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.

All dying is a spiritual process, says our guest on this episode, hospice chaplain Carrie Egan. By this, she means that each person's death can be acknowledged as more than just a biological event.

It's an opportunity to reflect on the culmination of our human experiences and the impact we've had on others.

The recognition of our impermanence prompts us to grapple with questions of legacy and purpose, infusing our mortal existence with depth and significance.

Over the course of our conversation, Carrie describes how she became a chaplain,

how she supports patients and other clinicians

through difficult times,

and the process of reconciling the strength of the human spirit with the limitations of the body.

...