"We take an average of 7.5 million breaths a year and some 600 million in our lifetime, and what goes on in our body each time oxygen is taken in and carbon dioxide expelled is nothing short of miraculous. "Our lungs are the lynchpin between our bodies and the outside world," writes Dr. Michael J. Stephen. And yet, we take our lungs for granted until we're incapacitated and suddenly confronted with their vital importance. In Breath Taking, pulmonologist...

"An authoritative, accessible guide to how our lungs work and how to protect them. Most of us pay little attention to the workings of our lungs, but the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked interest in their functioning and fear about the risks they face. Dr. MeiLan K. Han, a leading pulmonologist and a national spokesperson for the American Lung Association, takes readers on a fascinating tour of this most vital organ. Han explains the wonder of breathing...

"In exile from his home country of Peru, Ricardo Funes embodies the ultimate starving artist. Fired from almost every job he's held--usually for paying more attention to literature than work--he sets himself up in a rundown shack where he works on writing stories to enter in regional contests across Spain, and foisting his judgements about literature on anyone who will listen as one of the last remaining members of the negacionismo poetry movement....

"96-year-old ornithologist Luka Levadski foregoes treatment for lung cancer and moves from Ukraine to Vienna to make a grand exit in a luxury suite at the Hotel Imperial. He reflects on his past while indulging in Viennese cakes and savoring music in a gilded concert hall. Levadski was born in 1914, the same year that Martha--the last of the now-extinct passenger pigeons--died. Levadski himself has an acute sense of being the last of a species. He...

Multinational companies are aggressively marketing cigarettes to young people in developing countries, with tragic social costs. This film explores the case of Indonesia - the third largest market for tobacco products in the world. Human Costs: "If I'd known I'd get this disease I would have quit a long time ago." Ujang has terminal lung cancer. At 45, he is the victim of a habit, which is killing millions in his country. Targeted by the tobacco industry's...

"Richard E. Grant emigrated from Swaziland to London in 1982, with dreams of making it as an actor. Unexpectedly, he met and fell in love with a renowned dialect coach Joan Washington. Their relationship and marriage, navigating the highs and lows of Hollywood, parenthood, and loss, lasted almost forty years. When Joan died in 2021, her final challenge to him was to find a "pocketful of happiness in every day." This honest and frequently hilarious...