Episode
Frontline: Being Mortal
Overview
FRONTLINE follows renowned New Yorker writer and Boston surgeon Atul Gawande as he explores the relationships doctors have with patients who are nearing the end of life. In conjunction with Gawande’s new book, Being Mortal, the film investigates the practice of caring for the dying, and shows how doctors — himself included — are often remarkably untrained, ill-suited and uncomfortable talking about chronic illness and death with their patients.
Details
- Series
- Frontline
- Season
- Season 33
- Episode
- Episode 3
- Air date
- 2015-02-10
Episode context
Being Mortal is Episode 3 in Season 33 of Frontline. It aired on 2015-02-10.
Previous / Next
Episode 2: Putin's Way
FRONTLINE investigates the accusations of criminality and corruption that have surrounded Vladimir Putin's reign in Russia. Tracing his career back over two decades, "Putin's Way" reveals how the accumulation of wealth and power has led to autocratic rule and the specter of a new Cold War.
Episode 4: The Fight for Yemen
As recently as September, President Obama was pointing to Yemen as a model for the U.S.’s counter-terrorism strategy. But now, the country is being torn apart in a violent conflict led by an anti-American rebel movement known as the Houthis. With the Yemeni president ousted from the capital, and Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of regional forces against the Houthis, FRONTLINE in conjunction with BBC Arabic brings this special report from inside the war zone, exposing the violent feuds tearing the country apart, the rival anti-American and Al Qaeda-aligned forces fighting for control and the dangerous consequences for the region and the world.
More episodes from this season
Episode 1: Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA
FRONTLINE investigates how the NRA uses its unrivaled political power to stop gun regulation in America. With first-hand accounts of school killings in Newtown and Columbine, and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, "Gunned Down" examines why, despite the national trauma over gun violence, Washington hasn't acted.
Episode 5: American Terrorist
FRONTLINE investigates American-born terrorist David Coleman Headley, who helped plan the deadly 2008 siege on Mumbai. In collaboration with ProPublica, the film — an updated and expanded version of A Perfect Terrorist — reveals how secret electronic surveillance missed catching the Mumbai plotters, and how Headley planned another Charlie Hebdo-like assault against a Danish newspaper.
Episode 6: Outbreak
FRONTLINE tells the vivid, inside story of how the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak began, and why it wasn’t stopped before it was too late. Filmmaker Dan Edge spent months on the ground in West Africa, tracing the outbreak’s path through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and uncovering the hidden story of what happened before the world started paying attention. With exclusive access to key global decision-makers and health responders, and gripping firsthand accounts of victims from the jungles of Guinea to the slums of Monrovia, Outbreak exposes tragic missteps in the response to the epidemic.
Episode 7: The Trouble with Chicken
FRONTLINE investigates the spread of dangerous pathogens in our meat -- particularly poultry -- and why the food-safety system isn't stopping the threat. Focusing on an outbreak of salmonella Heidelberg at one of the nation's largest poultry processors, the film shows how contaminants are evading regulators and causing more severe illnesses at a time when Americans are consuming more chicken than ever.
Episode 8: Secrets, Politics and Torture
From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk (United States of Secrets, Losing Iraq, Bush’s War, The Torture Question) comes the dramatic story of the fight over the CIA’s controversial interrogation methods, widely criticized as torture. Based on recently declassified documents and interviews with key political leaders and CIA insiders, the film investigates what the CIA did — and whether it worked.
Episode 9: Obama at War
Veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Martin Smith goes inside the Obama administration’s struggle to deal with ISIS and the deadly civil war in Syria. With interviews from key military and diplomatic leaders, the documentary examines the hard choices facing the president as he tries to defeat the Islamic State without dragging America into a prolonged regional conflict.
Episode 10: Rape on the Night Shift
A joint investigation into the sexual abuse of immigrant women who clean the malls where you shop, the banks where you do business and the offices where you work.
Episode 11: Growing Up Trans
Just a generation ago, it was adults, not kids, who changed genders. But today, many children are transitioning, too — with new medical options, and at younger and younger ages. In Growing Up Trans, FRONTLINE takes viewers on an intimate and eye-opening journey inside the struggles and choices facing transgender kids and their families.
Episode 12: Escaping ISIS
Using undercover footage, FRONTLINE presents the gripping, first-hand accounts of women who escaped the brutal reign of ISIS — and follows an underground network that’s helping them escape.
Episode 13: Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty
A feature documentary about two filmmakers who set out to interview El Chapo Guzmán, leader of one of the biggest drug cartels in history. Before his capture in 2014, El Chapo had been on the run from the US and Mexican governments for over a decade — and after his July 2015 escape from prison, he’s now on the lam once again.