How I Doctor with Dr. Graham Walker Doctors Can’t Stay Silent Anymore: Why Shoshana Ungerleider Is Calling on Clinicians to Speak Out
Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider is an internal medicine physician, a public health advocate, and one of the most trusted voices translating science for the real world. Whether she’s hosting th TED Health podcast, advising Netflix on end-of-life storytelling, or calling out hype and misinformation in the media, her work is reshaping how clinicians show up at the bedside and in the public square.
In this episode of How I Doctor, Dr. Graham Walker talks with Shoshana about the skill every physician needs but few are taught: communication. They explore how bias shows up in clinical encounters, why doctors are often unprepared to talk about serious illness, and how media can be a tool for connection and not just distraction. If you’ve ever struggled to explain something complicated to someone who doesn’t “get it,” this conversation will remind you why curiosity, not certainty, is a clinician’s greatest asset.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why most doctors are never trained to communicate serious news, and how that’s harming patients
- How media, film, and storytelling can shift culture around end-of-life care
- How unconscious bias shows up in clinical care, and what to do about it
- Why misinformation spreads faster than facts and how physicians can fight back without losing trust
- Why more physicians need to step into public conversations—and what’s at stake if they don’t
Find out more about Shoshana here and connect with her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/shoshanamd/
Listen to the TED Health Podcast at https://www.ted.com/pages/ted-health
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📝 For a full transcript of this episode click HERE
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