Videos
The Program for Humanities in Medicine is committed to hosting expert speakers with a variety of perspectives and to foster discussion on critical topics of at the intersection of humanities and medicine. Speakers' presentations and audience discussion do not represent the views of the Program for Humanities in Medicine or of Yale University.
Acid Queens and Brains on Fire: A Conversation with author Susannah Cahalan
Program for Humanities in Medicine
10/7/2025
The Morris Dillard Lecture
Topic: Acid Queens and Brains on Fire: A Conversation with author Susannah Cahalan
Susannah Cahalan
Journalist and Author
Author of the newly release: The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, MPH (Moderator)
Author, Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything
Writer In Residence, Yale School of Medicine Lecturer, Yale UniversityAdjunct, Columbia UniversityProgram for Humanities in Medicine Art Contest Awards
5/1/25
Program for Humanities in Medicine 2025 Health Professions Creative Writing and Art Contest Awards Ceremony
Yale Medical School Alumni/Program for Humanities in Medicine Event: YSM Alumni Doctor - Writers - The Thomas P. Duffy Lecture
4/1/25
Yale Medical School Alumni/Program for Humanities in Medicine Event: YSM Alumni Doctor - Writers
The Thomas P. Duffy Lecture
Dhruv Khullar, MD, MPP
Physician and Associate Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Weill Cornell Medical College.
Writer, The New Yorker
Director, Physicians Foundation Center for the Study of Physician Practice and Leadership, and Associate Director of the Cornell Health Policy Center
Lisa Sanders, MD
Professor Medicine, General Medicine
Director, Writers Workshop
Medical Director, Yale New Haven Health Systems Long COVID MULTIDISCIPLINARY CARE CENTER, General Internal Medicine
Writer, Diagnosis column for the New York Times Magazine and the Think Like a Doctor column, New York Times blog, The Well
Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, MPH (Moderator)
Writer in Residence, Program for Humanities in Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Lecturer, Yale University English Department
Author, Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything
The Program for Humanities in Medicine John P. McGovern Lecture: Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine
11/13/24
The Program for Humanities in Medicine
John P. McGovern Lecture:
Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine
Damon Tweedy, MD
Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University School of MedicineStaff Physician, Durham Veteran Affairs Health SystemAuthor, Black Man in a White Coat and Facing the Unseen
Location: Cohen Auditorium, 230 South Frontage Road
I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Mother’s Journey into Medical Uncertainty with Emily Bloom
10/24/24
The Morris Dillard Lecture:
I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Mother’s Journey into Medical Uncertainty
A Conversation with Emily Bloom and Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein
Emily Bloom
Assistant Professor of Literature, Sarah Lawrence College
Author, I Cannot Control Everything Forever: A Memoir of Motherhood Science and Art (St Martin's Press, 2024) and The Wireless Past: Anglo-Irish Writers and the BBC, 1931-1968 (Oxford, 2016)
2024 PMH Health Professions Creative Writing and Art Contest Awards Ceremony
5/2/2024
2024 PMH Health Professions Creative Writing and Art Contest Awards Ceremony
Sponsored by the Program for Humanities in Medicine and the Marguerite Rush Lerner Fund
Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation - A Conversation with Linda Villarosa
4/17/24
The Kenneth and Georgia Barwick Lecture
Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation - A Conversation with Linda Villarosa
Moderated by Randi Hutter Epstein, PHM Writer in Residence
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Hope 103-Amphitheatre
Linda Villarosa
Professor of Journalism
Contributing Writer, New York Times Magazine
Author, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation. One of New York Times Book Review Top 10 Books of 2022
Finalist, 2023 Pulitzer Prize
Poynter Lecture Healthcare for Every Body – Best Practices for Caring for Higher Weight Patients
April 2, 2024
Poynter Lecture
Healthcare for Every Body – Best Practices for Caring for Higher Weight Patients
Sponsored by the Program fro Humanities in Medicine
The Anlyan Center Auditorium
Ragen Chastain
Speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare.
From Medical Memoir to CPR: A Conversation with Physician-Writer Dr. Sunita Puri
3/20/24
From Medical Memoir to CPR: A Conversation with Physician-Writer Dr. Sunita Puri
Thomas P. Duffy Lecture
Cohen Auditorium
Cosponsored by the Program for Biomedical Ethics
Sunita Puri, MD, MS
Rachael Bedard, MD - Reading and Watching: Finding your style by learning from others: A conversation with Lisa Sanders & Anna Reisman
2/1/2024
Program for Humanities in Medicine John P. McGovern Lecture
The Anlyan Center Auditorium
Reading and Watching: Finding your style by learning from others: A conversation with Lisa Sanders & Anna Reisman
Rachael Bedard, MD
Physician-writer, New York City Health and Hospitals
Morris Dillard lecture: On Storytelling, Writing & Medical Detective Work: Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan in conversation with Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein
Program for Humanities in Medicine Dillard Lecture
On Storytelling, Writing & Medical Detective Work:
Dr. Suzanne O’Sullivan in conversation with Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein
Suzanne O'Sullivan, MD
Neurologist, London's National Hospital for Neurology
Author, The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness
Randi Epstein Hutter, MD, MPH (Moderator)
Writer-in-residence, Yale Program for Humanities in Medicine,
Yale School of Medicine
Faculty, English Department, Yale College
Whiteout: How Racial Capitalism Changed the Color of Opioids in America – Reflections on Drug Policy and Health Justice
September 27, 2023
Helena Hansen, MD, PhD
David Herzberg, PhD
Julie ("Jules") Netherland, PhD
Mark Jenkins
Kimberly Sue, MD, PhD (Moderator)
Sponsored by the Program for Humanities in Medicine and the Program in Addition Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
The Kenneth and Georgia Barwick lecture Clinical Fiction, Doctors’ Families: Can Creative Writing about Medicine Predict the Future of Healthcare? with Marie Myung-Ok Lee
The Kenneth and Georgia Barwick lecture
Clinical Fiction, Doctors’ Families: Can Creative Writing about Medicine Predict the Future of Healthcare?
Marie Myung-Ok Lee
April 13, 2023
3-23-23 Urban Academic Medical Centers and Their Neighbors
3/23/2023
Cohen Auditorium and Zoom
Urban Academic Medical Centers and Their Neighbors: Then, Now, Next -- A Roundtable Discussion
Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH
Author, All Health Politics is Local: Battles for Community Health in the Mid-Century United States
Benjamin Howell, MD, MPH, MHS
Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Medicine), Yale School of Medicine
Panelists
Mark T. Silvestri, MD, MHS
Virginia Spell
Katherine Tucker, DNP, RN, APRN-BC
Lessons from History for the Future of Child Welfare
3/7/2023
The John P. McGovern Lecture
Cohen Auditorium and Zoom
Mical Raz, MD, PhD
Professor of History, University of Rochester
Charles E. and Dale L. Phelps Professor in Public Health and Policy
Professor of Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Rochester Medical Center
Andrea Asnes, MD, MSW
Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics), Yale School of Medicine
Director, Resident and Fellow Wellbeing, Graduate Medical Education, Yale School of Medicine
Director, Yale Programs for Safety, Advocacy, and Healing, Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine
The Morris Dillard Lecture: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools: A Roundtable Discussion
November 30, 2022
Christopher D.E. Willoughby, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor of History of Medicine and Health, Pitzer College
Author, Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools
Discussants:
Liana DeMarco, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow, History of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Sean Morey Smith, PhD
Post-doctoral fellow, History of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
ChinyeIjeli
Medical student, Yale School of Medicine
Moderator
Carolyn Roberts, PhD
Assistant Professor, History of Science & History of Medicine;
African American Studies, Yale University
The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness: A Conversation with Meghan O'Rourke and Dr. Lisa Sanders
11/17/2022
Meghan O’Rourke
Writer, Poet and Editor
Author of the New York Times bestseller The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness (2022)
Senior Lecturer in English, Creative Writing, Yale University
Lisa Sanders, MD, FACP
Associate Professor of Medicine (General Medicine)
Co-Director, Writers Workshop, Yale School of Medicine
Author, Diagnosis column, New York Times Magazine
The History and Future of Harm Reduction
9/22/2022
Maia Szalavitz
Author, Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction
Contributing Opinion Writer, New York TimesKimberly Sue, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine (General Internal Medicine)
Yale School of Medicine
Medical Director, National Harm Reduction CoalitionModerator: Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, MPH
Writer in Residence, Yale School of MedicineQueer Family Making in Medical Spaces
May 12, 2022
Henry Ng, MD, MPH
Director, Transgender Surgery & Medicine Program
Director, Center for LGBTQ+ Health and Director of the Transgender Surgery and Medicine Program at the Cleveland Clinic FoundationLori E. Ross, PhD
Associate Professor in the Division of Social and Behavioural Health Sciences, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto; Leader of Researching for LGBTQ Health Team.Elizabeth Alice Clement, PhD, MA
Associate Professor of History, Aileen H. Clyde Professor of History
Director of Graduate Studies. History Department, University of UtahDiscussants: Alie Brussel Faria and Nathan Ha
2022 PHM Health Professions Creative Medical Writing and Art Contest
Awards Ceremony
May 5, 2022
A Conversation with Dr. Vanessa Grubbs, author of Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers: A Kidney Doctor’s Search for the Perfect Match
Vanessa Grubbs, MD, MPH
Tuesday, February 8th, at 5 pm ET