Stay Curious. Stay Connected.
MailNewsletters♡Donate Now
Sign up
*Password must be at least 8 characters and contain one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number and one symbol.
Already have an account?
By submitting, you consent that you are at least 18 years of age and to receive information about MPR's or APMG entities' programs and offerings. The personally identifying information you provide will not be sold, shared, or used for purposes other than to communicate with you about MPR, APMG entities, and its sponsors. You may opt-out at any time clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email communication. View our Privacy Policy.
Sign in to your profile
Forgot Password?
New to MPR News?
Welcome back
to news
for you
Reset Password

Enter the username on file and we'll send you a code to reset your password.

Still require assistance or not sure what your User Name is?
Welcome back
to news
for you
Email Verification

A verification code has been emailed to

Still awaiting the code?
MPR News Presents

Westminster Town Hall Forum: Dr. Victoria Sweet speaks about "Slow Medicine"

Go Deeper.

Create an account or log in to save stories.

Log inCreate a free Account

Like this?

Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.

Show me!

Dr. Victoria Sweet is associate clinical professor of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco and a prize-winning historian with a Ph.D. in history and social medicine. For more than 20 years, she worked in San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital, a rehabilitation center providing skilled nursing and therapeutic services to under-served populations.

Victoria Sweet
Victoria Sweet is associate clinical professor of Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco and a prize-winning historian with a Ph.D. in history and social medicine.
Courtesy of 2020 Westminster Town Hall Forum

At Laguna Honda, she learned that health care works best when it is personal, face-to-face, and attentive to both the body and the soul, a practice she has dubbed “slow medicine.” Her first book, “God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine,” traces her evolving understanding of the body as "a machine to be fixed" to an older, pre-modern understanding of the body as "a garden to be tended."

Her second book, “Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing,” explores her insights into medicine as both an art and a science that is relational, personal, even spiritual.

Dr. Victoria Sweet spoke with MPR’s Cathy Wurzer for the first program in the 2020 fall season of the Westminster Town Hall Forum, hosted “virtually” because of the Covid-19 pandemic. This fall’s forums can be viewed online at westminsterforum.org. The Westminster Presbyterian Church is in downtown Minneapolis.