40. Palliative Advocate Dr. BJ Miller | Take Good Care

Atticus is the anonymous poet and New York Times Bestselling author of Love Her Wild, The Dark Between Stars and The Truth About Magic. Dubbed “The World’s Most Tattoo-able Poet” by Galore Magazine, he has been featured in Time Magazine, Elle, The Guardian, Fast Company, Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, worked with Kygo, Maroon 5, Coach, Absolute Vodka, Stance Socks, Target, Urban Outfitters and Refinery 29, all while wearing a mask and keeping his identity a secret, preferring to send love from the shadows. @atticuspoetry More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow IG @notimetowasteproject

Brian Kelly aka The Points Guy has become one of the top influencers and experts in the travel and hospitality space. Anyone in my close circle knows how passionate I am about travel, my first true love, and my borderline obsession w points. I think I’ve visited 21 countries now and wouldn’t be surprised if guy’s been to the remaining 175. Brian’s quickly become the go-to-guy when it comes to the Points Game - using lucrative credit card signup bonuses and strategic travel to accrue rewards points that can be redeemed for free trips. For those that play (like me) it’s a legit hobby we take very seriously and all I wanted to do was share my proudest points trips and use up all the recording time. Brian and I decided to throw the standard interview script out the window and “just have a real conversation” so we could relish in gushing about our passion for travel, revisit some memorable experiences, and chat about the healing power of animals and our shared Pennsylvania roots. And now after our convo, I’m back to planning my Japan trip again, cancer be damned - I might just need to wrangle up a tour guide. @briankelly @thepointsguy www.thepointsguy.com More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow IG @notimetowasteproject

Grandma Joy (of “Grandma Joy’s Road Trip” fame) is a spunky 91-year-old adventurer who’s been traveling the country with her grandson, Brad for the last chunk of years. Their goal has been to try and visit all 63 U.S. National Parks and they’ve only got one to go now! After you hear some of Grandma Joy’s pearls of wisdom, you’ll see why she’s become something of a celeb in her small Ohio town after being on the Rachel Ray show and recently being profiled in People Magazine. She’s living like there’s No Time to Waste, encouraging all of us to just “give it a whirl” and I couldn’t agree more. @grandmajoysroadtrip More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow IG @notimetowasteproject

Writer Gretchen Rubin is widely known as an expert on Happiness and Good Habits. Few know that she actually started her career in law, as Editor of the Yale Law Review and clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. One day Gretchen came to an important conclusion about her life: It was time to move off this path because she realized she would rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer. Except she didn’t fail. Gretchen wrote five NYT Bestsellers including “The Happiness Project” - how I was first introduced to her years ago - and more recently, “The Four Tendencies” which we ended up talking a lot about. (FYI I’m a Questioner with a tip to Rebel which apparently Steve Jobs was too) Gretchenn’s also the co-host of the Happier Podcast, an experienced speaker, wife and mom. Keep in mind The Washington Post called Gretchen “Type A-PLUS” so you might not want to attempt to keep up with this one. The Four Tendencies Book | Quiz The Happier Podcast @gretchenrubin More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow IG @notimetowasteproject

Kate Bowler is a religious historian and Professor at the Duke Divinity School. She’s also a witty, warm, wildly successful author, wife and mom living with Stage IV Cancer. Much of Kate’s early work was focused on the Prosperity Gospel - the belief that if you had the right faith, and prayed the right prayers, God would reward you with health, wealth and happiness. Soon after writing “Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel” Kate got diagnosed with Stage IV Colon Cancer at the age of 35. Oh, the irony. Her newest book No Cure for Being Human follows the bestseller “Everything Happens for a Reason: and Other Lies I’ve Loved” which all challenge the American belief that all tragedies are tests of character. As you’ll hear, Kate felt like an old friend who’d happily greet me on one of those wraparound southern porches with a cup of tea and Ted Lasso biscuits. We laughed and we laugh-cried as we compared stories and empathized with our shared grief. Because sometimes, there is no good answer to “why us?” but we move forward anyway. No Cure for Being Human Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved Everything Happens Podcast @katecbowler More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow IG @notimetowasteproject

Sunita Puri is the Medical Director of Palliative Medicine at the Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center of the University of Southern California. She’s also the author of 2019 bestseller That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. Not since Suleika Jaouad’s Between Two Kingdoms have I experienced such poignant and elegant writing that captures the essence of the author’s experience so expertly. Sunita documents the life events that led her to the palliative path, the challenges that those in her position face, and offers tools to help readers better communicate with our doctors about what matters most to us. We chatted about the book and dug into the struggles of leading a department that requires nonstop justification to patients, their families, and even other medical professionals. And we also uncovered what Sunita does to take care of herself - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually - so her job doesn’t rob her of her own personal joy. @sunitapurimd Buy the Book Here www.sunitapuri.com More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow @notimetowasteproject

Sister Aletheia was profiled by the NY Times in “Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” reviving the Memento Mori movement. Memento Mori is the practice of intentionally thinking about our own death as a means of appreciating the present and living a better life now.  Sister Aletheia’s path to the convent was anything but conventional. She was a rebellious atheist who loved punk rock and spent her 20s volunteering, then working in Bay Area tech before finding her way back to the church. Her Catholic order - the Daughters of St Paul - are known as the #medianuns for their use of social media (even TikTok!) and other modern tools to spread the gospel.  Sister and I talked about our society’s avoidance of death, her ongoing wrestling match with God when it comes to the world’s suffering, and why reflecting on death isn’t a morbid affair, but a healthy and healing practice that can help us accept the inevitable with hope.  Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die (NY Times, May 2021)  www.pursuedbytruth.com  @pursuedbytruth  Daughters of St. Paul TikTok  More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow @notimetowasteproject

BJ Miller is a Hospice & Palliative Care Doctor with a unique path that brought him to this work. As a sophomore at Princeton, while goofing around one night with his buddies, BJ climbed on top of a sleeping commuter train and was immediately electrocuted by 11,000 volts. As a result, BJ lost both his legs at the knee and one arm making him a triple amputee. BJ and I talked not about his accident or the fact that he now has two futuristic metal blades for legs, but about his deep care for his patients and what he hopes to achieve with his virtual palliative services practice, Mettle Health. TED Talk: “What Really Matters at the End of Life” (2015) Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday (2017) NPR’s Fresh Air: After A Freak Accident, Doctor Finds Insight Into Living Life and Facing Death www.mettlehealth.com More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow @notimetowasteproject

Writer and Comedic Actress Annabelle Gurwitch has a story I first read about in the New York Times in November that caused my own jaw to drop. Last summer, Annabelle walked into an Urgent Care Clinic in a mini mall for a COVID test...and walked out with a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis. She shared her story along with how she’s managing life her now with this chronic, terminal illness that thankfully hasn’t robbed her of her humor. NYT Op-Ed: The Coronavirus Saved My Life You’re Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility Tiny Victories Podcast @annabellegurwitch1 More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow @notimetowasteproject

Greg McKeown is a bestselling author and the host of the popular podcast What’s Essential where he talks to a wide range of guests about prioritizing what matters most in life. Yes, we hit on his new book Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most a follow up to his first NYT bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less but the bulk of our conversation was SO not the heady academic one I expected. Instead Greg was courageously vulnerable in sharing his own family struggles over the last two years as they navigated a scary road with their daughter struck by a mysterious brain condition that doctors had no answers for. Hear how Greg found the lighter path and now has an even deeper appreciation for the moments that matter. @gregorymckeown Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most What’s Essential Podcast More at www.notimetowasteproject.com or follow @notimetowasteproject