Steven R. Feldman
Dr. Steven R. Feldman is Professor of Dermatology, Pathology, Social Sciences & Health Policy, and Molecular Medicine & Translational Science at the Wake Forest School of Medicine. He serves on the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation and directed psoriasis education programs for the American Academy of Dermatology. According to Expertscape.com (on January 11, 2019), Feldman was the #1 expert in the world on psoriasis (and on acne and on dermatology!). He is the co-author of the book, WILL IT EVER GO AWAY? PRACTICAL ANSWERS TO YOUR COVID-19 QUESTIONS.
Twitter: @DrSteveFeldman
If you could create a museum exhibition, what would be the theme?
The museum would highlight how people on different sides of conflicts or other issues often terribly misjudge people in the other group. It is striking to me how often people tell me negative things about people in other groups that turn out not to be true.
What brings you great joy?
Discovery!
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
I learned to speak a little Farsi before my first trip to Iran, though not enough to think differently in that language. Still, learning another language, and experiencing another culture, I think, makes me more reticent to condemn other people or support bombing them.
Is there another profession you would like to try?
My day job (academic dermatologist) is too good to give up. But I toy with the idea of retiring from medicine, writing more, and becoming a magician. I find the neuropsychology of magic has many overlaps with caring for patients and with the themes that I try to get across in my writing endeavors.
What period of history do you wish you knew more about?
All of them. But I’m not so much interested in what history records as in what it misses. History records all these extraordinary—literally, extra ordinary—events and leaves out all the times when people were quietly living their lives peacefully together. I want to know more about those times!
