Author: David White MD
The late Anthony Bourdain was known as the “original bad boy chef.” This was by no means an accusation, but rather an exalted title. In the wake of Anthony’s suicide, filmmaker Lori Silverbush wrote that this celebrated “bad boy” title was meant to elevate “a lusty defiance of social norms in service to bottomless appetites […]
The Cary Joni Fukunaga film, Beasts of No Nation, tells the compelling story of a young boy, Agu, who is violently separated from his family as the nation’s raging civil war consumes his small African village. He is found and forced to join rebel forces as a child soldier. When he is later rescued, he […]
A few weeks ago I went back to the small western Pennsylvania town that I grew up in to visit with an old family friend and mentor. On my way out of town, I took the long-way, where homes become separated by farms, meadows and forest. As I intentionally turned off-course onto a familiar, less […]
The reality is that life in this world is vulnerable and risky. Think about it. We are inadvertently exposed to infections as we interact with others in this world. We suffer accidental injury whether by tripping, falling from a ladder or being struck by a drunk driver. More insidiously, our cells mutate within us awakening […]
One of the things I value most from my childhood is that I was afforded so much time to think. With only four TV channels, no video games (until my friend Gary got an Atari), farmland for a yard, and no club sports (imagine that!), my siblings and I were required to “find something to […]
In the hit movie “The Sixth Sense,” 9-year-old Cole is gifted with the ability to “see dead people,” who do not know they are dead. As he deals with the terror these insights invoke, he is ostracized for his oddities. He ultimately discovers that this gift enables him to free these lost souls from their aimless […]
A few years ago, while standing in my kitchen scanning the cupboards for a compelling snack, I heard the garage door open. A few moments later my teenage son walked through the kitchen with a slight scowl on his face, head bowed, vaguely responding to my greeting. This seemed to have become his general disposition […]
Every summer we hear the tragic news that another athlete or outdoor worker has suddenly died while training or working in the heat and humidity of the late August summer. This strikes fear in the hearts of parents, coaches, athletes and laborers alike. But how does this happen? How can it be anticipated or prevented? […]
My work as a physician affords me the great privilege of being invited into the most intimate emotional spaces of people’s lives. Often, that invitation is inadvertently extended to me in the course of a conversation. Something honest is stirred and in direct betrayal of the will’s intent, the eyes shift downward, tears well up […]
Several years ago I was evaluating a young woman in her 30s for several complaints that we ultimately agreed were consequences of her obesity. Over the previous 10 years, her weight had more than doubled, transitioning her from a self-described sleek, muscular build of 140 lbs. to a cumbersome 325 lbs. As we began to explore how […]
A few weeks back, I found my attention captured by images on my television screen, my face wet with tears. I had been casually perusing videos on YouTube, when I clicked on a link to a compilation of videos showing soldiers surprising their unexpecting loved ones with their return home from deployment. I was immediately […]