How to pronounce “baze” in English

the podium too? Yeah, so the.Josh Bazell: Okay. Hi, I'm Josh Bazell. Thanks for having me.That's my dog Lotty, by the way, who appears in various guises in the book several times.

-- when I got barfed on by a kid with swine flu.Josh Bazell: Okay. I will do that. I was on an airplane and they asked for a doctor and I was asleep. And so, I said, "Oh, I'm a doctor."I mean, I woke up from it. And the two people who announced themselves on the plane were me and -- I'm on the sort of indeterminant leave from my psychiatry

Q Did you talk about writing in the book at all while you were working in your position there?Josh Bazell: Yeah, I wrote this book during my last year of med school and my first year of residency, which is also called 'internship.' And it seems -- I mean, people always say,"Oh, how did you do that? That's so insane." It's not that insane.

Q What led you to want to eventually go from that goal of wanting to be a full-time writer to medicine?Josh Bazell: I always wanted to go to med school for several reasons.One, just that it was interesting. Like, I wanted to know that stuff.

of fictional writing versus ?Josh Bazell: Right. Well, fictional writing is a lot easier to do.I wonder sometimes if it's sheer laziness that drives me down the fictional route, although I love fiction. I read fiction all the time. I have written a series of essays about the

I mean, impact in all different kinds of venues of fiction versus nonfiction quarterly article.Josh Bazell: I think also it's a little -- I did a talk that ended up being somewhat of a debate with a pharm rep recently, because the pharm rep had gotten up and said, "Wehaven't published this, but we had data that -- not only is our product better, other corporation's products are harming people." It was about osteoporosis.

Sir. Q And actually, if you try to repeat the question if possible after each.Josh Bazell: Oh, sure.Q With regards to research on the book, obviously, the doctor in med school here in the book

had died -- as far as the Mafia side, did you term as Shylock at any point, or how did you go about?Josh Bazell: No, I mean, I have a couple of real world, underworld connections.They're very minor. I grew up in downtown Manhattan in a neighborhood where there are a lot of guys who wanted you to think they were mobsters.

Okay. Q You're working on a second book now?Josh Bazell: I am working on the second book now.Q Can you disclose that in a similar genre?

Q Can you disclose that in a similar genre?Josh Bazell: Oh yeah. It's actually a sequel. It's a continuation.It's not a sequel in the sense of, "This is a series character, who's like exactly the same in every book," but it does take place afterwards.

Q Have you given talks to primarily physician audiences vs. primarily crime nuar type audiences?Josh Bazell: The question is, Do I primarily give talks to physicians or to readers?It's about 50/50. It does tend to be quite different -- I mean, often if I go to a bookstore, I'll actually read from the book or do some other lame thing

There's a lot of facts in there. I mean, I really do go out of my way to make it as accurate as possible. Sir.Q Josh Bazell: Right. Just in case anybody doesn't know what this is.A single payer health care system is one in which there is no insurance.

Today we have with us Josh Bazell. Josh has a B.A. in English literature andwriting from Brown University and an M.D. from Columbia.

Q I was thinking about some of those articles in the New Yorker magazine.I don't even call it Josh Bazell: Atul Gawande is a surgeon at Harvard who has written frequently.And obviously Malcolm Gladwell does a lot also.

And you try to make sense of it and apply the lessons to your life.So in the case of this woman-- her name is Dina Bazer-- she had this trip, and there are many elements I won't go into.It was like six hours.

Beat the Reaper has been described as "A hypochondriac's nightmare and a reader's dream." And it's his first book. I believe he's working on a second.So please welcome today, Josh Bazell.Josh Bazell: Okay. Wait. So this is actually -- I need to stand at