Michael Chorost

Medical technology is creating radically new opportunities for people to rebuild their bodies and their lives. Cochlear implants like Dr. Chorost's are enabling totally deaf people to hear again, opening up the possibility of new relationships and new careers. Nascent technologies like retinal implants, smart prosthetics, and brain stimulators are enabling many people to see, walk, and communicate in new ways.

Rarely, however, do the recipients simply go back to having the same lives they had before. The process of reworking one's body can be spiritual in its intensity, leading the users to question old assumptions and habits – and to change them. Dr. Chorost talks about the cutting edge in new technologies of the body and how they evoke the human traits of resiliency, flexibility, and courage. With creative use of audio and video, he gives audiences a sense of what he himself hears, giving a glimpse of what the transformative process feels like from within.