You're listening to Well Now,

You're listening to Well Now,

Slate's podcast on Health and Wellness.

I'm Kavita Patel.

And I'm Maya Peller.

Each week we've explored wellness from different perspectives.

We have yet to really talk about what it needs to live a full life

while grappling with the very real possibility of death.

Most of us hope for a full long life

with quote unquote good health.

It's true, Maya.

Very rarely do I start a conversation

with anybody, a family member or a patient or even just a casual

acquaintance with, you know, hey, don't you want to have a shorter life or don't you want to have a serious

or potentially fatal diagnosis, but unfortunately, as you know, Maya, that happens and a serious diagnosis or something such as cancer completely puts fear into people's hearts because

everything changes the way we see our loved ones, even the way we see ourselves.

So before we speak with our guest, Maya, can you talk about how you've

witnessed a life-changing diagnosis play out in your professional environment or

your personal environment? Yeah, Kavita, so I'm going to tell you a little bit about how it's played out in work.

And when I'm thinking about the tools that I develop to help patients move through these challenges.

What I can really say is that it's more around supporting them in the moment while being real and honest about what the future holds.

Nutrition, if you know we're thinking about kind of end of life, it shifts.

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