We communicate by telling stories. Not only is telling stories important for cultures, but so is listening to them.

In medicine, through an innovative program created and run by Dr. Rita Charon at Columbia University, students and doctors are learning how narrative and listening to the stories their patients tell them can help make them better practitioners.

Here at Penn's Medical School, Dr. Murray Grossman and his team are unlocking important differences in how the brain behaves as it processes stories and other language skills in healthy adults and patients with diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Please join these two distinguished physician researchers as they discuss the role of narrative and imaging in health, illness, and healing.