How do we come to understand the world?

I started my career as a general surgeon, training at Harvard and Stanford before practicing at the University of Michigan. I taught medical students and residents, built curricula, opined on the culture of surgical training, and studied its efficacy.

Medicine taught me that clarity is earned, through curiosity, courage, and discipline. Education helped me ask the more fundamental question: How does a person become capable of that kind of judgment? How does the world become knowable, and who are the people who make it happen?

As an educator, I helped build modern Montessori-inspired environments that blend independence with intellectual rigor at Guidepost Montessori and Montessorium.

Today, I write and speak about medical history, scientific discovery, and the formation of minds. I tell the stories of people who made the world more knowable, and build the educational tools that help a new generation to do the same.