Over the past 160 episodes, two themes that have appeared repeatedly feel as relevant and urgent as ever are 1) the pros and dehumanizing cons of technology and 2) approaching suffering in the human experience. In this episode, we are excited to bring back a panel of notable past guests to discuss the interplay between medicine, suffering, technology, and the human experience.

We are joined by historian Christine Rosen, PhD, philosopher Mikolaj Slawkowski-Rode, PhD, and palliative care physician Sunita Puri, MD. Rosen is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute whose work is focused on American history, society and culture, technology and culture, and feminism. Slawkowski-Rode is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Warsaw and research fellow at the University of Oxford with a current emphasis on the philosophy of science and religion. Dr. Puri is a palliative care physician, associate professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, and author of the critically acclaimed book That Good Night (2019).

As a panel, we consider a prominent aspect of the unwritten curriculum of medicine: how medicine often considers suffering and sorrow to be fixable and their eradication to be a metric of medical success. We explore ways digital technology can make our lives easier without making them better, and the pressing need to define and defend the (non-digital) human experience. We propose that the goal is not to eradicate all suffering, but to reduce needless suffering without denying the forms that accompany love, growth, and moral responsibility. When suffering is treated as an intolerable defect, we can become preoccupied with self-protection and less available to one another. The first and most important gift a caregiver can give is their undivided attention and the biggest mistake we can make in medicine is turning away from suffering. Finally, we ponder if for both patients and physicians, life, in the end, is meant to be a mystery.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

6:37 – Unlearning preconceived perspectives on suffering, technology, and human experience.

13:08 – Engaging with digital technology critically instead of presuming that technological progress is inherently good.

19:28 – Suffering as an irradicable and sometimes necessary element of the human condition.

27:50 – Helping young terminal patients grapple with their diagnosis as a palliative care doctor.

36:36 – How the pursuit of immortality can lead to moral sickness.

47:08 – How digital technologies are inciting a collective disembodiment from reality.

53:15 – Practices that will positively impact the modern lived experience.

Explore our guests’ past episodes on The Doctor’s Art:

Human Experience in A Digital World | Christine Rosen, PhD

A Philosophy of Grief | Mikolaj Slawkowski-Rode, PhD

The Beauty of Impermanence | Sunita Puri, MD

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show 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, send an email to info@thedoctorsart.com.

Technology, Medicine, and the Erasure of Suffering | A Doctor’s Art Roundtable