Atul Gawande and Andrew Bird Discuss the Art and Science of Cancer

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 December 2020

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Atul Gawande is a New Yorker staff writer, a practicing surgeon, and an indie-music fan, and he loves the work of the songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and whistling virtuoso Andrew Bird; Gawande has included Bird’s songs in playlists he uses in the operating room. In 2016, at the New Yorker Festival, Gawande spoke with Bird about songwriting, confronting illness, the nature of cancer, and whistling. Andrew Bird performed “Capsized,” in which he played all of the parts with the help of looping devices. Bird’s latest record is “Hark!” a Christmas-themed album. Atul Gawande was recently appointed to the incoming Biden Administration’s COVID-19 task force.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a Christmas-themed record by Andrew Bird.
0:31.0	Bird is a singer, a songwriter, a violinist, a guitarist, and he whistles quite a lot,
0:39.9	certainly more than anybody in indie music.
0:43.9	One of his most avid fans is the New Yorkers, Atul Gawande.
0:51.4	Atul's a terrific writer and a surgeon, and recently appointed to the Biden administration's COVID-19 task force.
0:58.6	Atul is also a big music guy, and sometimes he has Andrew Bird on his playlist while he's in the operating room.
1:00.5	Atul Gawande sat down with Andrew Bird at the New Yorker Festival in 2016.
1:08.9	I've been a fan of yours from the first album, 2003 Weather Systems.
1:13.6	When I heard the next album, or two albums after that, Dark Matter, you said that,
1:20.6	you know, when I was a little boy, I threw away my action toys and devoted myself to playing Operation.
1:28.3	Yeah.
1:30.3	And I was just a little boy.
1:34.3	I threw away all of my action tools while I became obsessed with
1:43.3	Operation became obsessed with operation
1:45.3	Did you really
1:57.5	actually want to be a surgeon?
2:03.7	Because I've been hoping.
2:07.1	No, I was more interested in psychiatry, actually.
2:10.3	I wanted to be a psychiatrist, seriously, yeah.
2:13.0	You did?
2:13.5	Yeah.
2:15.0	Where did you grow up?
	...

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