Dr. Sue Varma

speaker

1,488 appearances 2 recordings 2 series first heard May 2026 last heard 23 Jun

Dr. Sue Varma’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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I want to be clear that what optimism is not.

Telling someone, just look on the bright side, right?

That's what we often associate with optimism.

Yeah.

Everything will work itself out.

That seems toxic to me.

100%, right?

That is toxic positivity.

Telling someone to look on the bright side without first understanding the depths and the gravity of what they have been through, right?

Like that to me is dismissive at best or toxic positivity at worst.

Optimism simply says that there is the potential for good things to happen, right?

And practical optimism says let's turn those positive outlooks into positive outcomes through action.

I can't imagine.

Heartbreaking.

So on 9-11 itself, I was a medical student and I was training in a New York City hospital.

And I remember being in a patient's room when literally on the TV you're seeing the first plane crash.

And like you're stunned, you're speechless, like we're all looking at each other.

And then next thing we know, we hear an attending say on the loudspeaker.

Discharge, discharge, discharge.

Anyone that can go home that's well enough to go home, send them home because we were expecting thousands of people.

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