Chronicling Compassion: Tracy Kidder Profiles Boston’s Top “Street Doctor”
Nobody pays attention to you until they trust you. And it takes a lot of time to earn that trust.
Setup
In his new book, Rough Sleepers, author Tracy Kidder tells the remarkable story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a Boston physician who has dedicated his life to providing healthcare to homeless people. Through the doctor’s eyes, Kidder also immerses us in the lives of the unsheltered population—their back stories, daily risks, survival mechanisms, and unmet human needs. In a society that has dehumanized those who live on the streets, Kidder reminds us that there are opportunities to heal the broken among us. A master of narrative nonfiction, he also talks about how he chooses his topics and crafts tales that awe and motivate us.
Explore More
Health
Take a sneak peek at some of the big thinkers and innovative doers who will take the stage at Aspen Ideas: Health from June 20-23, 2024!
For years, Yale undergraduate students have lined up to take a wildly popular course called Life Worth Living. Bucking the highly competitive tone you might expect at an Ivy L...
Since 2014, Aspen Ideas: Health has welcomed over 700 inspiring women leaders to our stages to share their bold approaches to better health. In honor of Women's History Month,...
Global conflicts and health crises have put into stark relief deeply-ingrained gender roles in society. Yet the past years have also seen record-high numbers of women running...
During Aspen Ideas: Health 2023, four innovators shared how they are using new technologies to reimagine the common health devices we use to treat patients and improve their q...
After millennia of human existence, we’re still figuring out and talking constantly about one of our most fundamental behaviors – sex. Despite the sexual revolution of the 60s...
Teenagers and young adults today are dealing with challenges their parents never experienced and couldn’t have prepared for. Nobody has a map and the road to resolution can be...
The unflinching humanity and morality that Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied is part of what makes his legacy so lasting. In addition to his preeminent civil rights work, he sp...
Whether you love setting New Year’s resolutions or ignore them entirely, there’s still a certain mix of nostalgia and excitement over the ending of one year and the possibilit...
Living a happy life isn’t as simple as having a smile on your face all the time. We often think that our negative emotions should be minimized and repressed, but acknowledging...
The human capacity for empathy allows us to communicate, collaborate and understand each other. But we all know empathy isn’t always easy, and we can feel worn down by the eff...
As Aspen Ideas: Health wraps-up its 10th anniversary year, we're excited to share the ten most-watched sessions from the event. These conversations with artists, advocates, in...
When Duke divinity school professor Kate Bowler wrote her best-selling memoir, “Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved),” she was grappling with the conseq...
For adults, the pressure to drink at social engagements, work events, restaurants or almost anywhere outside the home can feel constant. Recent research has found that “no amo...
Whether expressed through systems that are easy to navigate, devices that are friendly to their users, and spaces that are pleasing to the eye, thoughtful design can break dow...
In today’s world, we tend to switch jobs more frequently than previous generations, and are more likely to have multiple jobs. Side gigs where we express passions or find mean...
A technological future where our brain waves could be monitored and our thoughts decoded and analyzed — sometimes against our will — is not as far away as we think. But our ex...
Finding ways to ground ourselves on a planet too often in turmoil can foster the resilience we need to function at our best. By maintaining close personal ties, learning new s...
In America, millions of people struggle with mental health including depression, anxiety, and more — all further exacerbated by living through a pandemic. The National Allianc...
Philosophers throughout history have debated what it means to live a good life, and it remains an ongoing and unresolved question. Deep personal relationships, fulfilling work...
