Suzanne O'Sullivan is a neurologist who sees many patients with psychosomatic disorders. Their symptoms may be psychological in origin, but their pain is real and physical — and the way we practice medicine, she argues, is making those and other health problems worse.
Nov 7
47. Robert Axelrod on Why Being Nice, Forgiving, and Provokable are the Best Strategies for Life
The prisoner’s dilemma is a classic game-theory problem. Robert, a political scientist at the University of Michigan, has spent his career studying it — and the ways humans can cooperate, or betray each other, for their own benefit. He and Steve talk about the best way to play it ... Show More
43m 39s
Oct 24
45. Leidy Klotz on Why the Best Solutions Involve Less — Not More
When we try to improve things, our first thought is often: What can we add to make this better? But Leidy, a professor of engineering, says we tend to overlook the fact that a better solution might be to take something away. He and Steve talk about examples from Leidy’s book Subt ... Show More
40m 10s
Sep 2025
Overdiagnosed: How Our Obsession with Medical Testing and Labels Is Making Us Sicker
Modern medicine has given us incredible tools to peer inside the body and spot disease earlier than ever before. But with that power comes a problem: the more we look, the more we find — and not everything we find needs fixing.My guest today, neurologist Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan, a ... Show More
59m 58s
Mar 2025
Suzanne O'Sullivan (on over diagnosis)
Suzanne O’Sullivan (The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker) is a neurologist, clinical neuropsychologist, and award-winning writer. Suzanne joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why epilepsy is a very neglected area of medicine, that we can ... Show More
2h 6m
May 2025
Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far, The Problem With Getting A Diagnosis & Why Early Detection Is Not Always A Good Thing with Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan #553
Could our healthcare system be making us sicker rather than healthier? In the UK, autism diagnoses have increased by a staggering 787% between 1998 and 2018, and one in five people now has some form of mental health disorder. But what if some of our health struggles aren't diseas ... Show More
1h 50m
Nov 2022
If society is making us sick, how can we heal?
Sean Illing talks with Dr. Gabor Maté, a physician, speaker, and bestselling author who has written on subjects like addiction, stress, and attention deficit disorder. In Maté's new book, The Myth of Normal, he argues that the Western paradigm of health is fundamentally flawed in ... Show More
55m 55s
Jan 2025
What If Healing Your Mind Starts in Your Body?
Trauma has become a buzzword in the zeitgeist over the years, but do we really understand what it means and how it impacts the body? Dr. Sanjay Gupta sits down with psychiatrist Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, to explore what both psychologists and th ... Show More
39m 7s