Affliction & Resilience

“I used to be a life corrupter, but now I am a life-changer,” says weight loss surgeon Dr. Franchell Hamilton.

I wanted to know how someone who was in gangs as a teenager found her own resilience and motivation be become a surgeon. Dr. Franchell Hamilton first reminded me that only 2% of all physicians are Black, and an even smaller percentage of surgeons are Black and female, and she’s proud to be among that group.

Dr. Franchell Hamilton, is a weight loss surgeon, health and wellness visionary and author of Transformation is a Mindset, the journey to changing your input and your world.

We talk about her troubled life as a teen and how she found her path to becoming a doctor.

Dr. Hamilton founded A Better Weigh Center – a place for her patients to receive treatments ranging from bariatric surgery and medical weight loss to hormone therapy. As her practice grew, she began seeing more and more patients, but many had the same recurring issue – weight regain with return of their other medical conditions. She wanted to provide results with longevity. Thus, the 4 Pillars of Transformation was founded – Dr. Hamilton’s weight loss and wellness system. She uses her book as a guide to help thousands struggling with unhealthy strongholds in their life find the root of the problem.

If you are interested in contacting Dr. Hamiliton, or learning more, you can visit her website at

http://www.drfhamilton.com/

Louisa Pateman is the Australian author of: Single, Again, and Again, and Again… What do you do when life doesn’t go to plan? Louisa has had a successful career as a civil engineer, working all around the world. She is a dedicated traveler and has ventured to over 70 countries, while also building a substantial individual property portfolio.

For  20 years, Louisa tried very hard to fulfill her life plan; the path set by society: to find her soulmate, get married and have children. But after a dozen failed relationships and a biological clock that was about to expire, she conceded defeat and gave up her dreams of finding ‘the one’. In order to salvage her last chance of motherhood, at 37 she embarked on a journey to become a single mother by choice. She says it turned out to be the best decision of her life.

Louisa offers a window for women considering this option, and some concrete ideas for making this important, life changing decision. Not to mention being a lovely person to chat with long distance!

Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir, and The Still Point of the Turning World, and most recently, Sanctuary – a memoir.

A onetime Fulbright Scholar, she was educated at Harvard University, Trinity College in Dublin, Saint Olaf College and the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener fellow. She has received many many awards and fellowships, most recently a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Her work has appeared in Vogue, The New York Times, Salon, Slate, Time, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, O:The Oprah Magazine, The Los Angeles Times and many others. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review and frequently publishes scholarly work in the fields of disability studies, bioethics, and theological studies. She is currently associate professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside, where she also teaches medical narratives in the School of Medicine.

She talks candidly with me about writing this book about the death of her son Ronan just before he turned three, of Tay Sachs, and then having a subsequent, and healthy, daughter. Her book is beautiful, gripping and thought provoking and I think you’ll find our conversation insightful.

Dr. Erika Landau is our guest today on Affliction & Resilience. She is a second generation Holocaust survivor. Both of her parents lost their parents and siblings in the Holocaust. She was born in Romania, and came to the US to escape the Communist dictatorship of Ceausescu. Dr. Landau is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center. In addition to her medical degree, she also holds a master’s degree in bioethics. In light of Holocaust Remembrance Day this past week, it seems fitting that we discuss how survivors were not only those who endured the horrors of the camps, but how the trauma is embedded through generations. Dr. Landau talks about the strength and responsibility of that legacy and how it has served her. She is an amazing example of resilience.

Entertainment publicist, author and public speaker, Patti Hawn has worked on over thirty major motion pictures including some of the most acclaimed films of the last decade. Her credits include Ghost, Glory, Overboard, and Bride Wars.

She made her debut literary effort with her memoir, GOOD GIRLS DON’T, that tells the story of the last generation of young women to experience life on the eve of the sexual revolution of the sixties and the passing of legislation legalizing abortion.

Most recently she appeared in the theater production BLANK, at the invitation of many adoption groups throughout the country.

She contributed a chapter to the book REPLACEMENT CHILDREN: THE UNCONSCIOUS SCRIPT, by Rita Battat and Dr. Abigail Brenner which explores the many stories of people who have found themselves a part of this circumstance…including herself.

Patti is the sister of the acclaimed actress Goldie Hawn. She resides in Manhattan Beach, California with her husband and travels to India, Nepal and Thailand where she works in humanitarian efforts.

Fran Dorf is a therapist (LCSW) and lifelong writer, most notably author of three acclaimed, internationally published novels, as well as plays, screenplays, articles, essays, and poetry. Fran’s novels include A Reasonable Madness (BirchLane 1990/Signet 1991), Flight (Dutton 1992/Signet 1993) and Saving Elijah (Putnam 2000).  Fran’s first novel, a psychological thriller about a psychiatrist and his possibly delusional patient, became a longtime bestseller in Germany under the title “Die Totdenkerin” which means “The Death Thinker.” In 2018/19 Fran co-wrote a screenplay adapting that novel for a German film producer, and she is co-developing a limited series television drama based on her third novel, Saving Elijah. As a therapist, Fran has a general private practice in psychotherapy, but specializes in bereavement, a subject with which she became intimately acquainted after the 1994 death of her three-year-old son Michael.  This loss changed her life in ways that are sweeping and profound.