Dr. BJ Miller is a renowned advocate for holistic well-being, resilience, and building a life full of meaning. A survivor of a life-threatening accident during his sophomore year at Princeton that made him a triple amputee, BJ’s personal journey has shaped his dedication to improving the human experience. With a background as a palliative care physician and as the co-founder of Mettle Health, he brings a unique perspective to conversations on mental health, longevity, and the necessity of building a life that is more wonderful, not just less horrible. Incredibly warm, personable, and engaging, BJ’s universally inspiring and powerful message is to reconsider, embrace, and prioritize what truly matters in life.
As a palliative care physician, BJ has an intimate relationship with suffering and what it takes to minimize it outside of medical intervention. His support of those who are chronically and terminally ill, combined with his own experience as a patient, have informed his philosophy on living meaningfully. By discovering what matters most to us as we near the end, we can reverse-engineer a life that is rich and fulfilling for all our days, rather than just the last few. He emphasizes the value of a perspective shift, the untapped potential of the aesthetic domain, and the importance of radical acceptance of the self and all life throws at you.
Dr. Miller’s commitment to patient-centered care and to sparking productive conversations about living life fully until the end has propelled his career. Between 2007 and 2020, he worked as a palliative care physician and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco. During this time, he also served as the Executive Director of Zen Hospice Project from 2011 to 2016, playing a pivotal role in developing and sharing a pioneering model of human-centered end-of-life care. In 2020, he co-founded Mettle Health, an innovative online palliative care counseling platform offering psychosocial support to patients and families facing health challenges, and to the caregivers and physicians that support them. Mettle Health aims to give patients the agency to address their holistic needs beyond managing their illness, and to give the physicians and caregivers who must remain strong for everyone else a safe place to fall apart. Dr. Miller is also the Honorary Medical Chair of Dream Foundation, the only national dream-granting organization for terminally ill adults.
“What Really Matters at the End of Life,” BJ’s TED Talk on living well until the end and humanizing end-of-life care has garnered over 15 million views and is ranked among the most viewed talks. He is prominently featured in the Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary End Game about terminally ill patients and physicians seeking to change perceptions around life and death. He can also be seen in the Disney+ docuseries Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, helping the star navigate the complexities of aging and come to terms with his inevitable mortality.
Recognizing the lack of resources for the living amidst an abundance of self-help books for mourners, BJ authored The Beginner’s Guide to the End: Practical Advice for Living Life and Facing Death. A comprehensive and compassionate guide to dying—and living fully until you do—this manual demystifies many of the logistical and personal questions often asked both by those facing the end of their life and by the loved ones who survive them.
Raised in Chicago, BJ graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor’s degree in art history—a major he switched to post-accident to learn to shift his perspective and appreciate the beauty the world has to offer as he navigated life in his new body. After several years working in both the art and disability-rights non-profit communities, he enrolled at UCSF where he completed his MD as a Regents’ Scholar in 2001. He completed his internal medicine residency at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California, where he served as chief resident. He completed his fellowship in Hospice & Palliative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, with his clinical duties split between Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Throughout his journey, BJ has been recognized with various awards including the William Osler Distinguished Teaching Award and the AAHPM/Project on Death in America Palliative Medicine Community Leadership Award.
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