Meaning. We know it when we see it or feel it, but what exactly is meaning? Why do we put so much importance on it? And how do we create it? In this episode, host Lucy Kalanithi revisits audio recordings of her late husband, neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi — who wrote the #1 New York Times-bestselling memoir When Breath Becomes Air — to reflect on meaning and its underpinnings.
Drs. Lucy Kalanithi and Paul Kalanithi explore how to find meaning in the face of mortality.
Paul Kalanithi’s memoir is When Breath Becomes Air. His essays include “How Long Have I Got Left?” (The New York Times), “My Last Day as a Surgeon” (The New Yorker) and “Before I Go” (Stanford Medicine Magazine). You might also like the 8-minute documentary short “A Strange Relativity: Altered Time for a Surgeon-Turned-Patient.”
Dr. Viktor Frankl’s seminal book is Man’s Search for Meaning.
Hear Lucy Kalanithi’s TEDMED talk, “What makes life worth living in the face of death.”
Poetry in this episode: The Glories of Our Blood and State by James Shirley, Separation by W. S. Merwin.
Many thanks to Emily Rapp Black for collaborating on this episode.
Gravity is produced by Wonder Media Network. Original music by Rachel Wardell. Rekha Murthy is our editor. Jenny Kaplan is our executive producer.
For more on why we’re doing what we're doing, check us out on Instagram and on Twitter. Find Lucy on Twitter at @rocketgirlmd.