Dr. BJ Miller is a Palliative Care physician at the UCSF Medical Center. His Ted talk in 2015, What really matters at the end of life was watched by nearly 5 million people worldwide. Death has never been a popular subject, why would so many people want to listen? "BJ Miller thinks deeply about how to create a dignified, graceful end of life for his patients" because we need embrace the subjective. People are transformed by illness. Death is in fact part of life. It is one of the few things we all know for certain. What do we do about this?

BJ answers all the questions you too should know more about. The knowledge and wisdom of how we live and how we die can benefit everyone. Not just the people who are suffering.

From BJ's origin story as a wounded healer, to choosing to attend medical school after the accident, to an invitation to speak at the main Ted event in 2015 (and the brutal preparation behind Ted, which many people don't know about), this conversation is very much two friends on a coffee break.

"People are transformed by illness. Death is in fact part of life."

BJ took me on a journey of uncovering so much more of who he is, not just a guest every popular show wants to feature with a message to convey in 30 seconds or less. With that in mind, I asked BJ a difficult question - How does he navigate, and how does he feel about the attention from major media? Which part excites and worries him?

I met BJ at the Robert Leffert MD Palliative Care Memorial Lecture in December 2016, which has attracted hundreds of medical and non-medical professional over the years. I want to take a moment to dedicate this episode to the Leffert family - Linda Leffert, Adam Leffert, Dr. Lisa Leffert, Dr. Lee Schwamm, and Dr. Vicki Jackson at MGH.