What the Dead Teach Us About Living — Dr. Jarred Michalski, Forensic Pathologist

In this episode

In this conversation I sit down with Dr. Jarred Michalski, a forensic pathologist whose work is to investigate unnatural and unexpected deaths — to find out, as he puts it, what actually happened. "Autopsy," he reminds me, simply means "to see for yourself." And spending his days at the place where a life has already ended has given him a rare vantage point on how the rest of us might live while there is still time.

We talk about how he found his way into this field — not by grand design, but by staying open, staying curious, and following what felt true. His story maps closely onto the O.A.S.I.S. framework: being open, observing, and having the courage to act. Most recently that courage looked like leaving Tulsa — a good job, a real community, close friends — to move to San Francisco and work alongside Dr. Bennet Omalu. He's honest about the pull between comfort and adventure, and honest, too, about the regret of leaving people behind.

Underneath it all runs a quiet, insistent theme: impermanence, and the invitation to be present now. Jarred leans on Camus and Krishnamurti to make his case that hope and regret are the same trap — both take us out of the one moment we can actually live in. We land on the idea that life is a practice, that we keep confusing chapters with the end of the book, and that action, not just thought, is what changes us.