Healthy Mind, Healthy Life

What happens when the life you built with years of discipline, sacrifice, and dedication starts to feel like it belongs to someone else? This episode is for anyone who has ever looked at their own achievements and quietly wondered, is this still me? Dr. Cristina LePort, a cardiologist who practiced medicine for over thirty years, joins host Sana for a candid conversation about reinvention, the courage it takes to begin again, and what it really means to evolve.

Through her story, from growing up in Italy hating to write, to emigrating to America, to spending years collecting rejection letters before becoming a traditionally published medical thriller author, Cristina offers something rare: an honest, unhurried account of what following your curiosity actually costs, and why it is almost always worth it.

About the Guest:

Dr. Cristina LePort was born in Bologna, Italy, attended medical school at the University of Bologna, and completed her Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship in the United States. She practiced medicine for over thirty years before retiring in 2023 to become a full-time author. She is the Amazon bestselling author of the medical thrillers Dissection and Change of Heart, and her upcoming novel Defrosted has earned a rare Kirkus Review star.

Key Takeaways:

• The things you hate at one point in your life can become the very things that set you free. Cristina hated writing as a child because she had to write what others told her to. As an author, she writes whatever she imagines. That shift from assignment to autonomy changed everything.
• Reinvention doesn't have to mean abandoning who you are. Cristina didn't leave medicine behind. She brought it with her into her fiction. Her medical knowledge is the foundation of every thriller she writes, including the high-stakes pacing, the diagnostic thinking, and the weight of life-and-death decisions.
• Rejection at scale is part of the creative path. Getting published traditionally means entering a world where only about 2% of manuscripts find a home. Cristina received hundreds of rejections. Her response each time was to go home and write something new. The waiting period produced three to four novels.
• You cannot survive the creative journey on talent alone. You need resilience. Writing coaches, editors, publicists, literary agents: Cristina invested in every layer of support available to her. Asking for help is not weakness in the creative world. It is strategy.
• Evolution is not optional. It is survival. Staying in a version of your life that has exhausted its purpose is its own kind of stagnation. Cristina left a career she loved because she could feel it had given her what it had to give. Knowing when to move is as important as knowing how.
• The purpose of a book is to complete a circle between the author and the reader. You begin with an idea, you build the world, and the reader arrives at your original meaning on their own terms. That connection, stranger to stranger through story, is what makes all the difficulty worthwhile.

Connect With Dr. Cristina LePort:

Mentioned in this episode:

Books (available on Amazon, search: Cristina LePort, C-R-I-S-T-I-N-A, L-E-P-O-R-T):

• Dissection (Amazon #1 in Political Thriller and Suspense)
• Change of Heart (Sequel to Dissection, published October 2024)
• Defrosted (upcoming, earned a Kirkus Review star, available for pre-order)

Website: https://cristinaleport.com

Substack / Newsletter: Available via website

YouTube: "The Journey to Publication" series by Cristina LePort

Instagram: @cristinaleport (https://www.instagram.com/cristinaleport)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-rizza-leport-18922b167/

Episode Chapters: