The Veterans Healthcare System is the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States and one that trains the majority of physicians who practice in the US. We interview journalist and author Suzanne Gordon about the battle that is going on for the $70 billion spent on Veterans health every year.

We interview Anna Chodos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Division of Geriatrics at UCSF, about her work in creating the Optimizing Aging Collaborative. The collaborative's goal is to enhance and unify care of older adults in the community by creating a unique partnerships between public, human service, and academic organizations. The Optimizing Aging Collaborative at UCSF, which was founded in July 2015 as a Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The collaborative includes a broad array of experts to provide education and innovative services that address older adults' health, social, and legal needs, that hopefully other cities can replicate.

On today's podcast, we interview Steve Pantilat about his new book "Life After the Diagnosis: Expert Advice on Living Well with Serious Illness for Patients and Caregivers." Steve is a Professor of Medicine, the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco, Kates-Burnard and Hellman Distinguished Professor in Palliative Care, and Founding Director, the UCSF Palliative Care Program. In his book, Steve writes to patients and family members coping with serious illnesses about the difficult decisions they face in a convoluted medical system, giving them practical advice on a wide range of common concerns. We talk with Steve about how he came up with the idea of the book, his views on living well and what a "good death is", the role that hope plays in decision making, and the language that we use in medicine that can easily be misunderstood.

This week's GeriPal Podcast features NY Times journalist Paula Span about what we can do as educators, as researchers, and as clinicians, to collaborate with the media. During Paula's extensive career as a reporter, she has written for the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Esquire, Parenting, Glamour, Ms and several city magazines. Paula currently writes at The New York Times for The New Old Age, and trains the next generation of journalists at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

What should you say to your older patient when it's time to stop cancer screening? This week's GeriPal Podcast features Nancy Shoenborn, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Shoenborn published a paper in JAMA Internal Medicine this week on older adults perspectives on cancer screening cessation, and using life expectancy to justify stopping screening.

Today's GeriPal Podcast features Vanessa Grubbs, a nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF. Vanessa talks with us about her forthcoming book titled, "Hundreds of Interlaced Fingers," to be released June 13, but available for pre-order now. Dr. Grubbs' book tells the story of her journey from primary care to nephrology to palliative care, of falling in love with a man to donating a kidney to him to marriage, and of the journeys of the diverse, older, complex patients she's cared for with chronic kidney disease, who sometimes choose not to start dialysis.

For this week's GeriPal podcast we talk with Sandra Moody, MD, about her experiences in geriatrics and palliative care in Kamogawa City, Japan. Sandra helped to start the hospice and palliative care service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center prior to moving to Japan. We spoke with Sandra about differences between geriatrics and palliative care as practiced in the US vs. Japan.

We talked with Rebecca about the results of The Prepare Trail, a randomized controlled trial of an easy-to-read advance directive PLUS a web-based decision aid vs the easy-to-read advance directive alone in 414 older veterans with chronic disease

A study published in JAGS reported approximately one-third of the Medicare beneficiaries who died in 2011 had four or more transitions within their last 6 months of life. We discuss with the studies author about how he became interested in transitions and why this is important.

On todays podcast, we interview Dr. Samir K. Sinha, MD on how he has influenced local and national policy to redesign the care we give to older adults. Dr. Sinha is the Director of Geriatrics at the Sinai Health System, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Assistant Professor of Medicine Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Among his many accomplishments is that he lead Ontario's "seniors care strategy" and is now involved in the development of a National Seniors Strategy.