Hi, I'm Henry Bear.

And I'm Tyler Johnson.

And you're listening to the Doctor's Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.

Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered.

What makes medicine meaningful?

Can a stronger understanding of this meaning

create better doctors?

How can we build health care institutions

that nurture the doctor-patient connection?

What can we learn about the human condition

from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?

In seeking answers to these questions,

we meet with deep thinkers working across health care, from doctors and nurses to patients and health care executives, those who have collected a career's worth of hard-earned wisdom.

Probing the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heart-breaking, amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.

We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.

Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing

can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.

This is Dr. Tyler Johnson and it is a special privilege today to record a podcast episode that is unlike any that we have ever recorded in that we're going to be speaking to a woman who is a professional actress and is very accomplished in that right, but who I came to know both in that capacity and then later as one of my own patients.

Our guest today is Ellen Dunphy and we are really grateful that she would join us. Thank you so much Ellen for being here.

Thank you for having me.

So Ellen, I think that in order for our audience to get a little bit more of an understanding of how you and I know each other and sort of where our relationship comes from, can you talk about where we first met and what that was like?

Yeah, of course. We met making a training video for

...