Dr. Atul Gawande‘s Being Mortal is not a book that should be absorbed and placed back on the shelf. The book should be wrestled with, discussed, and lessons should be teased out. The novel calls its reader to action. Being Mortal addresses the the toughest aspect of human life. It pleads with readers to know when to act counter to their personal hopes in order to create the best outcomes for loved ones. In the novel, which addresses how to improve end of life care, Dr. Gawande admits that he was, at times, uncertain of when to change course, from treatments that maximize longevity of life, to treatments aimed at maximizing quality of life for his own father.
After reading the book, I searched for interviews with Dr. Gawande. I was hoping to hear him confront an interviewer’s questions in real time and express the emotional vulnerabilities associated with planning end of life care. Dr. Gawande does more speaking than conversing in public (although his Talks at Google performance is worth watching). I couldn’t find an interview that met my desire.
Dick Cavett is 83. From ’68-’74, he led the best late night interview show on tv. I’ll occasionally watch his interviews as reruns or on YouTube. Cavett’s interviews are a window into personal thoughts of the titans of the era. I will never experience the culture the brought Woodstock, the Beatles, or the Vietnam protests. I can watch recordings of Hendrix, but I’ll learn more about the moment by watching Cavett than watching the concert. He has a relaxed conversational style that allows his guests to control the subject matter, but a wit and persistence that brings most conversations to a vulnerable place (with the obvious exception of Peter Falk).
Dick Cavett remains active. Early this year, he had an interview with Stephen Colbert. At 83, he appears to be in good shape both mentally, and physically. Over the last 30 years, Cavett has publicly addressed depression and his personal struggles. He is an advocate for seeking help and willing to be vulnerable about his experiences. In a 2014 Psychology Today interview Cavett describes his first experiences with depression:
Serani: So your first intervention for depression didn’t really go very well.
Cavett: (Laughs) I guess that was my first intervention. Yeah, I think I didn’t get what was really happening to me then and the woman there certainly didn’t either. There were two major episodes of depression that came later in my life. And, oh, it was so baffling. You know when you have the flu and you can’t remember when you felt well? And then when you feel better, you can barely remember feeling sick? The authority of depression is horrifying. I felt like my brain was busted and that I could never feel good again. I really thought that I was never gonna heal.
Deborah Serani Psy.D. interviewing Dick Cavett
When looking for an interview with Dr. Gawande, I was looking for an interview between someone like Cavett and Dr. Gawande. I was hoping to find Dr. Gawande speaking to a vulnerable, but brilliant, elderly person in an unstructured environment. I was hoping to find an interview that works for all ages and doesn’t feel like a lecture. Cavett, I’m sure, would openly discuss his personal experiences and challenge Dr. Gawande’s directives where one might expect that an elderly loved one would. Although, I’ll never see it, Dick Cavett interviewing Dr. Atul Gawande is what I was searching for.
Dick Cavett has a terrible hobby of anagramming other people’s names. The title was an homage to that practice.
Polly Wanna Math 