Difficult Conversations -Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician

About Difficult Conversations -Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician

Every critical moment in our lives starts and ends with a Difficult Conversation. As an intensive care physician, author, and frequent speaker on communication, Dr. Orsini has spent most of his career teaching key communication techniques that can help anyone navigate through the most difficult conversations. This podcast is about effective and compassionate communication. Each week our guests will tell their inspiring stories of triumph and tragedy and the role that communication played in the their lives. . Whether you are a doctor telling someone they have terminal cancer, a business leader who is trying to get the most out of his/her employees or an HR Professionals who is faced with separating an employee this is the podcast for you.

Publisher

Dr. Anthony Orsini

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jul 2020

Latest episode

30 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

3 of 98 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   30 Jun 2026

   Bringing Dignity to Patients with Shawn Gibbs

   Shawn Gibbs, co-founder and CEO of GIV Gowns, joins hosts Dr. Anthony Orsini and Liz Poret-Christ to discuss how dignity and trust can transform the healthcare experience. Shawn shares how two years of service work in Haiti shaped his understanding of dignity and led him into medicine and entrepreneurship. After repeatedly seeing patients delay important care because they felt exposed, uncomfortable, or unheard, he began designing modern patient gowns that protect privacy while still giving c...

2. 

   14 Jan 2026TRANSCRIPT

   The Weight of Your Words

   Host: Liz Poret-Christ Guests: Tracey Piparo Jennifer O’Brien In this special episode of Difficult Conversations, Liz Poret-Christ hosts in memory of her husband Ken, whose voice you hear in the show’s intro/outro and who passed away about a year ago from glioblastoma. Liz shares how that loss and the painful reality that palliative care and hospice are often introduced far too late sparked the conversation. She welcomes two guests, Tracey Piparo, a longtime physician associate who tran...

3. 

   22 Dec 2025TRANSCRIPT

   Anchored in Hope with Dr. Jessica Daigle

   Dr. Jessica Daigle discusses with Dr. Anthony Orsini and Liz Poret-Christ how clinicians impact families most through compassionate presence, not just successful outcomes, in this interview episode.

Inside a recent episode

The Weight of Your Words

Published 14 Jan 2026 · Transcript excerpt

[…] And it was released as the hospice doctor's widow in 2020. And so since then, I have been working in this space where I advocate for family caregivers and for what I call death literacy. And the movement is known as death positive. I can't really accept the term positive. I have lost every member of my family. And there's nothing very positive about it. However, the literacy part is so important. This is the biggest thing that happens in everyone's life, right? Is their death and the loss of a loved one? It simply is. It's just the biggest thing that happens. And yet we're not even cram in for it, right? […]

Who has been a guest on Difficult Conversations -Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dr Jessica Daigle
• Dr Stephanie Tan
• Dr Robert Pearl
• Laura Diaz-Freeland
• Dr Samantha Winemaker

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

176 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Contact Difficult Conversations -Lessons I learned as an ICU Physician

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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