Danielle Ofri's Blog

BLR Editor Danielle Ofri hosts Sandeep Jauhar, Rana Awdish and Theresa Brown for a fascinating conversation about getting illness onto the page. More

When a friend hit me up with a “great opportunity”, my answer was an immediate no. Whatever crumbs of free time in my possession were now taken up with responding to the Trump administration’s attacks on nearly every aspect of society that I hold dear. There were elected officials to harangue, rallies to attend, letters to write, elections to canvass for. There were phone-banks to staff, petitions to circulate, campaigns to support, articles to write. “But it’s Beethoven’s Ninth,” my friend beseeched, helpfully attaching 25 dense pages of music to the email. Rehearsal was in three days. More

I suspect Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. would be happy to ban many vaccines outright, but that likely wouldn’t go over well with the overwhelming majority of Americans who support vaccinations for preventable diseases. So he’s tackling the vaccine infrastructure, instead, making it more difficult to get vaccinated. More

In the first Trump administration, despite relentless attacks from the president, the nation’s public health institutions remained largely intact, if wearied. But the plunder of the second Trump administration has disemboweled them and installed fox-guarding-the-henhouse leadership. Medical professionals can no longer fully trust federal health guidance, and our patients are the ones who will suffer the most. More

Danielle Ofri interviews author Anne Fadiman. They discuss her award-winning book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, and how the culture of medicine struggles to communicate with other cultures. They also delve into Ex Libris, Fadiman's brilliant collection of essays about the trials of being a book lover and the tribulations of growing up in a "grammar cartel." More

안녕하세용 Beacon Press is excited to announce that "When We Do Harm" is now available in Korean! You can order it from our favorite bookstore in Seoul. More

Danielle Ofri interviews neurologist (and BLR author) Pria Anand to celebrate the publication of her first book, The Mind Electric. Danielle and Pria discuss writing, medicine, and the intricacies of the mind. More

The first patient I ever wrote about wasn’t actually my patient; as a first-year medical student, that possessive grammatical construct—“my patient”—hadn’t yet entered my consciousness, much less my lexicon. In any case, by the time I met him, he was already dead. More

A celebration of BLR's 48th issue and the winners of the 2025 BLR literary prizes. Hosted by Danielle Ofri More

Danielle Ofri hosts a conversation with editor Kate Edgar and writer Bill Hayes about the documentary of Oliver Sacks's remarkable life More