How confronting racist ideas I didn’t realize I had is shaping me as a physician and a person

In a 2021 episode that we reran last month, “About me being racist: a conversation that follows an apology,” Saul talked with a former Black colleague after apologizing to her for something racist he had done twenty years earlier that hurt her for a long time.   Since then, Saul has been thinking about how he got exposed to racist ideas and notions of power as a white male growing up in the United States (in his case in a liberal, highly educated community) and suggested that he and Stefan talk about it, taking to heart Toni Morrison’s admonition that, “White people have a very serious problem, and they should start thinking about what they can do about it – and leave me out of it!” Also, next month we’ll de discussing a short story by author James Baldwin with a special guest, and would like to encourage listeners to read “Sonny’s Blues,” which can be accessed from the story’s Wiki page (scroll down to external links).

Om Podcasten

Doctors and other health care professionals are too often socialized and pressured to become “efficient task completers” rather than healers, which leads to unengaged and unimaginative medical practice, burnout, and diminished quality of care. It doesn’t have to be that way. With a range of thoughtful guests, co-hosts Saul Weiner MD and Stefan Kertesz MD MS, interrogate the culture and context in which clinicians are trained and practice for their implications for patient care and clinician well-being. The podcast builds on Dr. Weiner’s 2020 book, On Becoming a Healer: The Journey from Patient Care to Caring about Your Patients (Johns Hopkins University Press).