BJ Miller: Surrendering To The Flow Of Life

Dr. BJ Miller is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. If you haven’t seen his powerful TED Talk titled “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), please watch it prior to listening to this episode.

We go into territory BJ hasn’t typically talked about on podcasts.

“If we love such moments ferociously, then maybe we can learn to live well — not in spite of death, but because of it. Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination.” – BJ Miller

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

We discuss:

Discovering awe and mystery of life through nature
Surrendering to the flow of life
Finding wisdom in daily life that’s right in front of us
Where can we source the courage to remember our unique medicine?
What happens after a popular TED talk
Finding peace with being a work in progress
Inhabiting a made-up social world
Why BJ Miller isn’t on Instagram or TikTok
Is conscious social media possible?
Social media as a way to be more ourselves
Psychedelics as life-affirming vehicles
Exploring meaning through existential crisis that can come up within the context of palliative care
Making space for both meaning and meaninglessness
The importance of palliative care
Expanding our perception of what’s normal
The power of being love and receiving love

Mentioned:

Connect with BJ Miller’s work:

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About BJ Miller:

Dr. BJ Miller is a longtime hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator. He currently sees patients and families via telehealth through Mettle Health, a company he co-founded with the aim to provide personalized, holistic consultations for any patient or caregiver who needs help navigating the practical, emotional and existential issues that come with serious illness and disability.

BJ has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. Led by his own experiences as a patient, BJ advocates for the roles of our senses, community and presence in designing a better ending. His interests are in working across disciplines to affect broad-based culture change, cultivating a civic model for aging and dying and furthering the message that suffering, illness, and dying are fundamental and intrinsic aspects of life. His career has been dedicated to moving healthcare towards a human centered approach, on a policy as well as a personal level.

BJ has given over 100 talks nationally, and internationally, on the topics of death, dying, palliative care and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk: “Not Whether But How” (aka “What Matters Most at the End of Life”), has been viewed over 11 million times and his work has also been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts, including Oprah Winfrey, PBS, The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, GOOP, Krista Tippett, Tim Ferriss and the TED Radio Hour. His book, A Beginner’s Guide to the End, was co-authored with Shoshana Berger and published in 2019.