Background:
Dr. Sunita Puri is the Medical Director of the Palliative Medicine Service at Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center of the University of Southern California, where she also serves as Chair of the Ethics Committee. Sunita is the author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, an acclaimed literary memoir examining her journey to the practice of palliative medicine, and her quest to help patients and families redefine what it means to live and die well in the face of serious illness. Her work has been featured on PBS' Amanpour Show, the Guardian, NPR, the Atlantic, Forbes, and People Magazine, which named her book the Book of the Week. She has received writing residencies from the MacDowell Colony, UCross Foundation, and the Mesa Refuge. The recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship and the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, she has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Slate, and the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In this episode we explore:
Sunita’s personal journey toward greater self-acceptance
Why honesty is a form of kindness
How curiosity can be a key factor in keeping the heart open in the face of difficulty
Strategies for having courageous conversations about what really matters in life
What death can teach us about living well
Empathy - why it’s about asking the questions that need to be listened to
A few of Sunita’s learnings about when to keep fighting, and when to let go
The role of courage in living a life without regret
People, references, and resources mentioned: