Friends & Legends with Skip Martin
Host: Skip Martin
Summary:
Skip Martin sits down with Dr. Moshe Lewis, the Juilliard-trained pianist who walked away from a career alongside Leontyne Price, Beverly Sills and Pavarotti to spend twenty years in medicine. He now treats veterans in their twenties and thirties who come home injured, in chronic pain, and convinced their lives are over, and his tool is music. Moshe explains manipulating music to pull yourself out of anger, why waiting tables taught him more about bedside manner than any lecture, and the three-step climb he takes soldiers through: learning to love yourself, learning to let yourself be loved, then extending grace to someone who does not deserve it. Skip answers with the trumpet his grandfather called devil's music, and a man on an Algerian tarmac who thought Kool & the Gang were a myth.
Main Topics:
• Waiting tables on 26 cent tips, and why it is the best training for medicine
• Veterans in their twenties who feel their whole life ended with the injury
• Why loss of value, not the injury itself, is what underlies feeling suicidal
• The three levels: love yourself, allow yourself to be loved, extend grace to others
• Manipulating music: reaching for a song in traffic, in an argument, in a crowded room
• Music as anesthesia, and finding the childhood songs that made you happy
• Juilliard, Lincoln Center and the Met, then choosing the operating room instead
• Performing arts medicine, and treating dancers and singers as athletes
• Sleep, the gym and libido as part of the same conversation as suicide
• Skip's grandfather calling his trumpet devil's music in a Church of God pulpit
• The man in Algeria who thought Kool & the Gang were a myth
• Why AI can mimic the movement but has no soul
Intriguing Quotes:
• "Music itself truly can heal and help people." - Dr. Moshe Lewis
• "They really don't feel equipped to be a parent, a father, mother, be competitive in the world." - Dr. Moshe Lewis
• "We do a good job of tearing people down. We don't do such a good job of building people up." - Dr. Moshe Lewis
• "Ego is edging God out." - Skip Martin
• "Music is the sound of a soul singing. AI can mimic the movement, but AI doesn't have a soul." - Skip Martin
• "He thought you were a myth." - Skip Martin
Key Moments:
[00:00] Skip welcomes Dr. Moshe Lewis, music and medicine
[00:37] Twenty years in medicine, and the vets he treats
[01:22] Waiting tables, 26 cent tips, and bedside manner
[02:28] Why young veterans stop seeing a reason to live
[03:41] Self-esteem first, then grace for people who don't deserve it
[05:02] Can music work like an anesthesia?
[06:04] Manipulating the music to talk yourself down
[06:36] Juilliard, the Met, and walking away from it
[13:35] The common thread in everybody: love
[15:26] Music as the door to the spiritual
[17:29] Ego is edging God out
[21:09] Adopted, a Hebrew name, and a Christian household
[25:02] The trumpet his grandfather called devil's music
[30:34] A thousand interviews, and honouring who came first
[33:40] Algeria: the man who thought they were a myth
[35:12] Music is the sound of a soul singing
Notable Resources:
• Music & Medicine Show, Dr. Lewis's podcast: https://musicandmedicineshow.com/
• California Pacific Medical Center, St. Luke's Campus, where he heads Physical Medicine & Rehab
• Healing Heroes, the veterans work Skip references
Connect with Dr. Moshe Lewis:
Website: https://musicandmedicineshow.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theMusicandMedicineshow/
X: https://x.com/DrLewisMD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshelewis/
Connect with Skip Martin:
Website: https://www.skipmartinmusic.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/skipmartinmusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skipmartinmusic/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/skipmartinmusic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/skipmartinmusic