Stephen Kuusisto has been blind since birth, and he didn’t grow up in a time (or household) that accepted or accommodated his disability. Later in life, he partnered up with a guide dog, Corky, which opened up doors for greater adventure and independence. We discuss his memoir “Have Dog, Will Travel,” guide dogs, stereotypes about blindness and more with Mayo Clinic expert Dr. Brittni Scruggs. 

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens.

We talked with:

• Professor Stephen Kuusisto, who has been blind since birth, is the author of "Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening" and the acclaimed memoir "Planet of the Blind", a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. He has also published "Only Bread, Only Light", a collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press. Recognized by the New York Times as “a powerful writer with a musical ear for language and a gift for emotional candor,” Steve has made numerous appearances on programs including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline NBC, National Public Radio and the BBC. His newest memoir is “Have Dog, Will Travel.”  
• Brittni Scruggs, M.D., Ph.D., is a board-certified adult and pediatric vitreoretinal surgeon. Her clinical expertise includes retinal diseases, including retinopathy of prematurity. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Scruggs teaches medical students, graduate students, residents, and fellows, and she participates in several clinical trials for inherited retinal diseases. As one of the Principal Investigators in the Mayo Retinal Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Dr. Scruggs focuses on the optimization of gene therapy and cell-based therapy for improved safety and efficacy in patients with retinal degeneration. She is a member of the Mayo Gene Therapy Working Group.

Purchase “Have Dog, Will Travel.”

• From Bookshop.org.
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble.

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected]. 
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

Chronic illness can come with seemingly endless doctor’s visits, treatment trials and insurance battles. On top of that, people with chronic conditions often experience some degree of shame or blame for their condition – from their social circles, healthcare providers or themselves. Unfortunately, the resulting emotional distress may aggravate physical symptoms. One of the sisters in Alexandra Tanner’s novel “Worry” experiences this distress due to chronic hives that are hard to hide, hard to treat, and come with flare-ups that are impossible to predict. Alexandra and Mayo Clinic expert Dr. Rohit Divekar help us understand what it’s like to live with this kind of condition, remove the blame and offer hope for relief.

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens. 

We talked with:

• Alexandra Tanner is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work appears in Granta, The New York Times Book Review, The Baffler, and Jewish Currents, among other outlets. She is a graduate of the MFA program at The New School and a recipient of grants and fellowships from MacDowell, The Center for Fiction, and Spruceton Inn’s Artist Residency. Her first novel is Worry.
• Rohit Divekar, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., is an allergist-immunologist, internist and chair of Practice in the Division of Allergic Diseases at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He received his medical degree from the University of Mumbai and his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Missouri – Columbia. His areas of focus include hay fever, inflammation, rhinitis, asthma attack, chronic hives and chronic sinusitis.

Purchase “Worry.”

• From Bookshop.org
• From Amazon
• From Barnes & Noble 

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected]. 
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

In this episode, we dig into two topics that can provoke feelings of shame: sex and food. But in Chana Porter’s speculative, fictional world, their roles are flipped — eating, not sex, is the cultural taboo. Mayo Clinic expert Dr. Lesley Williams joins us as we discuss disordered eating and the dynamics of restraint, pleasure, shame and desire.

We talked with:

Chana Porter is an author, playwright, teacher, MacDowell fellow, and cofounder of The Octavia Project, a STEM and writing program for girls, trans, and nonbinary youth that uses speculative fiction to envision greater possibilities for our world. She lives in Los Angeles, California, and is the author of the highly acclaimed novel “The Seep.” Her second novel, “The Thick and The Lean” is a 2024 finalist for the Lambda Literary award and was named the Best Science Fiction of the year by The Times of London. 

Lesley Williams, M.D., is a family medicine physician with an expertise in eating disorders at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she resides with her husband and three children. She serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer on the Academy of Eating Disorders Board of Directors. She is an advocate for health equity and inclusion and author of a children's book Free To Be Me celebrating size diversity.

Can't get enough?

Purchase “The Thick and the Lean.”

• From Bookshop.org.
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble.

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected].
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

Severe mental health disorders can complicate relationships. That goes double for families, when genetic predispositions and generational trauma can come into play. And it’s even more complicated when a loved one’s mental illness disconnects them from reality. In this episode, we’re talking about delusions with author and pharmacist Ruth Madievsky. Her book ALL-NIGHT PHARMACY explores how the mental health of parents — and their attitudes toward health and healthcare — can shape the experiences and wellbeing of their children. Mayo Clinic expert Dr. Robert Bright draws upon his psychiatry expertise to help tease out these often-complex dynamics. 

We talked with:

Ruth Madievsky, Pharm.D., is the author of national bestselling novel, All-Night Pharmacy. Her fiction, nonfiction, and poetry appear in The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, Harper's Bazaar, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers whose identity has been shaped by immigration from the Soviet Union to the United States. She has recently completed a second poetry collection and is at work on a second novel. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care clinical pharmacist.

Robert Bright, M.D., is the chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He is also assistant dean of Student Advising in the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and an assistant professor of psychiatry. He is the 2018 recipient of the Mayo Clinic Arizona Distinguished Educator of the Year award. He attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill for his undergraduate studies and medical school. 

Can’t get enough?

Purchase “All-Night Pharmacy.”

• From Bookshop.org. 
• From Amazon.  
• From Barnes & Noble.  

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected]. 
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

You might not fully understand the menopause experience unless you go through it — but author Catherine Newman’s latest novel “Sandwich,” might get you pretty close. Catherine and Mayo Clinic menopause expert Dr. Taryn Smith join us to discuss the book, which wonderfully captures the complicated feelings and sometimes surprising symptoms of menopause.

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens. 

We talked with:

• Catherine Newman has written numerous columns, articles, and canned-bean recipes for magazines and newspapers, and her essays have been widely anthologized. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller “Sandwich” and the novel “We All Want Impossible Things,” the memoirs “Waiting for Birdy” and “Catastrophic Happiness,” the middle-grade novel “One Mixed-Up Night,” and the bestselling kids’ life-skills books “How to Be a Person” and “What Can I Say?” She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.
• Dr. Taryn Smith is a board-certified internal medicine physician, women's health specialist and certified menopause practitioner. She completed her internal medicine training at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida before completing a two-year women's health fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Her clinical areas of interest include menopause, sexual health, complex contraception and gender-based differences in medicine. Dr. Smith has been active in research, education and community service. She is also the author of several scientific publications.  Dr. Smith strives to provide individualized care based on the unique needs of her patients.

Can't get enough?

Purchase “Sandwich."

• From  Amazon.com.
• From Bookshop.org.
• From Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about menopause:

• Read the Mayo Clinic Press book, "The New Rules of Menopause."

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected].
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

In this episode, author Susan Lieu discusses her memoir, “The Manicurist’s Daughter,” which explores her mother’s  death during an elective surgical procedure. Mayo Clinic physician Dr. Alyssa Janousek provides her anesthesiology expertise to help listeners navigate and make sense of surgical procedures. 

We talked with:

Susan Lieu, a Vietnamese-American author, playwright, and performer, tells stories that refuse to be forgotten. A daughter of nail salon workers, she took her autobiographical solo theater show 140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother on a 10-city national tour with sold out premieres and accolades from L.A. Times, NPR, and American Theatre. Her debut memoir, The Manicurist’s Daughter has been featured on The New York Times, NPR Books, and The Washington Post. Also, Lieu is the co-host of The Model Minority Moms podcast and board member for international NGO Asylum Access. Susan and her sister co-founded Socola Chocolatier, an artisanal chocolate company based in San Francisco. Susan lives with her husband and son in Seattle where they enjoy mushroom hunting, croissants, and big family gatherings. 

Alyssa Janousek, M.D., is an anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. She received her Medical Degree from University of Arizona-Phoenix, followed by residency in Anesthesiology at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston with distinction as Chief Resident. She practiced at UTMB in Galveston until 2020 when she moved home to Phoenix and began a private practice career. She has been at Mayo Clinic since May 2023 and has a special interest in graduate medical education, clinical education research, and quality and safety. She is married to her husband, Derrick, and they have two daughters, Eleanor (5) and Clara (2). 

Can't get enough?

Purchase “The Manicurist’s Daughter”

• From Bookshop.org.
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble.

Information from Mayo Clinic about general anesthesia

Information from Mayo Clinic about cosmetic surgery

What to do — and avoid — before anesthesia

Anesthesia 101 – American Society of Anesthesiologists

Preparing for Surgery – American Society of Anesthesiologists

How to Make Peace with Your Belly Fat talk by Susan Lieu

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected].
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

It seems like psychedelics have never been more popular, buoyed by clinical trials, popular media and international psychedelic retreats. They’re sometimes marketed as a fast-acting panacea for mental health struggles, but the truth is far more complicated — and mysterious. New York Times national correspondent and author Ernesto Londoño and psychiatrist Dr. Eric Noble join us to talk about the potential risks and benefits of psychedelics. 

We talked with:

• Ernesto Londoño is a national correspondent at the New York Times, where he has worked since 2014. He was born and raised in Colombia and has spent the past two decades covering some of the most important stories of his generation. His assignments included covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Arab Spring, serving on the editorial board of the New York Times, and running the newspaper’s bureau in Brazil.
• Dr. Eric Noble is a board-certified psychiatrist who trained at UCLA. He received his Bachelors Degree from Brown University, and his Doctorate of Medicine from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He is a staff physician at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona and has participated in medical studies on psychedelic use in mental health.  

Can't get enough?

Purchase “Trippy: The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics”

• From Bookshop.org. 
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble. 

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected].
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

Author Danielle Valentine joins us to discuss her book “Delicate Condition,” a pregnancy horror book that depicts the darker sides to fertility, pregnancy and healthcare. Mayo Clinic expert Dr. Ali Ainsworth joins to help us understand more about the logistical and emotional challenges of fertility journeys and assisted reproductive technology. 

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens.

TW: Miscarriage, pregnancy loss, infertility 

We talked with:

• Danielle Valentine is the New York Times bestselling author of books for adults and teens, including the Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Pick Two Sides to Every Murder, and Delicate Condition, which was adapted by Ryan Murphy into American Horror Story: Delicate, starring Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian. Danielle is also the author of The Merciless series under the name Danielle Vega. She lives outside of New York City with her husband, daughter, and two ornery cats.
• Alessandra (Ali) Ainsworth, M.D., is an assistant professor in Obstetrics and Gynecology, specializing in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. She completed medical school at the University of Kansas, and both residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology and fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Mayo Clinic. During her fellowship, Dr. Ainsworth obtained a master's degree in biomedical science. Her clinical interests include infertility, fertility preservation, premature ovarian insufficiency, and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Dr. Ainsworth is also active in clinical research and education.

Can't get enough?

Purchase “Delicate Condition.”

• From Bookshop.org.
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble.

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected].
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

Episode summary: A rom-com that thoughtfully addresses death, grief and breast cancer risk? We’re in! Alison, the protagonist in the romance novel “Four Weekends and a Funeral,” is pretending that she was still dating her ex-boyfriend at the time of his death. (It’s complicated.) On top of that, she’s recently undergone a double mastectomy after finding out she a gene variant that puts her at high risk for breast cancer. Author Ellie Palmer, who has the same variant, and Mayo Clinic expert Dr. Jessica Fraker join us to talk about navigating breast cancer risk and life post-mastectomy. 

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens.

We talked with:

• Ellie Palmer is the author of “Four Weekends and a Funeral,” a carrier of the BRCA1 mutation, and a prototypical Midwesterner who routinely apologizes to inanimate objects when she bumps into them. When she’s not writing romantic comedies featuring delightfully messy characters, Ellie’s at home in Minnesota, eating breakfast food, watching too much reality television, and triple texting her husband about their son.
• Jessica Fraker, M.D., is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician with a clinical focus on breast medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr. Fraker's clinical practice is focused on the care and evaluation of patients with breast concerns, including but not limited to breast pain, masses, and skin changes, nipple changes, nipple discharge and abnormal imaging. She also sees patients with elevated risk for developing breast cancer and guides decisions regarding screening imaging for early detection, as well as strategies to reduce risk of breast cancer.

Can't get enough?

• Purchase “Four Weekends and a Funeral.”
  • From Bookshop.org.
  • From Amazon.
  • From Barnes & Noble.
• Purchase the Mayo Clinic book “Beyond Breast Cancer,” a supportive, practical guide to navigating life after breast cancer diagnosis and initial treatment.

Got feedback?

• If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected]. 
• We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
• Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.

Writing your life story be a healing process – even if you have zero intention of ever publishing it. But many people who want to write don’t know how to get started. We talk to expert storytellers Allison Fallon, author of “Write Your Story,” and Sandi Marinella, author of “The Story You Need to Tell,” to give us some expert writing insight and advice.

This episode was made possible by generous support from Ken Stevens.

In this episode, we talked to:

• Allison Fallon is an author, speaker, and founder of Find Your Voice, a community that supports anyone who wants to write anything. In addition to her books “Write Your Story: A Simple Framework to Understand Yourself, Your Story, and Your Purpose in the World,”“The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life,” “Packing Light” and “Indestructible: Leveraging Your Broken Heart to Become a Force of Love & Change in the World,” she has ghostwritten 11 books and has collaborated on countless others. She has lived all over the country in the past decade but now lives in Nashville, Tenn., with her husband and two kids, Nella and Charlie. You can follow Allison at allisonfallon.com.
• Sandra Marinella is an award-winning writing teacher and author. She has taught story-sharing and writing to thousands of students, professionals, and cancer patients for over three decades. When she faced breast cancer, Sandra turned to her personal writing as a way of healing. The experience inspired her to teach “writing to heal and transform” to patients, veterans, and those in life-altering situations at many nonprofits and hospitals, including Mayo Integrated Medicine in Phoenix. As she watched expressive writing transform lives, Sandra wrote “The Story You Need to Tell,” acclaimed as the go-to-guide for writing to heal and grow.

Purchase “Write Your Story.”

• From Bookshop.org.
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble.

Purchase “The Story You Need to Tell.”

• From Bookshop.org.
• From Amazon.
• From Barnes & Noble.

We talked about:

In this episode, Dr. Millstine and her guests discuss:

• Structure can help. Writing and crafting your narrative can be a healing process, but for many people, it’s not as simple as putting pen to paper and just letting your thoughts flow. Many of us need a structure or framework to enable us to translate the feelings in our bodies to the written word.
• Reclaim your story. If you’re experiencing writer’s block, it might be because the topic is a trauma that you’re not quite ready to write about yet. And that’s OK! But once you are ready, writing it down can help you reframe it and heal from it. This can also help you reclaim your agency and tell your own story — rather than having someone else tell the story about you.
• You’re the flawed hero of your story. If you’re considering penning a memoir, you may feel strange referring to your flawed self as the “hero.” But the hero is simply the main character who is transformed by the problems they face. Problems are essential, and often, the juiciest part of the story. You may not be “heroic” or make perfect decisions, but you were changed by your experience. When you begin to see your life through the lens of narrative structure, it can help you reach resolution.

Got feedback?

If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at [email protected].

We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.

Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on Mayo Clinic Connect, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.

This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens.

The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace the physician’s medical assessment and judgment. Information presented is not intended as medical advice. Please contact a healthcare professional medical assistance with specific questions pertaining to your own health if needed.