Insights

Hundreds of thousands of people watch Brittlestar's videos every week. His comedic and family-friendly videos have been seen more than 600 million times on various platforms.  With fans all over the world, speaking engagements all over North America, collaborations with celebrities such as Ryan Reynolds, Brittlestar is living the social media celebrity dream… not bad for a Dad from the suburbs. He joined Dr. Horton to talk about his comedic life before and after the pandemic, the idea of humour as resistance, and how to stay on the right side of the line after which things are not funny anymore.

Shelagh Rogers is a veteran broadcast journalist and was a fixture on CBC Radio for over 40 years. She hosted and co-produced the 15 year run of The Next Chapter, the award winning radio program dedicated to writing in Canada until her retirement from CBC in 2023. Shelagh has admired Jillian for decades and recognizes her fellow blue-haired sister as a powerful storyteller herself.

Kate Bowler, PhD is a three-time New York Times bestselling author, award-winning podcast host, and an Associate Professor of American Religious History at Duke University. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel and The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. After being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35, she penned the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved), No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear) and her latest written with her co-producer, Jessica Richie, Good Enough: 40ish devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Kate hosts the Everything Happens podcast where, in warm, insightful, often funny conversations, she talks with people like Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Lamott about what they’ve learned in difficult times. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her family and continues to teach do-gooders at Duke Divinity School. —- Kate Bowler, Ph.D., auteure à succès dont les livres ont figuré à trois reprises sur la liste des livres les plus vendus du New York Times, animatrice de balados primée et professeure d’histoire des religions en Amérique à l’Université Duke. Elle s’intéresse aux histoires culturelles que nous nous racontons au sujet du succès, de la souffrance et de notre capacité (ou non) à changer. Elle est l’auteure de Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel et The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. Après avoir appris qu’elle était atteinte d’un cancer de stade quatre à l’âge de 35 ans, elle a publié l’ouvrage autobiographique Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved), cité sur la liste des meilleurs vendeurs du New York Times, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear) et, récemment, Good Enough: 40ish devotionals for a Life of Imperfection, en collaboration avec sa coproductrice, Jessica Richie. Kate anime le balado Everything Happens, où elle rencontre, dans le cadre de conversations chaleureuses, profondes et souvent drôles, des personnalités comme Malcolm Gladwell et Anne Lamott pour parler de ce qu’elles ont appris dans les moments difficiles. Elle vit à Durham, en Caroline du Nord, avec sa famille, et continue d’enseigner la bienveillance à la Duke Divinity School.

Suzette Mayr’s Giller-Prize winning The Sleeping Car Porter transports us to another time and place. But how does a writer “get" there? In this conversation, we’ll talk about art as a portal to empathy, and why historical fiction helps us change the way we see the past - and the future.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Christine Gibson turned to TikTok to help people cope with their distress. Her videos were a sensation, and she became known as the “TikTok trauma doc.” But TikTok is only a small part of Dr. Gibson’s body of work, and in this conversation, we’ll explore everything from her ascent to social media fame to the many coping strategies she offers patients - and her many viewers - for moving beyond trauma towards a better life. Dre Jillian Horton en conversation avec Dre Christine Gibson Pendant la pandémie de Covid-19, le Dre Christine Gibson s'est tournée vers TikTok pour aider les gens à surmonter leur détresse. Ses vidéos ont fait sensation, et elle est devenue connue sous le nom de "TikTok trauma doc". Mais TikTok n'est qu'une petite partie de l'œuvre du Dre Gibson. Au cours de cette conversation, nous allons tout explorer, de son ascension vers la gloire des médias sociaux aux nombreuses stratégies d'adaptation qu'elle propose à ses patients - et à ses nombreux spectateurs - pour dépasser le traumatisme et accéder à une vie meilleure.

Dr. Jean Marmoero’s new book, “The Last Doctor”, is the powerful story of her experience providing medically assisted death. This hour-long conversation will explore the psychological - and practical - realities of providing medically-assisted death, the emotional challenges for provider and patient, and the lingering, complex questions of what constitutes a life worth living - and who decides. Dans son nouveau livre, The Last Doctor, la Dre Jean Marmoreo[SN2] nous livre un témoignage fort sur son expérience en tant que praticienne de l’aide médicale à mourir. Au cours d’une heure d’entretien, il sera question d’explorer les réalités psychologiques et pratiques de l’aide médicale à mourir et les implications émotionnelles qui entrent en jeu pour le personnel médical et les patients, et d’essayer d’apporter des réponses aux questions complexes encore en suspens : qu’est-ce qu’une vie digne d’être vécue et qui décide.

Popular Music & Variety presents Adriana Barton in conversation with Dr. Jillian Horton as part of our Arts, Medicine & #Life series / Musique populaire et variétés présente Adriana Barton en conversation avec Dre Jillian Horton dans le cadre de notre série Arts, Medicine & #Life

Thank you Canadian Medical Association, MD Financial Management, and Scotiabank Merci L’Association médicale canadienne, MD Financial Management, et Banque Scotia.

With a background in internal medicine, hematology, and molecular biology, Dr. Nancy Olivieri has worked in thalassemia, a blood disease primarily of children of emerging countries, for over 30 years, including in Asia through Hemoglobal®, a charity she founded to improve worldwide care for these children. In 2003, Dr. Olivieri completed a Masters in Medical Ethics and Law at Kings’ College, UK with a thesis examining ethical resistance in medical research. She created and continues to teach a course, Health and Pharmaceuticals, to undergraduate and graduate students, about the influences of the pharmaceutical industry in research and medicine. In 2021 Dr. Olivieri completed a Masters of Fine Art in Creative Non-fiction at King’s College, Halifax. Her book - What They Knew: A True Story of Drugs, Death and Deception -- is still in preparation. It is not the only book on this conflict: John Le Carré wrote a thriller, The Constant Gardener, based on this scandal, observing that “compared to reality, [his fiction] was as tame as a holiday postcard.” Jillian Horton, M.D., is an award-winning medical educator, writer, musician and podcaster. A former Associate Dean at the University of Manitoba, she has cared for thousands of patients in an inner-city hospital, and now works to provide care to people living with addiction. She is the winner of the prestigious 2020 AFMC–Gold Foundation Humanism award, recognizing her as a national thought leader in medical education and the delivery of compassionate and humane care. As a teacher of mindfulness, she is sought after by doctors at all stages of their careers, and she leads the development of national programming in physician health for Joule, a subsidiary of the Canadian Medical Association. Her writing about medicine appears frequently in the LA Times, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star, and her first book, We Are All Perfectly Fine, now a national best seller, was released by HarperCollins Canada in Feb 2021.

Sue Goyette lives in K'jipuktuk (Halifax). She has published a novel and eight collections of poetry, including Ocean (winner of the 2015 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Arts Award and finalist for the 2014 Griffin Poetry Prize), The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl, Penelope and Anthesis. Her latest collection, Monoculture: monologues is forthcoming from Gaspereau Press in spring 2022. Goyette is the editor of the 2014 Best of Canadian Poetry Anthology, the 2017 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology, and Resistance, (University of Regina Press, May 2021). Her work has been translated into German, French and Spanish and has won the CBC Literary Award for Poetry, the Earle Birney Award, The Bliss Carman Poetry Award, the Pat Lowther Award, The Atlantic Independent Booksellers Choice Award, the ReLit Award, the 2016, 2014 and 2012 J.M. Abraham Poetry Awards and a National Magazine Award. Sue teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Dalhousie University and is the current Poet Laureate of HRM. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, writer, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors speaking about their area of interest and expertise on as far-ranging topics as mindfulness, work-life balance and social accountability.

Darrel J. McLeod is the author of Peyakow and Mamaskatch, which received the Govenor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. He is Cree from Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. Before deciding to pursue writing in his retirement, McLeod was a chief negotiator of land claims for the federal government and executive director of education and international affairs with the Assembly of First Nations. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, writer, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors speaking about their area of interest and expertise on far-ranging topics in health and wellness. Join us for an intimate look at the deeply human and arts-related aspects of being a physician, where we will be offering hopeful personal narratives that can help us find a way forward.

Anna Mehler Paperny talks to Jillian Horton about mental health care in Canada and her own observations - both as journalist and patient. Anna Mehler Paperny is a reporter and the author of the book Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me, which was a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writer's Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Anna is a reporter at Reuters and has worked at The Globe and Mail and Global News. She has reported from Guantanamo Bay and Haiti and won an investigative journalism award for a series exploring deaths in Canadian prisons. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, writer, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors speaking about their area of interest and expertise on far-ranging topics in health and wellness. Join us for an intimate look at the deeply human and arts-related aspects of being a physician, where we will be offering hopeful personal narratives that can help us find a way forward.

Clara Hughes, a dual-season Olympian, is the only athlete in history to win multiple medals at both the summer and winter Olympic Games. She also knows what it’s like to weather more than one season when it comes to mental health. She joins Dr. Horton to talk about her decision to pursue public advocacy, and to discuss why performance-driven cultures like medicine and sport need personal narratives to help us get past stigma and back to health. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, author, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors and special guests speaking about their area of interest and expertise on as far-ranging topics as mindfulness, work-life balance and social accountability.

Student doctors are taught a formulaic way of “taking” patient histories and repeating their stories. Somewhere along the way, the essence of the person - and why they are seeking care in the first place - is often lost. Join author and physician Dr. Jillian Horton in conversation with noted author and storyteller Ivan Coyote as they discuss the difference between professionalism and authenticity and how medicine can begin to see its history problem - as well as its historical and systemic bias against LGBTQ2+ people - with a view to creating something better. Ivan Coyote is an author and storyteller who was born and raised in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. In 2021 Ivan will mark 27 years on the road as an international touring storyteller and musician, and release their thirteenth book, Care Of: Letters, Connections and Cures. Coyote’s stories grapple with the complex and intensely personal topics of gender identity, family, class, and queer liberation, but always with a generous heart, and a quick wit. Ivan's stories manage to handle both the hilarious and the historical with reverence and compassion, and remind us all of our own fallible and imperfect humanity, while at the same time inspiring us to change the world. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, author, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors speaking about their area of interest and expertise on as far-ranging topics as mindfulness, work-life balance and social accountability.

In this episode of the Arts, Medicine and #Life series Dr. Horton speaks with Dr. Alika Lafontaine about Indigenous healing and what we can all learn from it. The conversation also examines systemic racism, compassion and culturally safe care. Dr. Alika Lafontaine is an award-winning physician, past-President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada and the first Indigenous physician listed by the Medical Post as one of Canada’s 50 Most Powerful Doctors. For four years he co-led the Indigenous Health Alliance project, one of the most ambitious Indigenous health transformation initiatives in Canadian history, which at its peak involved political Indigenous leadership representing more than 150 First Nations across three Provinces. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, writer, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors speaking about their area of interest and expertise on as far-ranging topics as mindfulness, work-life balance and social accountability.

In this episode of Arts, Medicine and #Life the tables are turned for our host as Popular Music & Variety presents the national book launch of "We Are All Perfectly Fine" by Dr. Jillian Horton. Executive Producer Heather Gibson leads a dynamic and thoughtful conversation that includes readings by Dr. Horton. “Funny, fresh, and deeply affecting, We Are All Perfectly Fine is the story of a married mother of three on the brink of personal and professional collapse who attends rehab with a twist: a meditation retreat for burned-out doctors.” Thank you to Scotiabank, MD Financial Management and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) for their generous support of this podcast.

When five-time Olympic champion Hayley Wickenheiser retired from hockey after 23 years, holding the record for most assists, points and goals for the Canadian Women’s National Team, she set her sights on another challenge: becoming a doctor.  But while medicine and sports may seem to share certain similarities, they do not share a common culture when it comes to taking care of our bodies or preparing our minds for physical and mental challenges. IN particular, medicine operates under the assumption that physicians can override their physiologic and emotional needs without a safety net – or a supportive team – beneath them. In this, the second talk in our 2020/21 series, we’ll explore some of medicine’s blind spots, and what one of Canada’s most decorated athletes can tell us about the mindset and the cognitive shifts we need to make in order to survive the ordeal of the pandemic – and, ultimately, to change our culture. Thank you to Scotiabank, MD Financial Management and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) for their generous support of this podcast.

In this episode of Arts, Medicine and #Life series host Dr. Jillian Horton speaks with journalist Paul Adams and neurosurgeon Dr. John Sinclair, about the long and lasting impact of moments of compassion in clinical care, debunking the notion that compassion fatigue is an inevitable consequence of a life in medicine, and helping to chart a path forward for patients and healthcare providers looking for more humanity in medicine.

In episode 2 of the Arts, Medicine and #Life series Dr. Mamta Gautam dispels myths about physician burnout, and provides practical strategies any individual can deploy to rediscover their personal priorities. Dr. Mamta Gautam is an internationally recognized expert on burnout in physicians and gender equity in medicine. A psychiatrist by training, she has long been known as “The Doctor’s Doctor”. Arts, Medicine and #Life is a series, hosted by internist, writer, musician and award-winning medical educator Dr. Jillian Horton, that features world-renowned doctors speaking about their area of interest and expertise on as far-ranging topics as mindfulness, work-life balance and social accountability.

This is episode one of a five part series titled Arts, Medicine and Life. In this discussion Dr. Jillian Horton sets the stage for the series, reflecting on her own journey through medicine, as well as ways in which the arts have helped her deal with both professional and personal experiences with deep suffering.