Commonwealth Club: Bryant Lin: An Exploration of Living When You Are Dying

Join us as a leading researcher and cancer advocate distills the lessons for living that he’s learned as a doctor and as a patient, after he was diagnosed with his own terminal illness. Over the course of a 20-year career, Dr. Bryant Lin treated many patients with lung cancer. He never smoked and never imagined that he would be diagnosed with the same terrible disease. After cycling through the stages of grief and two rounds of chemo, he realized that his diagnosis presented an opportunity to learn. For the first time, he experienced the cancer diagnosis and the complexities of treatment as a patient, rather than a doctor. Determined to give back and to keep teaching, Dr. Lin created a course at Stanford Medical School called From Diagnosis to Dialog: A Doctor’s Real-Time Battle with Cancer, to share his experience with a terminal illness as both a doctor and a patient. The class was a sensation on campus and soon attracted international attention. Now, Dr. Lin brings us into the classroom to offer us an inspiring exploration of how to live when you are dying. How can we prepare for intimidating medical news and navigate treatment? How can we find hope in the face of terminal diagnosis? It’s a topic he explores in-depth in his new book Sunshine, Dr. Lin offers both philosophical and scientifically grounded insights into how we can make the most out of life even in the most challenging moments.