In cancer and palliative care, patients who have a strong working relationship with their doctor have been shown to experience greater wellbeing, quality of life, meaning, and peace. For many physicians, who they are as a person and how they connect with their patients is one of their primary instruments of healing. But it can be a delicate instrument. Encountering intractable suffering day after day can take its toll – and finding the delicate middle ground between taking on too much of a patient’s suffering and abstracting it all away is one of the great balancing acts of doctoring.

Our guest on this episode is Dr. Keri Brenner, psychiatrist, palliative care doctor, and clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford. Dr. Brenner attended Yale School of Medicine before completing her residency in psychiatry and fellowship in palliative medicine at Harvard. She is a nationally recognized leader in “PalliPsych” initiatives that integrate psychiatric, psychological, and psychotherapeutic principles into serious illness care.

Over the course of this episode, Dr. Brenner shares how her time volunteering at Mother Theresa’s home for the dying in Kolkata led her to a deep study of suffering and eventually to medicine. We discuss the doctor’s role of accompanying patients through hard times and the folly of trying to impose a silver lining onto another’s suffering. Finally, we explore strategies for how physicians can be a healing presence for their patients without being overcome by the pain they witness.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:00 - Dr. Brenner’s path from volunteering at Mother Theresa’s Home for the Dying to becoming a psychiatrist and palliative care doctor.

13:38 - What Dr. Brenner has learned about the phenomenology of suffering

26:09 - How Dr. Brenner approaches her work when many of the challenges her patients face cannot be fixed

32:15 - Practices and perspectives that can help physicians be attuned to the suffering of their patients

53:43 - The care that palliative physicians provide to other doctors

59:18 - Finding the emotional balance between empathy and over-identifying with patients

1:06:30 - Keri and Tyler reflect on a shared experience with a palliative care patient

1:14:20 - Dr. Brenner’s advice for infusing more presence into patient practice

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2026

Many of us find ourselves awash in a deluge of instant communication. Text messages, emails, and direct messages come and go at a dizzying pace. Against this backdrop of overstuffed inboxes and lengthy text threads, we instinctively sense that letters – the kind you write or type and perhaps stuff in an envelope – are something different. Something weightier. For the terminally ill, writing a letter not only stands apart from other forms of communication — it stands apart from time. The process of writing a letter for loved ones can be a potent therapy for the patient and a legacy for those left behind.

Our guests on this episode are Bryant Lin, MD and Frish Brandt. Bryant is a recurring guest on the show and a primary care physician, educator, and researcher at Stanford University who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in 2024. Frish is a “letter midwife” who began her work helping palliative care and hospice patients write letters for their loved ones. When Bryant and Frish crossed paths, it led to Bryant sponsoring Frish as a lecturer at Stanford and eventually to Frish helping Bryant write a letter of his own. In October of this year, Bryant and Frish are each publishing books. Sunshine explores what Bryant has learned about living while dying, while Unfinished Business is Frish’s guide to writing the five essential letters of one’s life.

In this episode, you will learn about the work of a letter midwife and get an update on Bryant’s cancer journey. Frish and Bryant share how their stories became intertwined, the experience of writing a letter together, and what makes writing a letter uniquely impactful for both the writer and the recipients. Together, they urge us to not put off saying the important things, and better yet, taking the time to put them in writing.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

3:20 - How Frish became a ‘letter midwife’ and began helping people write letters to address their unfinished business

10:55 - The importance fostering conversation and connection in our rapid, high tech world

15:33 - How Frish and Bryant’s letter writing collaboration came to be

26:45 - Why letters carry a unique weight

29:00 - What goes into creating a letter for someone you love

51:00 - Grappling with the concept of time and day-to-day life when you have a progressive disease

55:15 - How Bryant’s cancer has changed his approach to doctoring

1:00:00 - How Frish’s work as a letter midwife has changed her approach to life, and what we can learn from her experience

Link to Bryant’s past episodes. Links to both of their preorders.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2026

Sometimes established physicians experience a strange kind of amnesia when thinking back on their training, causing them to forget just how challenging it was. Worse, some physicians do remember how hard those years were and feel that up-and-coming doctors should suffer the same difficulties they did. To accurately understand what it is like to become a doctor, it helps to talk to those fresh out of training and, of course, trainees themselves.

Our guest on this episode is Grant Lin, MD, a brand new clinical assistant professor in pediatric neurology at Stanford. Grant completed his fellowship in Palliative Care this summer after finishing residencies in pediatrics and child neurology. While in medical school and residency at Stanford, he became a leader in the successful movement to unionize the interns, residents, and fellows that make up Stanford Hospital’s house staff.

Over the course of this episode, Grant shares lessons learned from training in palliative medicine and caring for children with neurologic diseases. We discuss the turbulence of medical training, the difficulty of essentially changing jobs twelve times in a year as a medical student, and what led to the house staff unionization effort at Stanford. Finally, Grant encourages trainees to make their voices heard and for hospitals to care for their staff so the staff can care for their patients.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

2:30 - Grant’s path to becoming a doctor and specializing in pediatric neuropalliative care

9:45 - The experience of taking care of children who are facing neurodegenerative illnesses

17:36 - How Grant’s approach to difficult patient conversations changed after palliative care training

21:38 - The turmoil of clinical rotations as a medical student

33:30 - Grant’s work leading the unionization effort at Stanford to advocate for better house staff working conditions

48:00 - Grant’s advice to house staff members who might find themselves struggling

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Copyright The Doctor’s Art Podcast 2026