Musings on Medicine and More: Stories from the other side of the stethoscope
I'm a physician writer of memoir stories. From Dominica to the Golan Heights, and from the Arctic to Africa, I keep landing in situations ranging from hilarious to heartbreaking. Underlying many of these stories are attempts to connect across cultures—those that fail, and divide us, and those that bind us and touch our hearts.
When feeling frisky, I write about medical disinformation and fraud, and about medicine’s endless flip-flops: from its brilliant advances to the flip-flops that flop.
You can see the posts here. Some of these stories are excerpts from my forthcoming memoir, “In Harm's Way: A Doctor Let Loose in the World”.
I post every month or so, and love reading your comments. I hope you’ll enjoy the stories, and subscribe— it’s free!
Testimonials for “In Harm’s Way: A Doctor Let Loose in the World”
“This is a remarkable book about a heroic doctor who puts his love of humanity at the core of his professionalism and professional expertise. Courageous, committed and brilliant, Peter Newman puts them all in the selfless service of saving and fixing lives all over the world. An inspirational story for anyone who wants to know how to do their part to make the world better, one life at a time.”
- Rosalie Abella, former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada; Visiting professor, Harvard Law School
With thoughtful, lyrical, and sensitively crafted prose, Peter Newman guides us around the globe and into his experiences as a physician who often puts himself in harm's way for the sake of others. If only the world had more Peter Newmans in it. Fortunately, it now has more Peter Newman stories, at least!
- Alison Wearing, author of Moments of Glad Grace and Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter
“You, reader, are in for a treat. Dr. Newman is an excellent storyteller with such precise observational detail that you will feel like you are with him as he walks along the border fence in the Golan Heights, or goes to Joseph's village in Uganda. He is also a reflective, insightful observer of his own motivation and mission --- his goals, his doubts. You have been warned. You will be hooked on one story after another after another, and you will be much the richer for it.”
- Robert D. Orr, Professor of Medical Ethics, Loma Linda University (California); Professor of Family Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine; author of Life and Death Decisions and Medical Ethics and the Faith Factor
"Lyrical and resonant; a life-story filled with sound and emotion."
- Elizabeth Rosner, author of Blue Nude, and Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory, regarding Does One Tire of One’s Beating Heart, finalist for the International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir
