Food, Songs, and Stories

I love food: how it looks and how it tastes, that when done well it relies on science and requires art, how it’s both essential to life and one of the life’s great pleasures, that it embodies cultures and family traditions, and how easily it communicates...

Telling Stories About Patients & Doctors

It’s now been 3 weeks, 3 days, and 33 hours since the launch of A History of the Present Illness and so far it seems that the book and its message are both resonating with patients and doctors, readers and writers, which is to say, it seems to be resonating with...

A Book Is Born

Today is the day. A History of the Present Illness is on shelves in bookstores and but a click or download away online. The official publishing term for this day is launch. To me, it more closely resembles a birth. Certainly the path to this point has included sweat...

The Books Are Almost on the Shelves

A History of the Present Illness hits bookstores, mailboxes, and e-readers in just five days, and the excitement has already begun! Yesterday, I was at Book Passage, one of the Bay Area’s best independent bookstores, to sign over 300 books for their Signed First...

Writing About Medicine II

There are many ways to write about health, medicine, and health care. And there are many people – patients, caregivers, policymakers, pundits, thought leaders, and health professionals – in a position to do so. Fortunately, the world also offers a similar and growing...