What is our purpose, both individually and collectively? What lies in the balance of who we are now and who we will become?  In Part Two of this episode, the Surgeon General and Shankar Vedantam, host of “Hidden Brain,” go deep into conversation about our individual and national quest for meaning and purpose.  This episode becomes deeply personal as both host and guest reveal their family’s hopes for coming to America, and the unimaginable ways in which those dreams were realized. They...

Have you ever had a moment when you’ve wanted to reach out to someone you haven’t seen in awhile, but something stops you, like the worry you’ll say the wrong thing?  Or have you had the experience of assuming that someone who disagrees with you must also dislike you?   It turns out, our mind can play tricks on us that make it harder to connect.   Shankar Vedantam, host and creator of the podcast ”Hidden Brain” joins the Surgeon General for a two-part conversation that travels across...

What is hope and why is it so powerful?  For writer Rebecca Solnit, hope is a commitment to possibility in the face of uncertainty. While many of us react to the unknown with anxiety or worry, Rebecca sees the opposite: that inherent to unpredictable circumstances is the possibility people can take action and to come together to create change.  In this conversation, Rebecca Solnit and the Surgeon General discuss why hope is necessary. They look back at communities formed in response to...

What lessons does life’s uncertainties offer? Kate Bowler’s stage IV cancer diagnosis ushered her into a world of fear and pain. Living in 60-day increments, her future held no promises. Angry about losing the life she had created, the love of family, friends, and her faith community helped Kate forge a new type of strength—learning to lean on others. This conversation between the nation’s doctor and Kate Bowler illuminates how we find truth and beauty within the uncertainties of...

In this special Q&A episode, the Surgeon General sits down with his long-time medical school mentor, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, to talk about their journeys to becoming healers. Dr. Remen is the creator of a medical training course called “The Healer’s Art,” which Dr. Murthy took as a medical student.  As a follow-up to their House Calls episode “Can We All Be Healers?”, the pair decided to reunite and field questions from medical students and other healthcare trainees, including: How do...

What does it mean to show up for someone?    What does it mean to sit with another person’s pain?    And if we are hurting, why can it be so difficult to ask for help?  Part of being human is learning how to accompany people through hard times. Yet our culture looks at pain as a sign of imperfection, and vulnerability a sign of weakness. In this conversation, the Surgeon General and Rabbi Brous share in how the opposite is, in fact, true: vulnerability and pain can be extraordinary sources...

Do you have times when you miss your loved ones and just want to feel more connected?   Maybe a friend or family member is sick and you can’t connect in person. Maybe you’re traveling or are away for school. I know I have these moments. And when I do, I have a meditation I turn to, one that helps me feel loved and more connected. It only takes a few minutes, but it has the power to change my day. In this special episode of House Calls, I share it with you.  Any feedback or ideas? Share...

Can spirituality enhance our mental health? That is the question that psychologist and researcher Dr. Lisa Miller has pursued through her career. During her clinical internship after graduate school, she observed how while some of her patients had symptoms of major depression that required medication, other patients carried a sadness that carried life’s big questions: What is the purpose of life? Is there a larger meaning to existence? Decades later, Lisa has found that each of us has an...

Do you wish it felt easier to make connections with others? In this episode, recorded live from the Barclays Center in NY, the Surgeon General and Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and composer Jon Batiste share their experiences with reaching out to others. Even with complete strangers or in brand new situations, their approaches have countered loneliness and paved the way for new relationships. Jon opens up about his student days in New York, when he struggled to find his footing in...

Do you know someone who is struggling with loneliness? Do you ever feel the definition of success you’ve been sold your whole life isn’t right?    These are some of the questions the Surgeon General and our guest, actor Matthew McConaughey, posed recently to an auditorium full of students at the University of Texas at Austin. In response, almost every hand in the young audience went up.   In this conversation, Matthew McConaughey also draws from his own life lessons. Especially in high...

Do you want to improve your mental and physical health?  Deepen your friendships?  Help reduce loneliness?     Our relationships are an important part of our health and well-being. In this bonus episode, the Surgeon General announces the 5-for-5 Connection Challenge: to take 5 actions over 5 days to build social connection. Already underway at many college campuses, this challenge is a way for all of us to build our social connection muscles.    For more inspiration, visit...

In this episode, we re-visit a conversation with Dr. Laurie Santos, professor of Yale University’s famed “happiness” course (which has been adapted into a free online course taken by 4+ million people). As we address a youth mental health crisis, the U.S. Surgeon General and Dr. Santos talk about ways college students can find greater happiness through simple changes in behavior and mindset. In a world in which we believe our happiness hinges on material or external things, creating our own...

Yo-Yo Ma and the Surgeon General continue the conversation about the power of music. Yo-Yo reflects on how music was an antidote to his father’s loneliness while trapped in Paris during WWII, and how Yo-Yo shared his music to comfort people during the pandemic. Continuing with personal stories about connection, the conversation turns to parenting, why it seems harder for men to connect, and what Mr. Rogers taught both of them. They also talk about why connecting to yourself is so important,...

Healing can come in many forms. For world renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, he sees his music as a way to create touch between humans. Tirelessly performing around the world, Yo-Yo shares his musical gift generously and collaborates with many musicians, knowing that music brings healing, solace and inspiration. Music is what gives his own life meaning.  In this conversation about the healing power of music, Yo-Yo Ma and the Surgeon General contemplate how music can bring meaning that sometimes...

Nature matters to our ability to connect — with each other and ourselves. In this episode of House Calls, we explore how being in nature – whether it’s your local green space, or a national park, or somewhere in between – can build deep and important connections. Who better to take us on this journey than Baratunde Thurston, host of the PBS series “America Outdoors” and the podcast “How To Citizen.” Baratunde has traveled the United States from the Okefenokee Swamp to Death Valley, meeting...

In this episode of House Calls, the Surgeon General talks with actress and activist Ashley Judd, who brings along three friends she calls sisters in her chosen family. This five-way conversation explores the meaning of friendship, trust, and supporting one another in times of joy and hardship. From experiencing daily life to the devastating death of Ashley’s mother, country singer Naomi Judd, Ashley and her chosen family have been there for one another in ways that demonstrate the power of...

The end of summer and the arrival of fall marks a time of transition. Vacation time ends and school begins. No matter your age, for many of us, these kinds of transitions mean change, and change can give rise to anxiety. We all have anxiety. It’s part of being human. The question is whether we can transform that uncomfortable feeling of being anxious into a positive? To help us think through, and better manage, our anxiety, House Calls is re-sharing a conversation with Dr. Tracey...

How can we become healers?   In these times of disconnection, we all search for sources of healing. One powerful, often untapped source is the healing we can provide for each other. For this conversation, I turned to my long-time medical school mentor, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen. Rachel is widely known for launching the course The Healer’s Art, which has been taught to over 30,000 medical students, including me. Now in her 80s, she has been a guiding light for decades.  In this live...

As we enjoy the final swing of summer, we’re sharing one of our most memorable episodes.  What is the feeling you get when a sad, familiar song tugs at you? Or the exquisite pain that comes with the awareness of passing time and loves lost? Best-selling author Susan Cain identifies the simultaneous mixture of joy and sorrow in life as “bittersweetness.” In this conversation with the Surgeon General, we learn about harnessing the forces of sadness and grief as ways of connecting. Light and...

As we enjoy the final swing of summer, we’re sharing one of our most memorable episodes on building connection.   Why is food a foundation for human connection? Chef José Andrés has spent a lifetime of cooking for friends & family at home, in his many restaurants, and for people stricken by disaster around the world. For José, sharing and providing food spreads the empathy he believes people naturally possess for one another. This conversation between the nation's doctor and the global...

Note: This episode was recorded in June 2023, prior to the SAG-AFTRA union declaring a strike.  Rainn Wilson describes himself as an actor and an artist, who writes some books about spirituality on the side. As well-known as Rainn is on the screen and stage, particularly for playing Dwight on the TV series “The Office,” we invited him on House Calls to talk about spirituality – specifically how spirituality can help us change the world for the better, from addressing global challenges like...

As we face an epidemic of loneliness in our country, how are men and boys struggling for connection? What’s driving the increasing rate of suicide among men? And how does our culture affect the ways in which men and boys form friendships?  The Surgeon General and scholar Richard Reeves explore these questions and more. They discuss the complicated and troubling picture about how men and boys are faring. Educationally, economically, socially, and in terms of their physical and mental health,...

Friendships don’t just happen; they take nurturing to grow and deepen.  This episode is dedicated to friendships and the meaningful ways friends make our lives better. In this episode, the Surgeon General is joined by his two pals Sunny and Dave. Together, they have what’s called a moai.  Moais are a friendship tradition from Okinawa, Japan – essentially, it is a friend circle that starts in childhood. Moais offer emotional and moral support, and the effect on people’s health can be...

Judy Woodruff is not done asking questions. A decorated and respected journalist, she anchored the PBS NewsHour for 15 years until she stepped down in 2022. Now, at age 79, she is traveling the country to answer: what is at the root of the division and disconnection our country faces today? And how do we fix that? To understand across different perspectives requires the ability to listen. At 79, Judy has honed this skill. In the decades Judy spent reporting on Americans and our politics...