Now available from author Akshay Rao
Despite Covid cautions—N95s, solitude, vaccinations—the author’s renal rebound lands him in the ER. Hospital week unveils a quirky cast—specialists, caring nurses, concerned kids. Time bends with tales of plane capers, orangutans, spectral kin.
Echoing Wodehouse and Sedaris, this memoir novella humorously captures American healthcare’s enigma and the need to embrace change, and adopt compassion on the road.
“. . . harrowing and humorous . . . Patient is a pandemic memoir that doesn’t minimize the Covid-19 virus’ deadliness or the efforts of health care workers.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“Rao recounts his harrowing and humorous interactions with the United States healthcare system. . . . While his condition was critical, Rao describes his hospitalization with ample humor. The title of the book, in fact, is a play on words, denoting his status as a patient as well as serving as a reminder of the frequent refrain he heard from doctors to ‘be patient.’ The author likes wordplay; he recalls waking up with ‘a sense of impending Zoom’ and asserts that he ‘pfelt pfine’ after his Pfizer vaccinations. The book’s optimistic prose includes reminders to readers about choosing kindness in their daily lives . . . a humorous pandemic memoir that doesn’t minimize the Covid-19 virus’ deadliness or the efforts of health care workers.”
– Kirkus Reviews
Op-Eds and Webinars
Here are links to recent writings and presentations:
Tim Walz’s waltz at the debate. It was not so graceful. But both vice presidential candidates flubbed important topics and had missed opportunities. (Minnesota Star Tribune, October 3, 2024)
Political messaging: Can Democrats come up with a name-call better than ‘weird’? “Loser” is another option that has some attractive features. (Minnesota Star Tribune, August 3, 2024)
Why consumers think inflation is still really high when it’s not. Economic pessimism is sticky. And when perceptions are at odds with reality, it can have electoral consequences. (Minnesota Star Tribune, June 6, 2024)
What did in Elizabeth Warren? She was too specific, too soon. Behavioral science says: When people are contemplating the distant future, go abstract. When decisions are imminent, that's the time to be concrete. (Minnesota Star Tribune, March 6, 2020)
A crowded Democratic field? Maybe not so bad. Think there are too many Democrats? It might help people make up their minds thanks to the "attraction effect." (Minnesota Star Tribune, July 12, 2019)
The Politics of Persuasion, Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota (downloadable Webinar, October 30, 2024)
“…if there is to be hope for humanity, it has to lie in the belief that people of goodwill will tell stories to change the behavior of the rest of the world.”
In Other News
“To be on stage with these extraordinary world class musicians was a thrill beyond description.”
Rao Conducts the Minnesota Orchestra in the William Tell Overture
At the May 4, 2024 Annual Gala for the Minnesota Orchestra, you can bid on many things including the opportunity to conduct the Orchestra for a short piece. I bid (a small fortune). I WON!
To be on stage with these extraordinary world class musicians was a thrill beyond description. I had so much fun as you will see in the attached videos, conducting the William Tell overture. What an absolute delight, and for one brief moment, they called me “Maestro!”
I am also now the proud owner of an autographed baton signed by Maestro Thomas Søndergård himself, as well as a copy of the sheet music autographed by all the members of the Orchestra!
Full video of Akshay Rao conducting the Minnesota Orchestra in the William Tell Overture May 4, 2024.
Moth Radio Hour—Twin Cities StorySLAM Winner!
The Moth Radio Hour is broadcast on weekends on Public Radio (noon on Saturdays on Minnesota Public Radio), and people from all over the world get to tell stories.
To get on the radio, you first have to show up at a local StorySLAM, throw your name in a hat, and 10 people get picked at random to tell a story in front of a live audience. On April 11, 2024, I was picked and told my “Kiss of an Orangutan” story (chapter 11 in my book Patient), in front of a wonderful audience of some 500 people in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Judges (selected from the audience) awarded points to all storytellers, and I WON!
As a StorySLAM winner, I was invited to compete at the Moth GrandSLAM on October 15, 2024 at the Fitzgerald Theater in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While I didn’t win then, it was a tremendous experience.
And another reason to consider acquiring my audiobook, which is now available from Audible on Amazon.com.
Video of my Moth GrandSLAM story.
Read Patient for yourself
pa•tient /ˈpeɪ.ʃənt/
noun
a person who is under medical care or treatment.
adjective
bearing provocation, annoyance, misfortune, delay, hardship, pain, etc., with fortitude and calm and without complaint, anger, or the like.
Delightful, charming, quirky, irreverent, …
Two months after several positive Covid tests, Akshay Rao finds himself in the Emergency Room, having been diagnosed with acute renal failure. This, despite donning N95 masks indoors and out, living life as a hermit, and getting vaccinated and boosted at the first available opportunity.
What follows is a delightful, charming, quirky, irreverent and sometimes poignant romp through the travails of being hospitalized for a week, featuring specialist doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and the Rao children valiantly attempting to hide their concern. And, we travel through space and time, with stories of “rerouting” a commercial airliner in India, a close encounter with an orangutan in Malaysian Borneo, an anecdote about little Rao children contemplating their father’s mortality, and an apparition’s role in the birth of a grandfather.
The core message is one of hope and acceptance, and the recognition that all is impermanent, so it is incumbent on us to be compassionate. When somebody cuts you off on the highway, imagine they are driving to the ER with a case of acute renal failure, and give them the right of way.
Akshay Rao
Akshay Rao is a professor at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. When not teaching graduate students and writing academic papers, he indulges his interest in writing creative nonfiction, learning French, and theater, both as a performer and a consumer. He lives in Minneapolis with his cats, Moscato and Mojito (their sister, Mimosa, and mother, Sangria, were adopted by somebody else—clearly alcoholism runs in this cat family). When not writing or working his day job, Rao plays some golf (poorly) and tennis (reasonably well) and replenishes a quickly depleting wine cellar frequently.
Contact Prof. Rao
Contact me for speaking engagements or consultations.