Back to All Events

Author Talk: "Island Medicine: Life, Healing, and Community on a Maine Island" by Chuck Radis

Dr. Chuck Radis was drawn to a career in medicine after meeting an osteopathic family practice bush pilot in Baja, Mexico. Following an internal medicine residency, the young doctor moved his family to Peaks Island off the coast of Maine and traveled by boat to the four year-round islands in Casco Bay, logging more than 100 house calls each year. Come along with Dr. Radis as he makes his rounds with a new batch of stories filled with equal parts hilarity, heartache, and wisdom.

For more than three decades Dr. Chuck Radis has commuted to the mainland on his boat.. His children, Kate and Molly, attended the Peaks Island grade school—at forty students, one of the smallest grade schools in Maine—and graduated from Portland High School, where more than thirty languages are spoken by immigrant students from around the world.

Throughout his years as both a primary health care physician and as a specialist, Dr. Radis has published both in peer-reviewed journals and in the popular press. He has written on the narcotic epidemic, the logic of expanding Medicare for all Americans, and medical marijuana. As the medical director for the Maine-African Partnership for Social Justice, he travels regularly to the Kiryandongo UN Settlement in Uganda where he partners with refugee groups in innovative public health programs.

In recognition of his commitment to public health, Dr. Radis has been named both the Louis Hanson Maine Physician of the Year, and Teacher of the Year at the University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine--a rare achievement.