Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
Thank you to the 100+ folks who tuned into this live video! I’m happy to share the video here, as it continues to (unfortunately!) be a subject of critical importance for public health in America.
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Audio versions of this Rapid Response can be found here on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. If you prefer watching videos on YouTube, you can also find the full episode here:
My guest today is Dr. Lucy McBride.
is a practicing internal medicine physician in DC who has been seeing patients for over 20 years. During the pandemic, she became a nationally recognized voice on the importance of addressing mental and physical health. She is the author of the popular medical newsletter, Are You Okay?, now reaching over 36,000 people a week and is the author of a forthcoming book about whole-person health with Simon & Schuster. She hosts a top-rated podcast called Beyond the Prescription where she interviews guests like she does her patients, pulling the curtain back on what it means to be healthy. She has been published in The Atlantic, the Washington Post, USA Today, and has appeared on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and PBS NewsHour, providing evidence-based medical advice, advocating for a holistic approach to health care, and helping redefine health as more than our cholesterol and weight.
Health, she argues, is not an outcome; it's a process. It's not fixed; it's dynamic. It's about awareness of our medical facts, acceptance of the things we cannot control, and agency over what we can change.
You can find her on Substack at: https://lucymcbride.substack.com.
Here is her story in her own words:
I grew up in DC. I studied art history and pre-med at Princeton University where I met my husband.
He and I moved to England where I earned a Master’s in Pharmacology as a Fulbright fellow from the University of Cambridge—and my now-husband played semi-professional soccer. I then attended Harvard Medical School and completed my medical internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
I’m also a mom. My kids are my everything.
You might ask me: why am I doing any of this writing and podcasting in the first place? Why don’t I go back to solely caring for patients? Patient care is, after all, my enduring passion and top priority, for over 20 years.
Well, I realized early on in my career how desperate people are for straight talk and trusted guides to shepherd us through hard times—and how narrowly we define “health.”
It reminded us how much guidance we need to feel—and actually to be—well.
I am here to give people permission to be human, to help people beyond the walls of my office re-conceptualize health, and to arm people with a sense of agency over their everyday lives.
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CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.
Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Lisa Messeri, Legacy Russell, William E. Rees, Renée DiResta, and more. Here is another recent episode on transformative adaptation & thrutopian flourishing with Morgan Phillips & Manda Scott:
