People I (Mostly) Admire

Abraham Verghese is a physician and a best-selling author in that order, he says. He explains the difference between curing and healing, and tells Steve why doctors should spend more time with patients and less with electronic health records.

• SOURCES:
  • Abraham Verghese, professor of medicine at Stanford University and best-selling novelist.

• RESOURCES:
  • The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese (2023).
  • Abraham Vergheses Sweeping New Fable of Family and Medicine, by Andrew Solomon (The New York Times, 2023).
  • Watch Oprahs Emotional Conversation with Abraham Verghese, Author of the 101st Oprahs Book Club Pick (Oprah Daily, 2023).
  • How Indian Teachers Have Shaped Ethiopias Education System, by Mariam Jafri (The Quint, 2023).
  • How Tech Can Turn Doctors Into Clerical Workers, by Abraham Verghese (The New York Times Magazine, 2018).
  • Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese (2009).
  • Culture Shock Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient, by Abraham Verghese (The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008).
  • The Cowpath to America, by Abraham Verghese (The New Yorker, 1997).
  • My Own Country: A Doctors Story, by Abraham Verghese (1994).
  • Urbs in Rure: Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection in Rural Tennessee, by Abraham Verghese, Steven L. Berk, and Felix Sarubbi (The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 1989).

• EXTRAS:
  • Are You Suffering From Burnout? by No Stupid Questions (2023).
  • Would You Rather See a Computer or a Doctor? by Freakonomics, M.D. (2022).
  • How Do You Cure a Compassion Crisis? by Freakonomics Radio (2020).
  • The Citadel, by A. J. Cronin (1937).
  • Uncle Toms Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852).

Jens Ludwig has an idea for how to fix America’s gun violence problem — and it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom from both sides of the political aisle. 

• SOURCES:
  • Jens Ludwig, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab.

• RESOURCES:
  • Unforgiving Places: The Unexpected Origins of American Gun Violence, by Jens Ludwig (2025).
  • "Scope Challenges to Social Impact," by Monica Bhatt, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, and Anuj Shah (National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021).
  • "Citywide cluster randomized trial to restore blighted vacant land and its effects on violence, crime, and fear," by Charles Branas, Eugenia South, Michelle Kondo, Bernadette Hohl, Philippe Bourgois, Douglas Wiebe, and John MacDonald (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018).
  • "Thinking, Fast and Slow? Some Field Experiments to Reduce Crime and Dropout in Chicago," by Sara Heller, Anuj Shah, Jonathan Guryan, Jens Ludwig, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Harold Pollack (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2016).
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2013).
  • "Homicide and Suicide Rates Associated With Implementation of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act," by Jens Ludwig and Philip Cook (Journal of the American Medical Association, 2000).
  • The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs (1992).
  • The University of Chicago Crime Lab.
  • "Becoming a Man" (University of Chicago Crime Lab).

• EXTRAS:
  • "Do the Police Have a Management Problem?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023).
  • "From prison to Ph.D, this activist fights for peace in Chicago," by Kenya Downs (PBS News, 2016).

Ellen Wiebe is a physician who helps seriously ill patients end their lives in Canada, where assisted suicide is legal. Is death a human right?

• SOURCES: 
  • Ellen Wiebe, clinical professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia.

• RESOURCES: 
  • "The Last Decision by the World’s Leading Thinker on Decisions," by Jason Zweig (The Wall Street Journal, 2025).
  • "Most Americans Favor Legal Euthanasia," by Rachael Yi (Gallup, 2024).
  • Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers.
  • "Medical Assistance in Dying: Overview," (Government of Canada).

• EXTRAS: 
  • "Can Robots Get a Grip?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2025).
  • "Remembering Daniel Kahneman," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
  • "Does Death Have to Be a Death Sentence?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman (2011).

He has been a lawyer, an instructor at the F.B.I. Academy, the owner of a frozen-yogurt chain, and a winner of the TV show Survivor. Today, Kwon works at Google, but things haven’t always come easily for him. Steve Levitt talks to Kwon about his debilitating childhood anxieties, his compulsion to choose the hardest path in life, and how Kwon used game theory to stage a victory on Survivor.

• SOURCES:
  • Yul Kwon, vice president of product management at Google.

• RESOURCES:
  • Teacher Application for ASU Prep Tempe.

• EXTRAS:
  • "Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
  • "Yul Kwon: 'Hey, Do You Have Any Bright Ideas?' (Part 2)," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).
  • "Robert Axelrod on Why Being Nice, Forgiving, and Provokable are the Best Strategies for Life," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).

Ken Goldberg is at the forefront of robotics — which means he tries to teach machines to do things humans find trivial.

• SOURCES:
  • Ken Goldberg, professor of industrial engineering and operations research at U.C. Berkeley.

• RESOURCES:
  • "The Bitter Lesson," by Rich Sutton (UT Austin, 2019).
  • R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama in Three Acts and an Epilogue, by Karel Capek (2019).
  • "The Robot in the Cloud: A Conversation With Ken Goldberg," by Quentin Hardy (New York Times, 2014).
  • Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence, by Hans Moravec (1990).
  • "Stochastic Plans for Robotic Manipulation," by Ken Goldberg (Carnegie Mellon University, 1990).
  • "The Two Cultures And The Scientific Revolution," by C. P. Snow (Cambridge University Press, 1959).
  • Dex-Net
  • Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology.
  • Ambi Robotics.
  • "The Telegarden."

• EXTRAS:
  • "Feeling Sound and Hearing Color," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
  • "Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
  • “My God, This Is a Transformative Power,” by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Drawing from Life (and Death)" by People I (Mostly) Admire (2023).
  • "Aicha Evans Wants You to Take Your Eyes Off the Road," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2021).