A Better Death

With special guest:

• Dr Ranjana Srivastava
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Most people in our society try to avoid death and taxes. But at least in the case of our mortality it is a universal experience, a bookend of our life, part of being human.

Our guest today is Dr Ranjana Srivastava OAM who is an Oncologist working in the public hospital sector of Victoria. Ranjana packs into her daily life being a doctor, an award winning author, a journalist and also a family life with her husband and three children.

Yet her professional life as a cancer specialist revolves around dealing with a deadly disease, cancer. It often falls to her to pass on the unimaginable news that the person in front of her has limited time to live. Some doctors can’t imagine themselves doing this because they want to help heal a condition. Other doctors can’t imagine doing anything else and for this they have a special type of courage.

As part of her contribution to the community Ranjana has written her latest book A Better Death: Conversations about the art of living and dying well. The book is based on her twenty years of experience as a doctor. We get to share in what Ranjana has learned and what she passes on to the patients lucky enough to come under her care.

Ranjana’s advice is not limited to those at death’s door. The big message is to take stock of your life right now. Ask some questions of yourself. What am I doing? What is important? What is my purpose? Remember that 40% of cancers are preventable so the time to enter battle is while you are healthy, not when cancer is spreading through your body.

We get to question Dr Srivastava about big issues. Do people accept a bad prognosis easier if they are older? Does religious belief make it easier to die peacefully? Should people put faith in medical trials of experimental drugs or miracle cures? How can a family really help in those final days?

The thoughtful answers we get may surprise you. What is guaranteed is that you will learn about yourself and your future when you listen to our esteemed guest today.

Dr Ranjana Srivastava

Dr Ranjana Srivastava OAM is a practising oncologist, internationally published and award-winning author, broadcaster and Fulbright scholar. She is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and works in the public hospital system. In 2017, Ranjana was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her contribution to doctor-patient communication and was recognised by Monash University as Distinguished Alumni of the Year. Her writing has been published worldwide, including in Time magazine and The Week, and in prominent medical journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association. In 2018 she was a finalist in the Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism for her work as a regular columnist for The Guardian newspaper. Her acclaimed non-fiction books include Tell Me the Truth: Conversations with My Patients about Life and Death (shortlisted, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards), Dying for a Chat: The Communication Breakdown Between Doctors and Patients (winner, Human Rights Literature Prize) and What it Takes to be a Doctor (finalist, Australian Career Book Award). She lives in Victoria.

Song selection by our guest: Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da (Life goes on) by The Beatles

Note: This program is an encore presentation of the one aired on 17 October 2019.

Podcast (mp3)