Special Episode: Alexandra Sifferlin & The Elusive Body

This Podcast Will Kill You

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

Health & Fitness, Science

4.8 • 17.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An accurate diagnosis can give us so much. It can give us a path forward. It can give us answers to long-standing questions. And it can give us much-needed hope. Yet many people around the world wait years to receive an accurate diagnosis, which can take a profound physical and emotional toll. What underlies these missed or incorrect diagnoses, and what can we do about it? In this week’s TPWKY book club episode, health journalist Alexandra Sifferlin joins me to discuss The Elusive Body: Doctors, Patients, and the Diagnosis Crisis. Her compassionate and sweeping exploration of this topic takes readers across the US as she connects with patients, doctors, and researchers that are deeply impacted by the diagnosis crisis. While plumbing the depths of this pervasive issue, Sifferlin also encounters many people who have dedicated their careers to addressing the diagnosis crisis and bringing people the answers they need and deserve. Tune in for a fascinating conversation on a subject that has affected so many of us.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
0:06.4	Every single complex societies has ever existed in the history of the world so far has collapsed.
0:12.1	Do we think we're different?
0:14.5	Are We Doomed? The new podcast about the end of the world.
0:17.6	I don't like where this is headed.
0:19.5	I'm Ben Bradford. Join me for Are We Doomed, part of the NPR Network.
0:23.6	Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. The
0:40.3	The Hi, I'm Erin Welsh, and this is, this podcast will kill you. You're listening to the latest
1:19.3	episode in the TPWKY Book Club series. This is the series where I get to chat with authors of
1:26.0	popular science and medicine books about their latest work,
1:29.1	and ask them a bunch of questions about what inspires them, what lessons we can learn, and what the future might hold.
1:36.7	We've covered some incredibly wide-ranging topics. There's truly something for everyone out there.
1:41.9	If you'd like to take a look at all of the books we've
1:44.3	featured in the past, as well as get a sneak peek into the books that we'll be featuring
1:48.2	in upcoming episodes, head over to our website, This Podcast Will Kill You.com. There, under the
1:54.3	extras tab, you'll find a link to our bookshop.org affiliate page. Clicking on that, we'll get you to
1:59.8	a bunch of TPWKY related book lists, including one
2:04.3	for this book club and one for the kids book club, which Aaron Updike posts on our
2:09.3	socials.
2:10.2	So if you're not already following us there, you should be.
2:13.0	I'm always updating these lists, so be sure to check in regularly.
2:17.0	If you have book suggestions,
	...

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