May Narrative Medicine Rounds with Dr. Daniel Levitin

For our final rounds of the spring semester, we have the honor of welcoming Dr. Daniel Levitin, New York Times best-selling author and James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University who will be speaking about his recent book, I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music As Medicine.

In I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music As Medicine, Dr. Daniel Levitin reveals the deep connections between music and healing. Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.

I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music As Medicine explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

Dr. Daniel Levitin is James McGill Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University, and Founding Dean of Minerva University in San Francisco. His research addresses fundamental questions in auditory memory, musical structure, and the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of musical experience. He has published 75 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Science, Nature, PNAS, Neuron, and Cognition.

He earned his B.A. from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Oregon. He completed post-doctoral training at the Stanford University Medical School and at UC Berkeley.

He writes about health, science and medicine for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The New York Times , and appears regularly on NPR . He is the author of five consecutive bestselling books: This Is Your Brain On Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind, Successful Aging, and A Field Guide to Lies. His newest book, I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music As Medicine, hit the best seller lists in its first week of release, debuting at #4 in Canada and #9 in the US. This makes it his sixth consecutive international best-seller.

As a musician (saxophone, guitar, vocals, and bass), he has performed with Mel Tormé, Bobby McFerrin, Rosanne Cash, Sting, Renée Fleming, Victor Wooten, Neil Young, and David Byrne. He has produced and consulted on albums by Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, and has been awarded 17 gold and platinum records.

Dr. Lebwohl is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and serves as the Associate Clinical Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and as the Director of Clinical Research at the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. He is Past President of the Society for the Study of Celiac Disease, and collaborates with investigators in the United States and abroad in epidemiology, patterns of care, natural history, and therapeutics. He has co-authored more than 350 peer-reviewed publications. His research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, and past research funding includes the American Gastroenterological Association, the Celiac Disease Foundation, and the American Scandinavian Foundation.

Dr. Lebwohl is the Chair of the Gastrointestinal Drugs Advisory Committee of the United States Food and Drug Administration. He maintains a clinical practice and is heavily involved in medical education, teaching regularly on topics including celiac disease, evidence-based medicine, clinical decision making, pseudoscience, diarrhea, and colorectal cancer screening. In his capacity as a life-long lover of music, he developed and taught a medical school seminar focusing on the Beethoven string quartets, and is a cellist in the Excelsior Symphony Orchestra.

Narrative Medicine Rounds are monthly rounds held on the first Wednesday of the month during the academic year, hosted by the Division of Narrative Medicine in the Department of Medical Humanities and Ethics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Rounds are supported by live captioning. If you have any other accessibility needs or concerns, please contact the Office of Disability Services at 212-854-2388 or disability@columbia.edu at least 10 days in advance of the event. We do our best to arrange accommodations received after this deadline but cannot guarantee them.