411 Improvising the Body: Maps, Meaning and Clinical Imagination • Lan Li

What if the body wasn’t a fixed map, but a living, improvisational landscape?

In this conversation with Lan Li, a historian, filmmaker, and rhythm-savvy thinker at the crossroads of medicine and imagination, we explore how anatomy is more than skin and sinew—it’s a set of metaphors, shaped as much by culture as by scalpels. Lan brings insight from her work in neuroscience, film, and Chinese medicine to help us consider how maps of the body aren’t just drawn—they’re felt, narrated, and revised in real time.

Listen into this discussion as we explore the improvisational nature of clinical work, the metaphoric structure of anatomy, the interplay between nerves and meridians, the persistence of imagination in medical history, and why ancient images might still be some of our most useful tools.

This episode invites a reimagining of what it means to know, feel, and practice medicine. Especially when inquiry is more like music than math.

In This Conversation We Discuss:

• Lan’s reflections on being raised by artists and navigating academia
• The tension between professionalization and intuition in clinical work
• How improvisation and imagination shape both science and medicine
• The difference between learning and improvising in clinical practice
• The visual and metaphorical logic behind anatomical imagery
• Why neuroscience is built on metaphor—and what that means for medicine
• How early Chinese medical maps evoke experience, not just structure
• Reconsidering universality in the body’s channels and perceptions
• Acupuncture, animals, and the felt reality of channel systems
• The role of sensation, metaphor, and imagination in expanding medical understanding

I’m not a clinician, but it seems like from talking to Michael, embracing uncertainty is one path towards wisdom.

Lan Li, Ph.D

I am a historian of the body and filmmaker focusing on medicine and health in global East Asia. I received my Ph.D. in History, Anthropology, and Science Technology and Society Studies from MIT and served as a Presidential Scholar in Society and Neuroscience at Columbia University before joining the medical humanities program and department of history faculty at Rice University.

Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at Hopkins with a joint appointment in the East Asian Studies Program and Department of History of Science and Technology. My film and media work has led to collaborations with medical practitioners in Shanghai, Mumbai, São Paulo, New York, Boston, Houston, and Baltimore.

Links and Resources

Visit the Body Maps Website for a taste of something exquisite and delightful.

Lan has all kinds of treasures tucked away on the Internet. Here are a few:
Sunk from Sight: mapping the fluid body
Metaphors of the Mind, a global & interdisciplinary exhibition
Do be sure to visit Lan’s website

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