Zorba Paster

Tendzin Choegyal with Dr Zorba Paster

Robert Zorba Paster, MD is a physician and radio show host.

Paster was born and raised in Chicago. He hosts a weekly radio call-in show on personal health issues called Zorba Paster on Your Health. The show is produced by Wisconsin Public Radio, sponsored by Public Radio International, and is broadcast on public radio stations around the United States. The show's trademark is a lighthearted, humorous approach, made possible by Zorba's banter with his co-host, Tom Clark. The show's style is somewhat similar to National Public Radio's program, Car Talk, providing callers both with good advice and kind-hearted ribbing.

In addition to his weekly show for PRI, Paster provides weekly medical commentaries on a television station in Madison. He is also the editor of TopHealth, a monthly wellness letter with more than 1 million readers. Paster has written The Longevity Code: Your Prescription for a Longer, Sweeter Life with Susan Meltsner, published by Random House and recently released as a paperback. He writes of "the Long Sweet Life", and states that achieving longevity is much more complex than merely maintaining healthy diet and exercise.

Paster and his wife have been involved in Tibetan causes since 1968, having studied under Geshe Sopa, one of America's premier teachers of Tibetan Buddhism In June 2008, together with Dr Richard Chaissonet, he participated to help improving a program of the Tibetan Delek Hospital supported by Johns Hopkins University and aiming to control tuberculosis within the Tibetan diaspora. Paster is the Chairman of Friends of Tibetan Delek Hospital an organization aiming to help Delek Hospital. According to Paster, he provides preventative medical care for the Dalai Lama about once per year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Paster received his pre-med degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and his MD from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He did his internship and residency at Dalhousie University School of Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He is a practicing family physician at the Dean Medical Center near Madison, Wisconsin. Additionally, he is a professor of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health where he teaches medical residents. He and his family live in Oregon, Wisconsin.

Publications

• Heart-Healthy, Low-Fat, Guilt-Free and Tasty Recipes from the Kitchen of Zorba Paster.

Wisconsin Public Radio Association, 2000.

• The Longevity Code: Your Prescription for a Longer, Sweeter Life written with Susan Melstner. New York: Random House, 2001.
• Zorba Paster, "My Trip to See His Holiness, the Dalai Lama," Wisconsin Public Radio, http://www.wpr.org/Zorba/article_dalailama.htm (accessed 16 December 2009).

External links

• PRI Public Radio International, "Zorba Paster on Your Health," PRI Public Radio International. http://www.pri.org/zorba-paster.html (accessed 16 December 2009).
• To The Best Of Our Knowledge, "Medicine and Compassion," Wisconsin Public Radio. http://www.ttbook.org/book/compassion-and-medicine (accessed 22 January 2012)