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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

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 22

Litmed Theater Review

4:48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane

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

Guy Glass 02.04.26 62

Reflection

Feeling Dementia from the Play, The Father

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

Russell Teagarden 02.03.26 34

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 02.03.26 99

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 01.12.26 216

Focus Narrative

When Your Body Isn’t Yours

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

Dave Hsu 01.12.26 148

Focus Poem Review

Three Poems by Gary Soto

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

Felice Aull 01.10.26 152

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 12.11.25 534

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 01.05.26 127

Reflection

Learning Empathy through Chekhov

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

Guy Glass 12.29.25 381

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 12.16.25 174

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 12.03.25 200

Reviews ➔

Theater 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 86

Announcement Film Review Video

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 01.28.26 222

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 75

Assistedlab.ch–A Living Archive of Assisted Dying

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