Hi, I'm Henry Bear.

And I'm Tyler Johnson.

And you're listening to The Doctors 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 heartbreaking, 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. For many people, the idea of politics and health care conjures up hyper-partisanship,

where power and party loyalty Trump public interest, often also at the expense of health equity, trust, and

policy efficacy.

But Dr. Josh Sharfstein is passionate about politics and health care because to him it's about the opportunities

to bring together wide-ranging expertise and advocate seemingly irreconcilable interests to implement

changes that improve the lives of millions of people.

Dr. Sharfstein has led a career reflective of this passion.

He has served as the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health,

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