In a special episode recorded in front of a live audience at the Stanford School of Medicine, Dean Lloyd Minor welcomes award-winning author and physician-scientist Siddhartha Mukherjee. They discuss Siddhartha’s new book, The Song of the Cell, how history and philosophy inform our understanding of biomedical progress, and the importance of conveying authority, while also acknowledging uncertainty, in science communication. Siddhartha also talks about his writing process, how he balances his work as a writer, physician, scientist, and entrepreneur, and biomedical breakthroughs that give him hope for the future.