Reimagining Aging and Later Life (with Dr. Louise Aronson)

The Doctor's Art

Henry Bair and Tyler Johnson

Medicine, Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Philosophy

5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Advances in modern medicine mean a greater proportion of people today than ever before will live well into old age. Despite the seemingly encouraging trend, geriatrician Dr. Louise Aronson argues that we have made old age into a disease, a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied. Dr. Aronson has made it her life's work to help us reimagine the rich possibilities of human longevity and of later life. Her bestselling book, Elderhood, was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. In this episode, Dr. Aronson explains what makes geriatrics a meaningful career for her, discusses the faults in our society’s conception of elderhood, and shares her humane and hopeful vision for the future of aging.

In this episode, you will hear about:

An overview of what geriatrics entails - 1:47
The need to recognize elderhood as distinct a life stage - 4:42
Dr. Aronson’s reflections on what drew her into caring for older patients - 6:15
The ways goals of care change in elderhood - 8:24
Dr. Aronson’s approach to caring for her patients holistically - 13:27
How physicians can change the “losers and winners” paradigm in healthcare - 17:34
A discussion of structural and cultural ageism and the insidious ways it harms our society - 23:03
How American culture and medicine elevates patient autonomy and how this can sometimes be harmful to older patients - 30:59
A discussion of Dr. Aronson’s writing and what motivated her to become an author - 38:49
How Dr. Aronson experienced and overcame burnout - 42:57
Advice to new clinicians on how to connect with patients and create a more meaningful career path - 46:08

Dr. Aronson is the author of the nonfiction book Elderhood and the short story collection A History of the Present Illness, as well as several essays and articles on ageism and aging and a blog.

Follow Dr. Louise Arondson on Twitter @LouiseAronson, Instagram @LouiseAronsonSF, and LinkedIn.

Visit our website www.TheDoctorsArt.com where you can find transcripts of all episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review our show, available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you know of a doctor, patient, or anyone working in health care who would love to explore meaning in medicine with us on the show, feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments or send an email to [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Henry Bear.
0:03.4	And I'm Tyler Johnson.
0:04.8	And you're listening to the Doctors' Art, a podcast that explores meaning in medicine.
0:09.9	Throughout our medical training and career, we have pondered, what makes medicine meaningful?
0:15.2	Can a stronger understanding of this meaning create better doctors?
0:18.8	How can we build healthcare institutions that nurture the doctor-patient connection?
0:23.1	What can we learn about the human condition from accompanying our patients in times of suffering?
0:28.0	In seeking answers to these questions, we meet with deep thinkers working across healthcare,
0:33.1	from doctors and nurses to patients and healthcare executives, those who have collected a career's worth of harder and wisdom.
0:40.2	Proving the moral heart that beats at the core of medicine, we will hear stories that are by turns heartbreaking,
0:45.6	amusing, inspiring, challenging, and enlightening.
0:49.3	We welcome anyone curious about why doctors do what they do.
0:52.9	Join us as we think out loud about what illness and healing can teach us about some of life's biggest questions.
1:03.6	Advances in modern medicine and living conditions mean a greater proportion of people today
1:08.2	will live well past our sixties than ever before.
1:11.2	Despite the seemingly encouraging trend,
1:13.4	Geriatrician Dr. Luis Arenson argues that we've made old age into a disease,
1:18.2	a condition to be dreaded, denigrated, neglected, and denied.
1:22.6	Dr. Arenson has made it her life's work to help us reimagine the rich possibilities of human longevity and of later life.
1:29.7	Her best-selling book, Elderhood, was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
1:36.2	In this episode, she shares her humane and hopeful vision for the future of aging.
1:41.4	Luis, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to this show.
	...

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