Do you really need to pay that outstanding balance with the hospital? Do you know the differences between a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, a physician, and a paramedic? Did you realize that not all hospitals can treat your stroke, heart attack, or trauma with equal speed and effectiveness? How should you negotiate and appeal a hospital charge? Can you do anything to minimize the medical mistakes that your provider might commit? In Prepare to Defend Yourself . . . How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life, Matthew Minson, a physician and disaster medicine and healthcare policy expert, pulls back the examination room curtain on the healthcare system, empowering patients and their families to become proactive and knowledgeable users of medical services. Written in a humorous, patient-friendly style and loaded with the author’s cartoons and other visual aids, this essential consumer’s guide to modern healthcare provides down-to-earth, accurate advice that any reader can use, whether preparing for surgery, dialing 911, or simply getting a prescription filled.

The author of Prepare to Defend Yourself… How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life is back. This time Matthew Minson, MD, turns a penetrating and whimsical eye on the medical and social aspects of aging in Prepare to Defend Yourself…How to Age Gracefully and Escape with Your Dignity. While seeming to simultaneously channel a combination of Benjamin Franklin and Charles Schulz, Dr. Minson goes after bodily changes, behaviors—good and bad, and what everyone can do to make life more bearable and—dare we say it—fun after fifty. Laced with his unique style of poignancy and humor and peppered with his own surrealistically funny cartoons, the book bravely takes on health, finances, sex, diet, exercise, death, the law, and what you can do to protect what matters most as you age. It’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of a chuckle in this groundbreaking book that just might make you look forward to your golden years. For anyone of any age who plans on aging with their dignity intact, this is the book for you.

Do you really need to pay that outstanding balance with the hospital? Do you know the differences between a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, a physician, and a paramedic? Did you realize that not all hospitals can treat your stroke, heart attack, or trauma with equal speed and effectiveness? How should you negotiate and appeal a hospital charge? Can you do anything to minimize the medical mistakes that your provider might commit? In Prepare to Defend Yourself . . . How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life, Matthew Minson, a physician and disaster medicine and healthcare policy expert, pulls back the examination room curtain on the healthcare system, empowering patients and their families to become proactive and knowledgeable users of medical services. Written in a humorous, patient-friendly style and loaded with the author’s cartoons and other visual aids, this essential consumer’s guide to modern healthcare provides down-to-earth, accurate advice that any reader can use, whether preparing for surgery, dialing 911, or simply getting a prescription filled.

The author of Prepare to Defend Yourself… How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life is back. This time Matthew Minson, MD, turns a penetrating and whimsical eye on the medical and social aspects of aging in Prepare to Defend Yourself…How to Age Gracefully and Escape with Your Dignity. While seeming to simultaneously channel a combination of Benjamin Franklin and Charles Schulz, Dr. Minson goes after bodily changes, behaviors—good and bad, and what everyone can do to make life more bearable and—dare we say it—fun after fifty. Laced with his unique style of poignancy and humor and peppered with his own surrealistically funny cartoons, the book bravely takes on health, finances, sex, diet, exercise, death, the law, and what you can do to protect what matters most as you age. It’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of a chuckle in this groundbreaking book that just might make you look forward to your golden years. For anyone of any age who plans on aging with their dignity intact, this is the book for you.

Originally published by Viking Penguin, 2014.

The Black Death. Cholera. Spanish flu. Swine flu. HIV/AIDS. COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2. Each of these pandemics has made (or, is making) a lasting impact on humanity. From the immediate mental image of the beaked masks worn in the Middle Ages (bubonic plague) and the birth of epidemiology (cholera) to recognizing the benefits of social distancing (1918 flu) and the harm of prejudice and misinformation (HIV/AIDS), pandemics have shown us how to survive infectious disease, as long as we heed their lessons. Preparing for Pandemics in the Modern World, edited by Christine Crudo Blackburn, brings together experts on pandemic preparedness and biosecurity to explore areas of weakness in pandemic prevention, preparedness, detection, and response. Even as COVID-19 makes its way around the world, leaders and policymakers are tasked with thinking ahead and preparing to effectively respond to the next such event—which experience shows us to be a matter of “when,” not “if.” Inside, chapters are divided into sections on the lessons learned from the 1918 influenza pandemic, the application of the One Health concept, and the role of the private sector in responding to potentially devastating disease outbreaks. A chapter on the impacts of supply chain disruption—in light of COVID-19—and an epilogue that discusses the current outbreak make Preparing for Pandemics in the Modern World a timely and accessibly written compilation on pandemic prevention, preparedness, detection, and response.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.