Christen O'Brien – Medium

Christen O'Brien

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Christen O'Brien
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Human Parts

What It Felt Like to Almost Die

My near-death experience taught me not to fear those final moments

7 min readJan 18, 2019

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What It Felt Like to Almost Die

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Christen O'Brien

My Brush with Anthony Bourdain

“Tony wears fucking espadrilles now!”, she said to me as the three of us huddled together at the after-party, her voice laden with humor…

4 min readAug 27, 2021

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My Brush with Anthony Bourdain

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Christen O'Brien

As I Stood on the Edge of Death

Realizing I was dying was like being pushed into a pool. No sliver, no ounce, no existence of control. I kept my story secret for a…

8 min readAug 18, 2021

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As I Stood on the Edge of Death

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Christen O'Brien

How to Lose Your Best Friend

No one tells you what it’s like to put your dog down, to hold your best friend as they take their last breath. Here’s what no one told me…

12 min readMay 17, 2021

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How to Lose Your Best Friend

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Christen O'Brien

The Truth About His Divorce

The beginning of the actual divorce long predated the beginning of the legal one. You could say it started when his business sank into…

15 min readDec 12, 2020

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The Truth About His Divorce

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Christen O'Brien

We Are Made of Stars: A Look at Human Ashes Under a High Powered Microscope

Everything changed for Gabriela Reyes Fuchs the day she got that phone call from her Father. A physician who saved many lives during his…

6 min readJul 11, 2020

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We Are Made of Stars: A Look at Human Ashes Under a High Powered Microscope

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Christen O'Brien

I Ignored My White Privilege in a Mixed Race Family

In my high school class, I was the only white O’Brien. My Aunt Judy had adopted seven children from Brazil many years earlier, two of whom…

4 min readJun 10, 2020

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I Ignored My White Privilege in a Mixed Race Family

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Christen O'Brien
in
Human Parts

My Dog Lay With Me at the Hour of My Death

She helped me survive with a new understanding of the world around us

8 min readMay 29, 2020

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A black and white photo of the author’s shadow along with her dog’s shadow.

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Christen O'Brien

We’re All Living in a Spaceship Now: The Oddity of Our Pandemic POV

“This is Major Tom to Ground Control I’m steppin’ through the door And I’m floating in the most peculiar way And the stars look very…

4 min readApr 11, 2020

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We’re All Living in a Spaceship Now: The Oddity of Our Pandemic POV

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Christen O'Brien

Why We Struggle to Talk About Death

It wasn’t until I almost died that I began to understand death. After surviving a massive pulmonary embolism that the E.R. physician…

5 min readJan 29, 2020

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Why We Struggle to Talk About Death

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Christen O'Brien

Christen O'Brien

Writer & Collector of life stories. Work featured on The Today Show, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, Medium. Documentary coming out 2022. (www.christenobrien.com)

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