A Beginner’s Guide to the End

Life is finite. Understanding this can be freeing or terrifying. As a specialist in palliative care for patients with terminal or life-altering illnesses, Dr. BJ Miller has a unique perspective on the different ways people react to this reality—one that is shaped by his own near-death experience, which claimed three of his limbs. He joins in conversation with Buddhist psychiatrist Dr. Mark Epstein to compare approaches to the inevitable.

“Mortality is an incredible unifying force, because one hundred percent of us die.”

—BJ Miller

The speakers will sign copies of their books at the end of the presentation. BJ Miller will sign The Beginner’s Guide to the End, and Mark Epstein will sign all his titles.

About the speakers

BJ Miller is a hospice and palliative medicine physician and educator and has worked in all settings of care: hospital, clinic, residential facility, and home. BJ’s career has been dedicated to moving healthcare towards a human-centered approach, and he speaks nationally and internationally on the topics of death, dying, palliative care, and the intersection of healthcare with design. His 2015 TED Talk, “What Matters Most at the End of Life,” has been viewed over 9 million times, and his work has also been the subject of multiple interviews and podcasts by the New York Times, Oprah Winfrey, Tim Ferriss, and GQ Magazine. He is the author of The Beginner’s Guide to the End.

Mark Epstein, MD, is a regular participant in the Rubin’s programs. A highly regarded psychiatrist in private practice in New York City, he is the author of a number of books about the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy, the most recent of which is Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself. Other titles include Thoughts without a Thinker, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart, Going on Being, Open to Desire, Psychotherapy without the Self, and The Trauma of Everyday Life. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard University and is currently a clinical assistant professor in the postdoctoral program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis at New York University.

Lead support for Brainwave is provided by Science Sandbox, an initiative of Simons Foundation, and by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Major support is provided by Gerry Ohrstrom, Rasika and Girish Reddy, and Noah P. Dorsky.

Program support is provided by Eileen Caulfield Schwab, Eva and Yoel Haller, Cheryl Henson, and Heather Beth Henson.