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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

How Montaigne Profited from His Kidney Stones

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

Russell Teagarden 02.03.26 113

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 01.28.26 233

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 77

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 01.19.26 112

In Focus: Theater and Medical Humanities ➔

This month we explore how theater illuminates illness, care, and the human condition through dramatic works.

Announcement Artist Interview

Margo Weishar: The Excellent Doctor Blackwell

Margo Weishar explores Elizabeth Blackwell’s hidden life, ambition, and sacrifice ahead of a public reading.

Guy Glass 02.09.26 40

Focus Theater Review

4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane

Sarah Kane’s final play fractures theatrical form to embody depression, psychosis, and the limits…

Guy Glass 02.04.26 71

Focus Reflection

Feeling Dementia from the Play, The Father

Florian Zeller’s The Father immerses audiences inside dementia, transforming theatrical disorientation into visceral understanding…

Russell Teagarden 02.03.26 41

Focus Theater Review

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

Broadway revival of Tracy Letts’ Bug probes paranoia, race, and medical ethics.

Rudy Malcom 02.03.26 104

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 01.05.26 130

Reflection

Learning Empathy through Chekhov

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

Guy Glass 12.29.25 384

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 12.16.25 179

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 12.03.25 204

Reviews ➔

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 71

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 01.09.26 473

Book Review Litmed

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet reimagines Shakespeare’s family life to explore grief, plague, and the endurance of love.

Howard Trachtman 01.01.26 180

Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life…

Book Review Video

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