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A Lens on Human Experience

Cultivating empathy & critical thinking in health, culture & the arts

A Lens on Human Experience ➔

Cultivating empathy & critical thinking in health, culture & the arts

Art Review

Under the Skin, but Out of Focus: Bug on Broadway

Broadway revival of Tracy Letts’ Bug probes paranoia, race, and medical ethics—but stops short deeper.

Rudy Malcom 02.03.26 16

Reflection

How Montaigne Profited from His Kidney Stones

Physical suffering becomes philosophical insight as illness transforms pain, fear, and mortality into unexpected benefit.

Russell Teagarden 02.02.26 29

Announcement Film Review

Cinema Without Barriers: Disability, Creativity, and Comfort Intersect at RestFest

RestFest reimagines film festivals through disabled-led creativity, radical access, and care-centered viewing beyond ableist norms.

Rudy Malcom 01.28.26 156

Book Review

Rethinking Medications by Jerry Avorn

A critical examination of drug approval, safety, pricing, and regulatory decline in contemporary pharmaceutical practice.

Jack Coulehan 01.20.26 56

In Focus: Individual in Society ➔

This month we explore tensions between individual rights and societal demands, highlighting courage amid constraint.

Focus Podcast

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick

International adoption from China arose amid policy-driven abandonment, later fostering trafficking incentives and coerced…

Dave Hsu 01.12.26 188

Focus Narrative

When Your Body Isn’t Yours

This essay examines how policy, culture, and power quietly claim women’s bodies worldwide.

Dave Hsu 01.12.26 105

Focus Poem Review

Three Poems by Gary Soto

Three poems explore cultural identity, family conflict, and the influence of media on class,…

Felice Aull 01.10.26 122

Book Review Focus

Pushback: Mary Fissell looks back at 2500 years of abortion history

A sweeping new history examines how societies across millennia have regulated, resisted, and reshaped…

Nancy Novick 12.11.25 503

Articles ➔

Reflection

A Plague on Their House

How O’Farrell’s Hamnet Traces Plague’s Journey From Fleas to Family, Blending Science, History, Storytelling with Empathy

Russell Teagarden 01.05.26 99

Reflection

Learning Empathy through Chekhov

A psychiatrist-playwright shows how adapting classic drama for medical students cultivates empathy and reflective care practice.

Guy Glass 12.29.25 349

Reflection

The Word Is an Instrument of Healing

Language, ritual, and narrative serve as powerful healing tools, with context, beliefs, and social support enhancing health outcomes.

Jack Coulehan 12.16.25 144

Reflection

When the Literary Adds to the Historical

The 1918 flu pandemic’s history and literature together reveal its vast global impact and intimate human suffering, offering fuller insight than either alone.

Russell Teagarden 12.03.25 183

Reviews ➔

Review

Assistedlab.ch–A Living Archive of Assisted Dying

A thoughtful review of a Swiss-based digital archive examining cultural dimensions of assisted dying debates.

Jacalyn Duffin 01.19.26 82

Book Review Litmed

Antonia Saw the Oryx First by Maria Thomas

A moving exploration of healing across cultures, faiths, and traditions, where Western medicine meets indigenous wisdom in profound,…

Marilyn McEntyre 01.19.26 52

Film Review Video

Flushing the Script: Madness, Medication, and Patriarchy in The Housemaid

A thriller about psychopharmaceuticals becomes a feminist meditation on madness, coercion, and resistance within patriarchal domestic spaces.

Rudy Malcom 01.09.26 288

Book Review Litmed

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