About Vivekanand Palavali, MD

Neurosurgeon. Author. Filmmaker. Humanist.

I am a board-certified neurosurgeon with more than three decades of experience caring for patients in Flint, Michigan. My training at the University of Chicago and my encounters with injury, illness, and loss have shaped both my understanding of the brain and my outlook on life.

Those experiences led me beyond the operating room—to writing books, making documentaries, and exploring consciousness, belief, healthcare inequity, and what makes life meaningful.

Through Mind, Medicine, and Meaning, I bring these interests together with a commitment to reason, compassion, and our shared humanity. My work asks how we can better understand ourselves, care for one another, and build a more equitable world.