I’m Tony Back. As a doctor and as a son, I’ve seen up close how the way clinicians talk to patients can change the experience of illness. I’ve also come to realize that my ability be that kind of clinician rests on an ongoing practice of cultivating my own capacity for open-heartedness and compassion.

In this time of coronavirus, an old friend, Sean Morrison, asked me “What should we all be doing—to sustain ourselves?” Our experiences in Seattle and New York, the first two hotspots in the US, have forced us to realize that we’re up against an enormous test.

This daily mini-podcast is the first iteration of my answer. It’s a work in progress, so your feedback would help me—and all the people you care about who work in health care. One of the lessons of this pandemic is about how we depend on each other. Another lesson, I hope, will be that our capacity for compassion is much greater than we realize. Rising to this challenge means that we have to reinvent, in real time, how we sustain ourselves. Join me.