Kathryn Mannix, MD

After a happy 30-year career as a palliative physician in the UK, Kathryn took early retirement in 2015 to figure out how to 'do something' about the widespread and woeful public misunderstanding of dying she encountered daily in her work. She wondered how we might recapture public understanding by using stories. Fortunately, an unanticipated invitation to describe 'ordinary dying' on national radio led to a huge and positive audience response, resulting in opportunities for more media work, an approach by a literary agent who brokered a book deal — and her book of stories about the lives of her patients, With The End In Mind, became an international best-seller, now translated into 18 languages.

It's all been a little bit unexpected. With a second best-selling book (Listen — how to find the words for tender conversations) under her belt and a third book on its way, Kathryn has been invited to speak at conferences, on radio and TV, and at ideas festivals across the UK and around the world. She's on a mission to change the public conversation about dying, and her method is an age-old device for passing wisdom between generations: storytelling.