Living Well: Joy, Suffering, and the Pursuit of Wholeness

Wednesday, May 15 

7:00 pm

Crown 290

Stanford Law School

Free and open to the public.

When faced with illness and suffering, can we retain a sense of meaning and flourishing? Or is our wholeness dependent on our health, our bodies, our fragile and fallible physiologies? On May 15, 2019, Veritas @ Stanford will explore these questions with Drs. Ray Barfield and BJ Miller, two physicians shaping our understanding of wholeness and meaning in the face of profound suffering. Ray Barfield is a pediatric oncologist at Duke University, director of Duke’s pediatric palliative care program, and professor of Christian philosophy at Duke Divinity School. BJ Miller is a palliative care physician at UCSF, senior director and former executive director of Zen Hospice Project, a triple-amputee, and a leading figure on death, dying, and end-of-life care. Lucy Kalanithi — Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford; widow of Paul Kalanithi, author of When Breath Becomes Air — will moderate the discussion. Together, these three will guide the Stanford community through complex questions of human brokenness, and in doing so, help us better understand what it means to be whole.

Salt in My Soul

Thursday, May 16

5 PM – 7 PM

Stanford Bookstore

Free and open to the public

Join us on Thursday, May 16, for an event with Diane Shader Smith featuring the book “Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life” by Mallory Smith.

Mallory Smith, who grew up in Los Angeles, was a freelance writer and editor specializing in environmental issues, social justice, and healthcare-related communications. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University and worked as a senior producer at Green Grid Radio, an environmental storytelling radio show and podcast. She was a fierce advocate for those who suffered from cystic fibrosis, launching the viral social media campaign Lunges4Lungs with friends and raising over $5 million with her parents for CF research through the annual Mallory’s Garden event.

For more than ten years, Mallory recorded her thoughts and observations about struggles and feelings too personal to share during her life, leaving instructions for her mother to publish her work posthumously. After her death at age 25, Mallory’s mother Diane Shader Smith, honored her daughter’s wish with the completion of Mallory’s memoir, “Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life.”