Deep Medicine with Rupa Marya, MD and Raj Patel
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What is the central premise of Inflamed and how does it link health to colonial capitalism?
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You're listening to the Nocturnous Conversations. I'm Emily Silverman. Just earlier today, I was at a party on a beach and I met a photographer who takes photos of the Earth from space. He partners with satellite companies and they create these beautiful aerial images of cities, suburbs, deserts, forests, and oceans. Sometimes the earth appears to be healthy and thriving, but other times we see pollution and the scars of wildfires and the destruction of war zones. The project is called Overview and there's no sponsorship here or anything. It's just a project that I came across that I think is really interesting. And ever since I met this photographer, I've been thinking about the idea of the 200 mile view.
What does the world look like when we zoom out? Today's guests, Dr. Rupa Maria and Raj Patel, see the world through that broader lens. And the book they wrote together, Inflamed, Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice, argues that colonial capitalism has made us sick. Rupa is an internal medicine physician, professor of medicine at UCSF, writer, activist, mother, and musician, whose work sits at the nexus of climate, health, and racial justice. She founded the Deep Medicine Circle, a woman of color led, worker directed organization committed to healing the wounds of colonialism through food, medicine, story, and learning. And she's the co-founder of the Do No Harm Coalition, a collective of health workers committed to addressing disease through structural change.
She's toured 29 countries with her band Rupa and the April Fishes, whose music was described by the legend Jill Scott Heron as liberation music. Rosh Patel is a research professor in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He's a James Beard award-winning activist and New York Times bestselling writer, and has testified about food and hunger to the US, UK, and EU governments. His book on the food system, Stuffed and Starved, has been translated into a dozen languages. He's a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems and co-director of the documentary feature The Ants and the Grasshopper. Reading Rupa and Raja's book really helped me see how we in Western medicine isolate ourselves from the rest of nature.
It's as if we're in it, but not of it. We learn about disease in a vacuum and underemphasize the impact of water, air, food, relationships, racism, education, government, and economics on our health. Rupa and Raj push us to see ourselves as part of a web of life and health and healing as something that must happen on a larger scale. At the level of the gene and the cell and the tissue and the patient, yes. But also at the level of relationships, communities, societies, and the entire planet. It's a radical book, it's a political book, and one that made me reconsider my definition of health and my My role in this world as a healthcare worker. Before I sat down with Raj and Rupa, I asked them to read an excerpt from their book.
Here's Raj and Rupa.
As the world burns, your body is inflamed. If you haven't felt it yet, you or someone close to you soon will. Symptoms to look for include uncontrolled weight gain or unexpected weight loss, skin rashes, difficulty with memory, fever, troubled breathing, and chest pain. Inflammation accompanies almost every disease in the modern world, heart disease, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, Alzheimer's, depression, obesity, diabetes, and more. The difference between a mild course and a fatal course of COVID nineteen is the presence or absence of systemic inflammation.
Your body is a part of a society inflamed. COVID has exposed the combustible injustices of systemic racism and global capitalism.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central premise of Inflamed and how does it link health to colonial capitalism?
0:00–6:47
2
How do Rupa Marya and Raj Patel define systemic inflammation and its role in modern disease?
6:47–14:06
3
What personal patient story illustrates the connection between environmental injustice and chronic inflammation?
14:06–22:29
4
How does the exposome concept expand our understanding of health beyond genetics?
22:29–28:36
5
What does the book propose about abolition as a framework for healing systemic oppression?
28:36–35:26
6
How can Indigenous land‑back movements and agro‑ecology inform a new model of deep medicine?
35:26–42:07
7
What practical steps can health workers take to apply deep‑medicine principles in their communities?
42:07–48:24
8
What final message do the hosts give to listeners about healing, community, and systemic change?
48:24–55:32