Interview: 4 ways to design a disability-friendly future with BJ Miller
TED Health
TED
4.0 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. BJ Miller was a college sophomore when a sudden electrical accident nearly took his life. After months in a hospital burn unit and multiple amputations, he emerged into a world that saw him — and treated him — differently. But that experience became the foundation for everything that followed.
Now a palliative care physician and one of the most compassionate voices in medicine, BJ is redefining what it means to live fully after loss and change. He challenges the very idea of “normal,” reminding us that disability isn’t a flaw to fix, but part of the human spectrum. His work invites us to expand our imagination of what it means to be alive, to belong, and to be whole.
Join us on Instagram for more stories, behind-the-scenes moments, and reflections on living and dying.
After the interview, Shoshana features a TED talk from Meghan Hussey on 4 Ways To Design a Disability-Friendly Future.
Join @beforewegopodcast on Instagram for more stories, behind-the-scenes moments, and reflections on living and dying.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Ted Health, the podcast from Ted, and I'm your host, Dr. Shoshana Ungerleiter. |
| 0:06.3 | Today, I want to bridge two of my worlds with you by sharing an episode from my own podcast |
| 0:11.4 | before we go that I think you're really going to connect with. |
| 0:14.9 | If you listen to season one before we go, you might remember that it followed a very |
| 0:18.9 | personal story, my own, following my dad's |
| 0:22.6 | cancer and the surprising diagnosis that changed my own health and the unexpected paths that I took |
| 0:28.3 | to find meaning and purpose in all of it. For season two, I broaden the scope a little. I've put |
| 0:34.4 | together conversations with people from all walks of life, exploring how we live |
| 0:38.8 | alongside mortality, in our bodies, our relationships, and our identities. And one of those conversations |
| 0:45.4 | is with someone many TED listeners may already know and love, my dear friend, former TED speaker |
| 0:50.8 | and palliative care physician Dr. BJ Miller. |
| 0:57.7 | When BJ was a college student, his life changed forever. |
| 1:03.3 | One night he climbed on top of a parked train and was hit with 11,000 volts of electricity. |
| 1:06.4 | He survived, but he lost three limbs. |
| 1:12.7 | He spent his life adjusting to living in a body that's visibly different while embracing the new paths that his disability opened up for him, including his future career in palliative care. |
| 1:18.4 | In our interview, BJ shares why he thinks of disability as a construct, something society defines, |
| 1:24.5 | but doesn't get to define for us. That episode of Before We Go is coming up next. |
| 1:30.1 | And then stick around for a 2022 TED Talk with Disability Inclusion Advocate Megan Hussie, |
| 1:35.2 | who offers four concrete things all of us can do to create a more welcoming world for everyone, |
| 1:41.1 | not as charity, but as justice. But before we dive in, a quick break to hear from our sponsors. |
| 1:55.7 | So tell me about the accident. |
| 1:59.0 | What do you remember? |
... |
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