I had no idea you wrote a book! I just bought it. What inspired you to write it? And I didn't know you were a practicing physician. So cool!

A.J. Seiffertt oh my gosh thanks! and thanks for asking :)
way back in 2015 i interviewed to teach at my med school, and the head of internal medicine said i was not allowed to teach "integrative medicine" 3 separate times during the interview - i had already agreed earlier in the conversation when i said i was fine making sure to prioritize the internal medicine topics i would be responsible for... so after the 3rd time i asked him if he understood that i meant "helping students know how to ask questions and listen, and to have an understanding of options available to explain to patients clearly about different things that might help (food choices, exercise types, sleep, meditation/stress management)" - in order to actually treat/slow progression of/reverse 80% of internal medicine issues (chronic largely preventable and/or modifiable illnesses)... and he essentially said we don't have time for that, they need to pass the boards, get into good residencies, and make our school look good. i get the world he was coming from as an elderly white male internist, and i get that he saw me as a hysterical younger woman (i certainly didn't feel respected or heard at all as a fellow internal medicine physician), but obviously i disagreed, so i couldn't work there, and i was so frustrated by that whole exchange that i thought publishing a few essays might help students learn things that could help them talk to patients and actually connect them and their patients to thinking about the planet/ecology as something that they affect and affects them... I wrote 10 over the course of 3 months, and my amazingly patient editor helped it all go together into a book! I'd like to write a second, more on effective global policies that help both people and the planet, but I haven't had any time off in several years. i currently work in an FQHC in sonoma county, CA, and maaaaaybe will get to take a sabbatical to write in a couple more years :)

flag