Grave Concerns

Ending Well: Lessons from Dr. Jessica Zitter on Facing Mortality

End in Mind Project Season 1 Episode 6

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 20:15

Nationally known palliative care doctor, Jessica Zitter, says medical school students are taught how to keep patients alive, but no one teaches them how to let a patient die. 

Dr. Zitter's best selling book "Extreme Measures", was part biography and part expose into how our culture deals with death and dying. She argues that our current medical culture puts patients on what she calls the "End of Life Conveyor Belt." 

Grave Concerns host Cathy Wurzer sat down with Jessica Zitter to talk about Zitter's quest to change how we die in the United States and the intersection of medicine and movie making. Dr. Zitter is one of a handful of working physicians who also produce films. 

Dr. Zitter's non-profit organization is Reel Medicine Media.