Glaser drew a crucial distinction between two types of listening required of physicians. The first — external listening — is the technical skill of gathering symptoms, interpreting tests, and making diagnoses. Medical school excels at teaching this. The second — internal listening — is the ability to hear your own emotional and intuitive responses to what you're encountering. This is rarely taught, and often actively discouraged. Glaser connected this to his experience as an actor and director. In his creative work, the best results came not from controlling the process but from surrendering to what was actually happening in the moment. When he tried to force his writing in a predetermined direction, it failed. When he trusted what was emerging, his characters 'took me by the hand and led me through it.' The same principle, he argued, applied to medicine. The speech was delivered to Stanford medical graduates who had spent years learning to master information and technique. Glaser was asking them to develop an entirely different skill: the courage to be present with their own uncertainty and vulnerability, and to let that presence inform their practice.