Atul Gawande: On Being Mortal
27:42 minutes
Modern medicine has extended our lives, but is it helping us to live better in terms of aging and dying? In his new book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (read an excerpt here), surgeon Atul Gawande says that we have medicalized aging. Gawande examines how we can improve end-of-life care, from developing better nursing homes to holding honest conversations in the doctor’s office.
Segment Guests
Atul Gawande
Atul Gawande is author of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (Metropolitan Books, 2014) and surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
Heard on the Air
Read an excerpt from Being Mortal.
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About Alexa Lim
@AlexaLim22Alexa Lim was a senior producer for Science Friday. Her favorite stories involve space, sound, and strange animal discoveries.