Medical Arts Series Presents “Freakonomics MD” Podcast Hosts Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham

St. Louis County Library Foundation is pleased to host an event with Anupam B. Jena and Christopher Worsham, authors of “Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces that Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health.”

The event is presented by the Arthur Gale Medical Arts Lecture Series.

The event will take place on Thursday, July 13 at 7:00 p.m. at the Daniel Boone Branch, 300 Clarkson Rd. Ellisville, MO 63011. The program is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase at the event from The Novel Neighbor.

As a University of Chicago–trained economist and Harvard medical school professor and doctor, Anupam Jena is uniquely equipped to answer these questions. And as a critical care doctor at Massachusetts General who researches health care policy, Christopher Worsham confronts their impact on the hospital’s sickest patients. In this singular work of science and medicine, Jena and Worsham show us how medicine really works, and its effect on all of us.

Relying on ingeniously devised natural experiments—random events that unknowingly turn us into experimental subjects—Jena and Worsham do more than offer readers colorful stories. They help us see the way our health is shaped by forces invisible to the untrained eye. Do you choose the veteran doctor or the rookie? Do you really need the surgery your doctor recommends? These questions are rife with significance; their impact can be life changing. Addressing them in a style that’s both animated and enlightening, “Random Acts of Medicine” empowers you to see past the white coat and find out what really makes medicine work—and how it could work better.

ANUPAM B. JENA, MD, PhD, is an economist, physician, and the Joseph P. Newhouse Professor at Harvard. Jena hosts the Freakonomics, MD podcast, which explores the hidden side of health care.  

CHRISTOPHER M. WORSHAM, MD, MPH, is a researcher, pulmonologist, and critical care physician at Harvard. Jena and Worsham practice medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Their research and writing have been published by the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

The Arthur Gale Medical Arts Lecture Series at the St. Louis County Library was founded in 2015 by Dr. Arthur Gale with the purpose of increasing the public's knowledge and understanding of medicine and health care.
Program sites are accessible. With at least two weeks' notice, accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities. Call 314-994-3300 or contact us.