Follow BJ on Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Difficult Conversations with Dr. Anthony Orsini. Today, I have the distinct honor  to have another incredible guest and that is Dr. Bruce B.J. Miller, who is a longtime hospice and palliative care medicine physician as well as an author, TEDx presenter, and keynote speaker.  He has given over one hundred talks on the topics of death, dying, palliative care, and the intersection of healthcare with design.  Led by his own experiences as a patient, Dr. Miller advocates for the roles of our senses, community, and presence in designing a better ending.  His career has been dedicated to moving healthcare towards a human-centered approach. His 2015 Ted Talk, “What really matters at the end of life", has been viewed more than eleven million times, and his work has been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts including Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times, and the Ted Radio Hour. We will be talking about his book, A Beginner's Guide to the End,   Dr. Miller 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 with navigating the practical, emotional, and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability. We start out by hearing BJ Miller's story, from his childhood experiences, his accident, and what brought him to working in palliative care medicine. BJ tells us a beautiful story about a nurse that locked eyes with him and held his hand upon arrival at the burn unit at St. Barnabas Hospital in New Jersey,. Dr. Orsini talks about the importance of human connection between doctors and patients and how BJ's story is very similar to Marcus Engel's story who was a previous guest on this podcast.  BJ explains why we struggle with talking about dying which starts with denial. and he shares thoughts on what we need more of in this mission of medicine to help physicians,. Dr. Orsini talks about how training is so limited with physicians which is why he's dedicated the last ten years of his life  to teach them how to be more comfortable with end of life and tragic diagnosis. If you enjoyed this podcast, please go ahead and hit follow. Host:Dr. Anthony OrsiniGuest:Dr Bruce BJ MillerFor More Information:Difficult Conversations I Learned as an ICU Physician Podcast EpisodesThe Orsini WayThe Orsini Way-FacebookThe Orsini Way-LinkedinThe Orsini Way-InstagramThe Orsini Way-Twitterdrorsini@theorsiniway.comIt's All In The Delivery: Improving Healthcare Starting With A Single Conversation by Dr. Anthony OrsiniResources :TED2015: “What really matters at the end of life” - BJ MillerMettle HealthA Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death I"m Here with Marcus Engel - Difficult Conversations - Lessons I learned as an ICU physician Podcast Episode 102

Death is not an easy subject to talk about, but it's a fact of life. We will all die someday, and between now and then, we'll have family and friends who will die. So, how can we help those close to us who are facing death and how can we best prepare for our own lives to end? We'll explore those questions on this episode with Dr. BJ Miller and Shoshana Berger, who are the co-authors of the book, A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. It's described as, “The first-ever practical, compassionate, and comprehensive guide to dying—and living fully until you do”.  Dr. BJ Miller is the president and a counselor at his own palliative care company, Mettle Health, which you can learn about by going to https://www.mettlehealth.com. ****** Thanks to our sponsors of this episode! --> Noom Mood: an app that pairs you with a coach who gives you the tools needed to shift to better manage your daily stress and anxiety in just ten minutes a day. Work at your own pace, wherever and whenever you want. Millions have experienced success dieting with Noom Weight, and the same brilliant minds behind it are now tackling mental wellbeing. Sign up for a free trial at http://www.noom.com/ntm. --> Ritual: experience the expertly-developed vitamin designed to fill the gaps in your diet designed only with the nutrients you need, in forms your body can actually use. Go to http://www.ritual.com/ntm to get 10% off your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Amanda Blainey talks to thought leader BJ Miller, who is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator who is dedicated to moving healthcare towards a more human-centered approach. His 2015 Ted talk 'What Really Matters at the End of Life' has been watched over 14 million times. BJ has given numerous interviews including Oprah Winfrey, The New York Times, and GOOP. He co-founded Mettle Health which aims to provide holistic consultations to patients or caregivers navigating the practical emotional and existential issues that can come with serious illness and disability.

TODAY'S GUEST BJ Miller is an American physician, author, and speaker. He is a practicing hospice and palliative medicine physician, and is best known for his 2015 TED Talk, "What Really Matters at the End of Life". BJ, who served as an executive director of San Francisco's Zen Hospice Project, has been on the teaching faculty at UCSF School of Medicine since 2017, and is the subject of the Netflix Academy Award nominated short documentary, End Game. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, which he co-authored with Shoshana Berger, is an unflinching, compassionate, and intensely pragmatic guide to the end of life. Today, BJ sees patients and caregivers through his online palliative care service, Mettle Health.   EPISODE SUMMARY In this conversation we talk about: Growing up with a mother who lived with polio, and how that influenced his thinking. A severe accident early it life, which forced him to re-form his identity and informed the rest of his journey. His path in Palliative care - and the insight that the health establishment is designed to treat diseases, not humans. His insights into the meaning and wisdom one can find at the end of life. It's been a rare pleasure to talk to someone like BJ, who is someone who steps into realms of experience most of us avoid at all costs, and to hear the precious types of wisdom he brings with him from there. This episode, I think, is also a great introduction to the world of palliative medicine, which may be the first time the medical establishment put the patient's experience, quality of life, and constructed meeting at the heart of care, treating people as opposed to diseases. BJ and I discuss the ways the healthcare system and hospital system are badly designed, and what can be done about it.   TIMESTAMP CHAPTERS [4:32] Life During Covid [7:23] Early Childhood Spirituality [12:30] An Accident and an Identity Crisis [18:25] The Significance of a Snowball [22:01] Palliative Care and the Dynamic Between Human Beings [29:51] A Badly Designed Healthcare System [32:20] Necessary vs Unnecessary Suffering [35:13] Lessons in Death [39:51] Wildness and Wonderment [47:54] A Beginner's Guide to the End [53:36] A Sermon on Life and Death   EPISODE LINKS BJ's Links

30 years ago Dr. BJ Miller had an accident that changed his life forever. He was out late one night, messing around with his college buddies, and he jumped up on a train car and was electrocuted with 11000 volts of electricity. BJ went on to lose both legs and most of one arm. He spent a year in physical recovery and longer in emotional and psychological recovery. But all of these experiences led him to where he is today: interviewed by Oprah; profiled by “The New York Times Magazine”; and a leading figure in the death and dying realm. This week's practice is all about accepting our bodies--and our fears. As BJ Miller says, “The goal isn't to become fearless. The goal is to learn how to live with fear.”   Want to connect? Join the New Day Facebook Group!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/newdaypod   Learn more about today's guest: Read BJ's memoir, "A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death". Check out Mettle Health, which BJ Miller co-founded, and offers online palliative and holistic care to anyone in the United States.     Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.   Did you try one of these weekly practices? We want to hear about it! Call 833-4-LEMONADA (833-453-6662) or email us newday@lemonnadamedia.com    To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to xxx shortly after the air date.   Follow Claire on IG and FB @clairebidwellsmith or Twitter @clairebidwell    Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.    Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I try never to use the word “warrior” lightly.  But Dr. BJ Miller is a warrior of the first order, having overcome and thrived after a near-fatal electrical accident took half his arm and both legs below the knee.  BJ talks about how that life-shattering experience proved to be a foretaste of what it means to confront death, a taboo subject in our culture.  BJ utilized his accident as a launch point to pursue medicine as a career and to become one of the world's leading experts and thought leaders on palliative care and hospice, outlined in his book, A Beginner's Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. He has been featured in conversation with Oprah on her Soul Story show, and his groundbreaking TED talk has been viewed millions of times.  We discuss BJ's accident, the loss of identity that inevitably follows such a complete upending of one's life, and how BJ's own healing journey helped shape his unique approach to patient care and improving end-of-life experiences for his patients. After completing Medical school, BJ was selected to serve as the Executive Director of the famous Zen Hospice Project (sadly, now closed) in San Francisco, whose guest house for years served as an exemplar for the compassionate care and nurturing of individuals at life's end. We discuss the limitations of the current health care system's approach to hospice, which reinforces the current fear-based view of death as a defeat or failure, rather than a natural corollary of life.   BJ currently serves as a counselor at Mettle Health, an organization that he co-founded, consisting of physicians, counselors, and social workers that provide support and guidance for those experiencing serious illness. We talk about its mission to ameliorate the singular focus on disease adopted by our current health care system, and to shift the focus of patient care back onto the patient. If you are at all interested in both an enthralling story of healing and recovery and a complete reframing of the way we approach the end of life,  you owe it to yourself to have a listen.  BJ is an amazing individual and I feel blessed to have him on the Unconditional Healing show. After you listen, you can learn about and register for our next online Healing Circle here.  It's free,  and you'll find like-minded folks with whom to practice meditation and share the journey toward unconditional health and well-being.  If you'd like to help support this podcast and Jeff's other projects, while also receiving benefits and admittance to events not available to the general public, please check out our Patreon page .You are always invited to join our Unconditional Healing Facebook group here. Thoughts?  Guest suggestions?  Email me at jjrubin@gmail.com.

I'm inviting you into a very personal and intimate experience. I am releasing my most recent counseling session that I had with Dr. BJ Miller, Palliative Care Specialist and Founder of Mettle Health. BJ Miller was actually one of my first guests on the Precarious Podcast. Little did I know that only a few months later, I'd hear those dread words, "Cancer is back". I reached out to him immediately and haven't looked back. What you will hear is an unedited glimpse into my current experiences of living with advanced cancer - my fears, my struggles, my hopes and my desires and how BJ helps me walk this tightrope. Come, be a fly on the wall. It's a rare opportunity to be invited into such a sacred space.

“We all need a reason to wake up,” says Dr. Miller. “For me, it just took 11,000 volts.” BJ Miller, MD, is a public figure and palliative care physician who has brought a singular presence — often described by his colleagues and patients as a certain “magic” without an ounce of pretense — to the field of death and dying for the past twenty years. A triple amputee, Miller’s humanity invites others to examine their own suffering, to start with empathy, and to de-pathologize death. Whether as executive director at San Francisco’s Zen Hospice Project or assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, patients would take one look and know he’d stood at the edge of the abyss himself. By bringing intention, design thinking, and creativity to the experience of dying and serious illness, Miller hopes to reduce or eliminate unnecessary suffering and reframe our relationships to crises, both personal and global.  Miller’s pivotal encounter with death came during his sophomore year at Princeton University, while he and some friends were “horsing around” after midnight one night. He climbed a parked commuter train and, in a flash, the electricity from the overhead wires arced to his metal watch and coursed through his limbs, throwing his body some 30 feet away. When his friends reached him, smoke was rising from his body. He would lose both legs below the knee and half of one arm. Somehow, Miller never had a “Why me?” moment. While he credits this to having grown up watching his mother live gracefully and fully with post-polio syndrome — a progressive condition that left her in a wheelchair — this orientation to life illumines Miller’s humility and continuous self-examination. Even as he was moving through tremendous grief and shame, he resolved not to believe that his life was extra difficult, rather only uniquely difficult, as all lives are; and not to allow his accident to isolate him, but to heighten his connection to others. When he returned to college, he studied art history; and in the images of ancient sculptures with missing arms or noses or ears, Miller recognized exquisite beauty, thus beginning to heal his relationship with his own body. He went on to study medicine, then palliative care, bringing poise, presence, and a disarming playfulness to those on life’s edge. Miller’s calling has taken him from academics, as associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, to the community, as executive director of the Zen Hospice Project (now Zen Caregiving Project). His latest venture, Mettle Health, which he co-founded last year during the Covid-19 pandemic, offers coaching and counseling to patients, families, and caregivers facing serious illness. Mettle Health, he describes, “is a kind of hotline” where he hopes to shift the dependency model in health care to one of self-empowerment and community. With regard to the global events of the past year, from the pandemic to political upheavals and global warming, Miller hopes we don’t just return to life-as-usual. “What a big waste if we don’t learn something, if we don’t adapt and change and grow from these good existential crises.” The word “proportionality” comes up for him a lot, parsing out the important distinction between things that happen to us and how we respond to them. "I can yield to Mother Nature,” says Miller, “and I can yield to 11,000 volts. That’s a very different prospect than is shutting down your imagination or rolling over altogether.” When parts of us die, personally or as a community or society, these are ripe opportunities to redesign our lives. Miller’s profiles and interviews have been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Oprah's "Super Soul Sunday", Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Krista Tippett’s On Being. His TED talk, “What Really Matters at the End,” has been viewed over 11 million times. He is also the co-author of A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, published in 2019. Based in the Bay Area, Miller lives his personal life with as much zest as his work life. He can be found mountain biking, taking aimless road trips with his dog, riding his custom-built motorcycle — a sleek, black Aprilia — and practicing the art of doing nothing. Often, he’s wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts. “These prosthetics are made with the same carbon fiber as the finish used on expensive sports cars, so why not tear that stuff off and delight in what actually is?” His biggest take-home lesson from his patients and their families: “To enjoy this big, huge, mystical, crazy, beautiful, wacky world.” Please join us in conversation with this remarkable doctor of the body and soul, to explore the wisdom and love that can be discovered in the most unlikely of places.

“We all need a reason to wake up,” says Dr. Miller. “For me, it just took 11,000 volts.” BJ Miller, MD, is a public figure and palliative care physician who has brought a singular presence — often described by his colleagues and patients as a certain “magic” without an ounce of pretense — to the field of death and dying for the past twenty years. A triple amputee, Miller’s humanity invites others to examine their own suffering, to start with empathy, and to de-pathologize death. Whether as executive director at San Francisco’s Zen Hospice Project or assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, patients would take one look and know he’d stood at the edge of the abyss himself. By bringing intention, design thinking, and creativity to the experience of dying and serious illness, Miller hopes to reduce or eliminate unnecessary suffering and reframe our relationships to crises, both personal and global.  Miller’s pivotal encounter with death came during his sophomore year at Princeton University, while he and some friends were “horsing around” after midnight one night. He climbed a parked commuter train and, in a flash, the electricity from the overhead wires arced to his metal watch and coursed through his limbs, throwing his body some 30 feet away. When his friends reached him, smoke was rising from his body. He would lose both legs below the knee and half of one arm. Somehow, Miller never had a “Why me?” moment. While he credits this to having grown up watching his mother live gracefully and fully with post-polio syndrome — a progressive condition that left her in a wheelchair — this orientation to life illumines Miller’s humility and continuous self-examination. Even as he was moving through tremendous grief and shame, he resolved not to believe that his life was extra difficult, rather only uniquely difficult, as all lives are; and not to allow his accident to isolate him, but to heighten his connection to others. When he returned to college, he studied art history; and in the images of ancient sculptures with missing arms or noses or ears, Miller recognized exquisite beauty, thus beginning to heal his relationship with his own body. He went on to study medicine, then palliative care, bringing poise, presence, and a disarming playfulness to those on life’s edge. Miller’s calling has taken him from academics, as associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, to the community, as executive director of the Zen Hospice Project (now Zen Caregiving Project). His latest venture, Mettle Health, which he co-founded last year during the Covid-19 pandemic, offers coaching and counseling to patients, families, and caregivers facing serious illness. Mettle Health, he describes, “is a kind of hotline” where he hopes to shift the dependency model in health care to one of self-empowerment and community. With regard to the global events of the past year, from the pandemic to political upheavals and global warming, Miller hopes we don’t just return to life-as-usual. “What a big waste if we don’t learn something, if we don’t adapt and change and grow from these good existential crises.” The word “proportionality” comes up for him a lot, parsing out the important distinction between things that happen to us and how we respond to them. "I can yield to Mother Nature,” says Miller, “and I can yield to 11,000 volts. That’s a very different prospect than is shutting down your imagination or rolling over altogether.” When parts of us die, personally or as a community or society, these are ripe opportunities to redesign our lives. Miller’s profiles and interviews have been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Oprah's "Super Soul Sunday", Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Krista Tippett’s On Being. His TED talk, “What Really Matters at the End,” has been viewed over 11 million times. He is also the co-author of A Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death, published in 2019. Based in the Bay Area, Miller lives his personal life with as much zest as his work life. He can be found mountain biking, taking aimless road trips with his dog, riding his custom-built motorcycle — a sleek, black Aprilia — and practicing the art of doing nothing. Often, he’s wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts. “These prosthetics are made with the same carbon fiber as the finish used on expensive sports cars, so why not tear that stuff off and delight in what actually is?” His biggest take-home lesson from his patients and their families: “To enjoy this big, huge, mystical, crazy, beautiful, wacky world.” Please join us in conversation with this remarkable doctor of the body and soul, to explore the wisdom and love that can be discovered in the most unlikely of places.

BJ Miller is a Hospice & Palliative Care Doctor with a unique path that brought him to this work. As a sophomore at Princeton, while goofing around one night with his buddies, BJ climbed on top of a sleeping commuter train and was immediately electrocuted by 11,000 volts. As a result, BJ lost both his legs at the knee and one arm making him a triple amputee. BJ and I talked not about his accident or the fact that he now has two futuristic metal blades for legs, but about his deep care for his patients and what he hopes to achieve with his virtual palliative services practice, Mettle Health. TED Talk: “What Really Matters at the End of Life” (2015) Oprah's Super Soul Sunday (2017) NPR's Fresh Air: After A Freak Accident, Doctor Finds Insight Into Living Life and Facing Death www.mettlehealth.com More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow @notimetowasteproject

Dr. BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He currently sees patients and families 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. BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care, and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 11 million times and he has been on Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, was published in 2019. I found this book to be a must-read, and we discuss why on the show. For those of you who have lost a loved one, or want to prepare your families for your own transition or another's, this episode is for you. We talk about: ✅ What it means to die well ✅ Why most people find it so difficult to talk about both death and disability in the West ✅ Some of the biggest regrets he has seen family members share as their loved ones approach death ✅ The preparation that goes into the end of life: paperwork, conversations and more You can learn more about BJ Miller here: https://www.mettlehealth.com/who-we-are Special thanks go to our sponsors for this episode, the Hydration Foundation, a non-profit organization, focused on better hydration for people, plants, animals and soil. As the leading authority on hydration, the foundation is dedicated to solving our health on this planet through creating better systems and conversations when it comes to water, and how it moves through our bodies, irrigation and food systems. You can learn more about the Hydration Foundation by navigating to www.hydrationfoundation.org. Donate to the Hydration Foundation's program to restore soil through water. Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you'd like to stay connected.

Dr. BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He currently sees patients and families 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. BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care, and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 11 million times and he has been on Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, was published in 2019. I found this book to be a must-read, and we discuss why on the show. For those of you who have lost a loved one, or want to prepare your families for your own transition or another's, this episode is for you. We talk about: ✅ What it means to die well ✅ Why most people find it so difficult to talk about both death and disability in the West ✅ Some of the biggest regrets he has seen family members share as their loved ones approach death ✅ The preparation that goes into the end of life: paperwork, conversations and more You can learn more about BJ Miller here: https://www.mettlehealth.com/who-we-are Special thanks go to our sponsors for this episode, the Hydration Foundation, a non-profit organization, focused on better hydration for people, plants, animals and soil. As the leading authority on hydration, the foundation is dedicated to solving our health on this planet through creating better systems and conversations when it comes to water, and how it moves through our bodies, irrigation and food systems. You can learn more about the Hydration Foundation by navigating to www.hydrationfoundation.org. Donate to the Hydration Foundation's program to restore soil through water. Please tag us and tell us what you loved! You can follow @Gateways_To_Awakening on Instagram or Facebook if you'd like to stay connected.

Dr. 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. BJ has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. 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. Listen in and learn how BJ and the staff at Mettle Health are creating Healing Ties all around us!

Dr. 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.BJ has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. 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.Listen in and learn how BJ and the staff at Mettle Health are creating Healing Ties all around us!

The eighth episode of our podcast, Elevate, is now available! In this episode of Hospice News Elevate podcast, reporter Holly Vossel talks with Bruce (BJ) Miller of Mettle Health, about how the coronavirus pandemic has complicated caregiver support, including access to respite care.

BJ Miller, MD is a long-time 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 all the issues that come with serious illness and disability. BJ joins How We Got Here to talk about about caring for his mother, who had polio and post-polio syndrome, while he was a child and what compelled him to become a doctor. He also explains the accident at 19 years old that led to the amputation of three of his limbs and how this accident shaped his identity and helped him develop curiosity toward anything unknown. He shares insight on owning your insecurities and gives advice on getting the most out of a healthcare experience as either a patient or caregiver. To learn more about Mettle Health, tap here. This season of How We Got Here is sponsored by Anthem.

It's not just you—nobody wants to talk about death. Not only is it an uncomfortable topic to bring up, but also, as palliative care expert Dr. BJ Miller explains, it's nearly impossible to capture in words the range of feelings one can have about such a momentous and personal life event.But if we don't talk about it, what are we missing out on? Can we find joy and meaning in life by having a conversation about death? In this episode, host Hillary Theakston and her guest Dr. Miller discuss the challenges and the benefits of opening up more to our loved ones about this universal experience. Topics include:The emotional and spiritual benefits of addressing mortalityWays one might broach the subject of death with loved onesWhy you probably need to turn your To Do list upside downDr. BJ Miller is a physician, author, and expert on end of life care, as well as the founder of the online palliative care service Mettle Health. His book A Beginner's Guide to the End is available at booksellers everywhere. You can view BJ Miller's popular TED Talk "What really matters at the end of life" on Youtube, and follow him on Twitter at @bjmillermd.About ClearityCancer Connections is produced by Clearity, which provides free support and services to people impacted by ovarian cancer. You can learn more about Clearity and the topics we've discussed today by visiting clearity.org. Or, feel free to email us your questions or comments at podcast@clearity.org. Thanks!

"In palliative care the issues of suffering, of love, of meaning making, resolution of tension, they're not inherently medical issues. Medicine may have something to offer them, but otherwise, medicine, it's a bit-player in some ways." This week Julian talks to BJ Miller. Having started his academic career in the arts, it took a few key events and some time for BJ to come around to palliative care, where he worked as a physician for a time before seeing that many of the soft edges of palliative care are discarded by the medical, despite them being where a lot of care actually takes place. Since then he has worked in organisations that have sought to combine the medical with the other aspects that amount to high quality palliative care. His work has been revolutionary for many who have come into contact with it, and his general campaign to teach us to live well in the face of terminal illness has seen him interviewed by Oprah amongst others, has an outstanding Ted Talk, and is oft quoted when people talk about death and dying. His current company Mettle Health ‘addresses the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of anyone contemplating their health, or the health of someone they love'. Having been in the healthcare system both as a patient and then as a doctor BJ understands the difficulty of navigating care, in particular when such a life changing event such as terminal illness, is at the centre of it. Mettle Health guide their patient's through the process, making sure that the whole circle of palliative care is involved - from ensuring the drugs are right, to making sure that those soft edges, the moments of loving kindness, are also scheduled for. Hearing BJ and Julian talk about palliative care it is clear how much they have in common, their motivation, and in particular their gradual disillusion with the medicalised, siloed, nature of medicine that led them both to the more holistic environs of death and dying. It is also clear that what they know from palliative care shouldn't just be refined to those with terminal illnesses. Death and dying is a part of life and we can nurture those soft edges of palliative care from our earliest days - nourishing community, friendship and accountability in our daily lives. Follow Survival of the Kindest on Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen to get our episodes as they are released. Email us on sotk@compassionate-communitiesuk.co.uk

This week Julian talks to BJ Miller. Having started his academic career in the arts, it took a few key events and some time for BJ to come around to palliative care, where he worked as a physician for a time before seeing that many of the soft edges of palliative care are discarded by the medical, despite them being where a lot of care actually takes place. Since then he has worked in organisations that have sought to combine the medical with the other aspects that amount to high quality palliative care. His work has been revolutionary for many who have come into contact with it, and his general campaign to teach us to live well in the face of terminal illness has seen him interviewed by Oprah amongst others, has an outstanding Ted Talk, and is oft quoted when people talk about death and dying. His current company Mettle Health ‘addresses the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of anyone contemplating their health, or the health of someone they love'. Having been in the healthcare system both as a patient and then as a doctor BJ understands the difficulty of navigating care, in particular when such a life changing event such as terminal illness, is at the centre of it. Mettle Health guide their patient's through the process, making sure that the whole circle of palliative care is involved - from ensuring the drugs are right, to making sure that those soft edges, the moments of loving kindness, are also scheduled for. Hearing BJ and Julian talk about palliative care it is clear how much they have in common, their motivation, and in particular their gradual disillusion with the medicalised, siloed, nature of medicine that led them both to the more holistic environs of death and dying. It is also clear that what they know from palliative care shouldn't just be refined to those with terminal illnesses. Death and dying is a part of life and we can nurture those soft edges of palliative care from our earliest days - nourishing community, friendship and accountability in our daily lives. Follow Survival of the Kindest on Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on Apple, Spotify or wherever you like to listen to get our episodes as they are released. Email us compassion.pod@gmail.com

This interview is brought to you by the Enabled Disabled Project. Dr. 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. BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 12 million times and his work has also been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts, including Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, GOOP, Krista Tippett, Tim Ferriss and the TED Radio Hour. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, was co-authored with Shoshana Berger and published in 2019. Learn more about BJ and his company, visit: https://www.enableddisabled.com/blog/bj-miller The Enabled Disabled Podcast is created for adults and children with disabilities, families and friends who care for them, professionals who treat and help people with disabilities, as well as people and companies who want to learn more. Ways to support us: Subscribe to this podcast Share your story: https://www.enableddisabled.com/share Become a corporate sponsor: https://www.enableddisabled.com/sponsorship Make a personal contribution of any amount: https://www.enableddisabled.com/contribute --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/enableddisabled/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/enableddisabled/support

Most of us know we are going to die.  How often though do we actually let ourselves really internalize that understanding?   To imagine it?  To feel it?  To try to accept it? On today's podcast we invited BJ Miller back on our podcast to talk about death using as our guide his recent NY Times editorial What Is Death?  How the pandemic is changing our understanding of mortality.  In addition to being the author of this NY Times article, BJ is a Hospice and Palliative Care doc, and the founder of Mettle Health which aims to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient, caregiver or clinician who need help navigating the practical, emotional and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability. We start off with BJ appropriately picking the song "Ebony Eyes" as our intro song, which is a good analogy to talking about death, as it was initially banned by the BBC from airplay as its lyrics were considered too upsetting to play on the radio.  We then go into his thoughts on how we picture our deaths and dealing with those emotions we feel when we do, how we “live with death”, and... Also check out BJ's article that is geared towards kids/students - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/learning/how-do-you-view-death.html.  As BJ put it in an email to us: “It's fascinating to me how they're taking care to reach out to younger minds, further proof that the idea that no one wants to think or talk about death - especially youngsters - is bunk.

Life is inevitable. And there are moments in life that define the path you take. BJ Miller had one of those life defining moments in college. He became disabled after an electrical injury. It was his experience as a patient that led him to become a physician. He was ready to give up on medicine after becoming disillusioned by our healthcare system, when he became aware of, and began practicing, palliative care. On today's episode, you'll hear what BJ has to say about: Mettle Health–online palliative care and coaching–how to work with your doctor to achieve YOUR goals of care How medicine can work together with other disciplines to improve the things that can't be fixed How a crisis can move you (patient and family caregivers) to a place of new invention Why he thinks Covid has created an opportunity to help more patients and families decrease suffering Why it is important (on so many levels) to support family caregivers And check out these resources: A Beginner's Guide To The End The Center for Dying and Living Follow BJ on Twitter

Dr. 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. BJ's been on faculty at his alma mater, UCSF, since 2007 and has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. 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. BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 11 million times and his work has also been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts, including Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, GOOP, Krista Tippett, Tim Ferriss and the TED Radio Hour. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, was co-authored with Shoshana Berger and published in 2019.

I had such a great discussion with Dr. BJ Miller for this episode. BJ is a hospice and palliative care physician and he has worked with many patients who are seriously ill, or dying. He has such a unique and important perspective to share with us about death and about life, as well as practical information about palliative care, hospice, and navigating serious illness. I found him to be such a thoughtful guest. After you listen to our discussion, be sure to check out his TED talk—it's a must-watch. Some topics BJ and I discuss include: What he feels death has to teach us about life; How his own injury and near-death experience changed his career trajectory and led him into medicine; What is palliative care, and how does it relate to hospice; Examples of how palliative care can be helpful; Why his book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, has a chapter called “Love, Sex, and Relationships;” What to expect if you engage hospice; What is the ‘respite care' benefit of hospice; and Services BJ is providing through Mettle Health to make palliative care more accessible to all. I hope you enjoy my discussion with Dr. BJ Miller. -=-=-=-=- Thank you sponsors & partners: Audible - Get a FREE audiobook and 30-day free trial: www.audibletrial.com/widowedparent BetterHelp - Talk with a licensed, professional therapist online. Get 10% off your first month: betterhelp.com/widowedparent Blue Apron - Special offers for listeners of the podcast: jennylisk.com/blueapron Support the show: Patreon, Merch, and More -=-=-=-=-

BJ Miller, MD knows something about suffering. When he was a sophomore in college, he experienced a tragic accident that shaped the course of his life. From months spent as a patient in a burn unit, he learned that the simplest acts of care of the most healing. With this wisdom, he pursued a career in medicine specializing in Palliative Care. He is an advocate for shifting the paradigm around how we think about what's most important at the end of life.He newest endeavor is Mettle Health. Mettle Health provides 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. It is the first patient- and caregiver-centric palliative care delivery system accessible to everyone, irrespective of geography, without a doctor's referral. Mettle Health is comprised of palliative care clinicians, but operates outside of the traditional medical system; making it a social service staffed by medical professionals.Patients and caregivers dealing with serious or chronic illness should be able to count on soundinformation and enough emotional support to feel confident in the choices they make, whatevertheir circumstances; Mettle Health will make that possible.BJ Miller, MD has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 10 million times and his work has also been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts, including Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, GOOP, Krista Tippett, Tim Ferriss and the TED Radio Hour. His book, A Beginner's Guide to the End, was co-authored with Shoshana Berger and published in 2019.