In this episode, Joseph Clair talks with Dr. Lydia Dugdale about shifts in cultural perception of the end of life. They discuss the immense medical advances and major historical events of the last century that have profoundly affected people’s attitude toward death. Does Christian belief in life after death alleviate the fear of it? In a culture that keeps death at a distance, what practices can help us to number our days?

Lydia Dugdale, MD, MAR (ethics), is the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. She also serves as Associate Director of Clinical Ethics at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. A practicing internist, Dugdale moved to Columbia in 2019 from Yale University, where she previously served as Associate Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics. Her scholarship focuses on end-of-life issues, medical ethics, and the doctor-patient relationship. She edited Dying in the Twenty-First Century (MIT Press, 2015) and is author of The Lost Art of Dying (HarperOne, 2020), a popular press book on the preparation for death.

Our host, Joseph Clair, serves as the executive dean of the Cultural Enterprise at George Fox University, which encompasses the humanities, theology, education, and professional studies. He is also an associate professor of theology and culture. Before joining the George Fox faculty in 2013, he earned his PhD in the religion, ethics and politics program at Princeton University while also working as an assistant in instruction. Prior to Princeton, Clair earned an MPhil at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He also holds master’s degrees from Fordham and Duke University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College.

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