Laurel writes and teaches about science, medicine, culture and emotional wellbeing for all of us—humans and other animals. Her first book Animal Madness was a New York Times bestseller and her 2023 memoir What Looks Like Bravery explores the particular form of resilience born from loss. 

In her position as the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine’s Medical Humanities and the Arts Program, and the founder of Writing Medicine, Laurel has helped thousands of medical professionals around the world become better communicators, find renewed purpose and meaning in their work, and combat burnout and overwhelm.

Whether she is coaching a surgeon writing their first memoir, an aspiring nurse working on an opinion piece, or a cancer survivor telling their story live on-stage, Laurel inspires her colleagues, students and readers to communicate bravely and vulnerably in service of their own health and wellbeingemotional health and general wellbeing. In her own work, she writes and speaks about topics as varied as health anxiety, online dating in rural Alaska, cowboy wisdom, the science of why we listen to sad music when we’re sad, and much much more.

Learn more about Laurel