Laurel Braitman PhD is a bestselling author, educator and a trailblazer in the field of medical storytelling.

Why you should listen

Laurel Braitman is the director of writing and storytelling at the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Medical Humanities and the arts program and a Senior TED Fellow. In 2020, she founded Writing Medicine, a global community of writing healthcare professionals and has since helped thousands of healthcare professionals who have experienced loss and other trauma to communicate bravely and vulnerably in service of their own healing and that of their patients and colleagues. Braitman's own writing has appeared everywhere from the New York Times to National Public Radio, and she is the best-selling author of Animal Madness: Inside Their Minds and the memoir, What Looks Like Bravery: An Epic Journey Through Loss to Love.