The King's Race

Come and check out today's podcast with Host Candace Gish as she chats with the amazing Eyal Levit about his new Book, The King's Race on the Divas That Care.

Eyal Levit, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist at Levit Dermatology in the Manhattan Beach area of Brooklyn, New York. 

Dr. Levit completed his residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, now New York Presbyterian Hospital, in 1999. In recognition of his exceptional skill, he received additional fellowship training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Here, he studied rigorously in Mohs, laser, and dermatologic surgery. 

Following his surgical fellowship, Dr. Levit completed a two-year fellowship in cosmetic dermatology. He presented nationally and internationally through his studies on laser resurfacing, liposuction, fat injections, facelifts, blepharoplasty, acne therapy, and scar revisions. 

His last international presentation was in Spain in June of 2016, where he was a keynote speaker during the World Congress of Cosmetic Dermatology. He presented his inventions in cutting-edge acne therapy and blepharoplasty and described his nonsurgical nose and facial rejuvenation techniques.

Dr. Levit is excited to welcome new and returning patients to his practice.

Dr. Eyal Levit has served for 15 years as the director of Cosmetic and dermatologic surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital, Mount Sinai medical center, and received the distinguished award for best teacher of the year award for his contribution in that field.

Dr. Levit is highly recognized as an expert in the cosmetic surgery field and was selected by the ASDS (American Society of Dermatologic Surgery) as a fellowship training center for other board-certified dermatologists who want to take an additional year to improve and learn cutting-edge techniques for cosmetic procedures.

Dr. Levit performs hundreds of skin cancer surgeries a year and brings his vast dermatologic knowledge and experience of cosmetic surgery into his patient medical and cosmetic reconstruction and vis versa, his vast suturing experience techniques to his cosmetic surgeries, helping his patients feel and look better. 

Dr. Levit is the primary author and creator of the ABC rules to diagnose nail melanoma published by the JAAD in 2000.

Outside of his professional career he has also authored books for both adults and children: “A Lost Art” where he describes his experience in dermatology in an educational amusing and inspiring way to the lay public. In his most recent book “The King’s Race” his vivid imagination and life experience uses animals to help heal, inspire, and improve hope and acceptance in our stereotype-riddled society. Among his hobbies, he has written songs (both lyrics & music) performing some of them in children's charity and other regional settings.

Dr. Levit believes that medicine & surgery are like all other fields (teaching, car repair, shoe sales) they begin and end with the person providing them. Once they are qualified it is not how smart they are but how much they want to make a difference and help those seeking their assistance, this is truly what makes the difference.

Dr. Ayel Levit, dermatologist and author, shares his journey from being raised across multiple countries to writing "The King's Race," a children's book about overcoming prejudice and believing in oneself even when others don't.

• Born in Ukraine and raised in Israel, Nigeria, and the US, experiencing life as a minority in different contexts
• Found sports as a universal language that helped him connect across cultural barriers
• Nearly pursued an Olympic career before following his parents' advice to study medicine
• Wrote "The King's Race" initially as a bedtime story for his son's kindergarten class
• Book uses animal characters to explore themes of self-belief, overcoming

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Transcript

Welcome to Divas that Care

Speaker 1 0:00

It's Divas that Care Radio Stories, strategies and ideas to inspire positive change. Welcome to Divas that Care, a network of women committed to making our world a better place for everyone. This is a global movement for women, by women engaged in a collaborative effort to create a better world for future generations. To find out more about the movement, visit DivasThatCarecom after the show. Right now, though, stay tuned for another jolt of inspiration.

Speaker 2 0:32

Well, hello everyone and welcome back to the Divas that Care. My name is Candice Gish. If this is your very first time tuning in, a huge welcome to you. We are listened to in over 30 countries around the world. We have a huge amount of amazing hosts and guests that have come onto our platform, and I really do hope that you are able to go and check them out. There's always so many amazing stories and we really want to support these amazing individuals. Today, I have a great guest. I'm going to be welcoming him as a new diva to our family. His name is Ayel Levit. Ayel, I'm so excited to be welcoming you to the Divas.

Speaker 3 1:07

Thank you very much, candice, and thank you to the Divas that Care, because care is really the most important thing that should drive us to make the world a better place. So I love the name.

Speaker 2 1:18

Oh, thank you so much. Would you mind kind of introducing yourself to us today and telling us a little bit about yourself?

Speaker 3 1:25

Of course. So I'm a 54 years old physician, I'm a dermatologist board certified professor at Columbia and associate professor at Mount Sinai and some other locations. But really what? What probably forged my personality is being forced to travel the world, and I was born in Ukraine. At the age of eight months old, my family moved to Israel. I lived in Africa for about seven years, on and off between Israel and Africa, different countries, but mostly Nigeria. I had the experience of being the minority, the only white boy in a non-school, and was called by names like Mbakara. Mbakara in Igbo that's one of the languages in Nigeria means banana peel, peeled skin because I'm white. So they figured you know, when you wound yourself, you see underneath the skin is whiter, and so that's what they said and that you know is sometimes used as a derogatory term, but I never really accepted it as that.

Speaker 3 2:35

And then, from Israel, moved to the United States at the age of 16 to join my parents. So every time I went from country to country I had to make new friends. It was scary, but it was also liberating. One of the things that I found was a universal language, was humanity, was what actually there is, more that puts us together, that unites us than divides us together. That unites us then divides us, and sports was the way to break the ice. And so, uh, from a young age I started playing sports, uh, basketball running. At the age of 14, I was, um sorry, 15. I got the second place in israel in the triathlon, which is 1000 meter shark foot and long distance jump. The person who got first place was a friend of mine and he was sharing with me. At that time I didn't realize 1985, that his parents' physicians were giving him steroids and I was like, well, whatever steroids are not, but let the best man win. And he won by a lot of points ahead of me, and then the third place. And then I moved to the United States. Here, where I also sports, I was doing specifically martial arts.

Speaker 3 3:52

A few months after I arrived, I was invited to go to the junior olympics in Taekwondo, and the reason I'm sharing it, it will lead perhaps to the story that we will talk about later, but that was basically what I wanted to do. Actually, I wanted to be an athlete, I wanted to represent Israel in the Olympics. I wanted to make those who, in 1972, were trying to come in for a peaceful opportunity to compete in the Olympics in Munich. I wanted to make their name immortalized because they were murdered in cold blood by people who tried to make the Black September, who tried to make a point out of the Olympics, out of a peaceful event, even in Greek times. All wars would stop during that time, and it was very painful, to me, very dear, and so I wanted to kind of. It was something that motivated me to excel so that one day I will.

The Olympic Dream and Medical Path

Speaker 3 4:57

That dream never happened because my parents said why don't you go first to medical school and then you'll go to the Olympics, first to medical school and then you'll go to the olympics? And I had the opportunity to be representative of the us team actually in in the olympics in seoul in taekwondo 1992, but I went to med school 91 instead. And, as they say, the rest is history. And so I just followed the advice of my parents, who told me become a physician.

Speaker 3 5:26

Sometimes people wonder why physicians, why specifically Jews, go into these professions as medicine or law, and the answer is that because Jews in the past were constantly persecuted, they found that in order to survive they had to have a profession that they could move around with.

Speaker 3 5:55

Medicine was one and the other thing is it's a profession that really is needed, because when you were a king you wanted to have the best health, like we all wish. Health and happiness, right, you can't have happiness without being healthy. So this way it kind of opened doors for you and that's basically the idea, even though now, thank God, in the United States, we are all equal. I mean, you know, there are unfortunately people who try to change that, but I pray, hope and it doesn't look like it would change. Still, that is so ingrained in the psychology and fear that it propels a lot of the families to suggest for their children to be specifically in those professions, not for the money, because it's not the most monetary rewarding, but because it is more of a security, no matter whether there is war or whether there is, you know, attack on certain minorities. Sorry, did I say too much?

Speaker 2 6:58

Not even a little bit. I'll be honest with you. That's probably one of the most inspirational introductions I've ever heard on the Divas at Care. So thank you so much that wow, that's all I can say is that was so beautiful, thank you thank you.

The King's Race: A Book of Belief

Speaker 2 7:12

Thank you for the thank you we are so happy that you are part of the Divas at Care and you are definitely an honorary diva, and so thank you for that. I really want to know why you decided, with everything that you've done in your life, why you decided to become an author. You did this amazing book called the King's Race. Why did you decide to write it?

Speaker 3 7:33

So one of the things that we wish the world is health and happiness. As a physician, I can do it one-on-one with a patient, but there is only so many patients that I can take care of. I can teach other future physicians and they will spread that, but a more effective way is, in fact, what you are doing with your audience me to do similarly, I have to have exposure of the ideas that I'm trying to share in a larger audience, and for that I had to write a book, and hopefully the book will be read by parents to their children, by children themselves, and discussed. And that is really what I want. I want to open discussion, I want to open imagination, I want to bring us back to the roots of family, of what brought us together and kept us together.

Speaker 2 8:37

Tell me what this book is all about.

Speaker 3 8:40

The book is about love, about hopes, about believing in yourself even If others don't believe in you, including your own family, which is truly the most difficult thing, because when your own family believes that you are incapable of achieving your goals, you truly feel it very painful. It's very painful because it's the closest people. If somebody from the outside you don't know says something like OK, it's very painful because it's the closest people. If somebody from the outside you don't know says something it's like okay. But if someone who you love and you give a positive energy to and in return you're getting a negative energy, then you're starting believing in that and the idea is breaking that cycle believing in yourself, believing in your dream, dreaming high. So those are obviously generalized terms, but in order for it to be resonating with children and with adults, I found that the best way is to use a metaphor and the best way to share that metaphor is through animals, because with animals you don't feel right away. Because with animals you don't feel right away, there's no prejudice to begin with. Right, if you say that the person was one race or one gender or non-gender or whatever, or one nationality, there's right away, at a certain age, developed a gender bias a bias, but if you use animals, like with animal farm, you are able to bypass that and allow the reader to identify and recognize in the animals, perhaps even themselves, in the animals that they want or situations that they had gone through. And so, in order for us to be able to unite around it, there's got to be some form of mission, and the mission is a race, a competition. Preparing for that competition and how to win is one of the ideas that we have in life, because life, in a way, is survival, and what helps us survive is our resolve and our ability to get up even when we fall. And, of course, being surrounded by a team is very, very important. But what kind of team?

Speaker 3 11:17

And so over there I describe the story of fall of a young male horse that is born to a famous race horse in a kingdom that reveres horses because they are the most important animal in the entire kingdom. And every five years there is a competition. And in order to compete, you have to meet three criteria you have to have uniform color black, white, brown you can't have spots. You have to be large, you have to be big, strong, that is and you have to not cry from the point of birth. Like the Spartans, they used to actually, you know, throw away the babies that cried when they were born. Nowadays we know we hit them on the buttock so that they will cry, so to open their lungs and make them active. So we realize how small-minded that idea was. And yet throughout our history we have allowed small-mindedness, prejudice to destroy beauty.

Speaker 3 12:28

And so through that I'm showing how you're having the mother giving birth and all the horses, all the other animals of the kingdom and other kingdoms are coming over to see that birth of Atlas' son. And as he's born, their first thing that they hear is they hear crying. It's like, oh my God. And they look at one another. He's crying, what will happen? And then they come out and they look at him. He's like he's tiny, he's like weak. And then, wait a second, when the, when the you know, the juices of the birth are off, they're like wait a second, is that like spots? He's not even color, he's got. He's black with with white spots there, and the mom is is feverishly trying to rub off the spots, thinking it's maybe some dirt and stuff, but it doesn't. And so they kind of turn their head away from him and all he wants to do is he wants the love of his father and recognition. And you see that situation as it progresses, as he tries to deal with his fears and then he's being sold to a farmer and that's the only human in the entire story that is named by name, and the farmer's name is Levitt, and a little secret why his name is Levitt is.

A Bedtime Story for Connection

Speaker 3 13:46

My last name is Levitt and I wrote it as a story for my son when he was in kindergarten. For my son when he was in kindergarten and I was asked, as all the parents were, to have the opportunity to read to them some story, some book in class. And I went the day before because we're all busy, you know, procrastinating. So I went the day before into his bedroom looking through all the books and I couldn't find any book that really resonated with me, that spoke to me, that I felt like this age would get them excited and I wanted to write something on the level of what my mom used to read to me. And I think you know for all the divas that cared we're talking about care.

Speaker 3 14:34

This is such a special moment. Take that opportunity, spend time and read to your child, because you know what, one day they fly off the cuckoo's nest. And that special time when they go to bed, when they're not distracted by phones, when they want that safety and they hear your voice, that's the most beautiful thing. That is your lullaby. Read them a story, a story that will inspire them because, as they go to bed, it's the most protective, most beautiful moment that you get to share with them, and they'll remember it for life. Look at me, 54. I still remember when my mom used to read to me, and the books she used to read to me was actually in Russian.

Speaker 3 15:09

It was Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin who truly revolutionized the language, the Russian language, kind of like Shakespeare did, but not to offend Shakespeare, it's a very difficult language. The Russian of Sergeyevich Pushkin, who has his own amazing story. For those who don't know, he was the great grandson of a slave. He was from Ethiopia, some say he was a Jewish slave, some say he was a Jewish slave. He was bought by the friends of King Peter the Great, tsar Peter the Great, from the French monarch and he ended up becoming the. He really loved him and he ended up becoming the head of his navy. And this is his great grandson, alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, who revolutionized the Russian language, and the language and the imagery was so special and I couldn't find anything like that.

Speaker 3 16:02

And you know, the Little Prince is a good book, but it's too adult for that age and so I I decided to write this book and I stayed up all night until I had to, kind of you know, read it to them around 12 o'clock and I, as I was reading to them, and I saw their smiles and their wide open eyes, their, their laughter, as I was making the voices for the different animals. Having lived in africa, you know I can make the different, you know, sounds of, you know, like you know, so I could use the different animals that were in that and they were just loving it, and so it was. I realized I have to finish the book and so that's why there is that one. It was for a present from my son, isidore. The name left there, but that's basically the idea.

Speaker 2 16:52

Sorry, no, my gosh, that is just wonderful. I love it and it really does resonate with the Divas that Care. You know, that's kind of why we had started our program. Like you, using those metaphors, is we started this because we were looking for a tribe of our stuff in the Divas that Care is about animals, it's about horses, it's about cats. It about animals. It's about horses, it's about cats, it's about dogs, it's about the connections you know, we even have like an anthology with amazing women that have wrote about these animals. Honestly, I'm just smiling listening to you describe this, because this is everything that we have we've done the last 15 years, and the reason why I had started this podcast is because of my four daughters. It is because I wanted to inspire them and to have amazing individuals like yourself on our podcast. I've dedicated my entire life to inspiring other people to be the best that they can be and just want to say thank you and applaud you for everything that you've done.

Speaker 3 17:48

Thank you, thank you, thank you. And those who can't see me, because it's just a voice, I am here sending you guys all kisses.

Speaker 2 17:57

This has been so much fun. I really do think that I would love to have you back on. I've had a pleasure just chatting with you. It always goes by so quickly these podcasts. Pleasure just chatting with you. It always goes by so quickly these podcasts. And if you don't mind, would you come back onto the Divas at Care and share more things with our listeners.

Speaker 3 18:17

If you don't mind of course I would love that. I would love that. It would be an honor. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 18:21

Wonderful. So one of the last things I always ask our amazing guests is not only I would love you to leave your social media, all the links and places where they can purchase your book, how they can get a hold of you, but also could you leave us with some tips and tools to inspire us today?

Speaker 3 18:40

Wow, wow. So I will Gosh. There's a lot, but I would do two. I would say first one wonderful game that you should play with your kids. Try to do that as you're going on those long drives. To make a connection, let the phones be off and, as you're driving, play a game that we play. And that's how this story actually was born, way back when.

Speaker 3 19:14

Have each one choose a word, one single word. So, like for this they chose horse, carriage and race, and then make a story right away and each of you use those three words to make a story and interact and talk and then choose which story you like the most and why you like those stories. I think it's beautiful. The other way is you can just sit around the table and make the same game and then tell them. You know what, if those stories are good, perhaps you can make a book out of it. So that's about writing inspiration and the idea is just to play it.

Speaker 3 19:50

Forget about the spelling, forget about the punctuation. I'm the worst speller, the worst punctuator. Thank God now there is systems you know grammarly can correct it. But concentrate on the ideas, because those are really the ones that you want to discuss with them and that matter and you bond through them, so they hear what you find are the key, important values that you want to pass on to them without telling them you should do that. You should do that because none of us like to be lectured to.

Speaker 3 20:18

The other thing that I would like to share at the end is something that I close with every post on my instagram and facebook, which, by the way, I have two. It's Levitt Dermatology L-E-V-I-T-T Dermatology, and my first and last name is LevittMD, where I do more exercise routine and health showing them. And that is I close with the sentence be good, do good, say good and may good come your way, because often we forget about the importance of saying a good thing. So in the morning, as I run every morning on the boardwalk I run anywhere from three to five miles I pass by different people and I always smile at them and I wish them good morning, have a beautiful day, and you can see the smiles that it generates back. It doesn't matter. You know how old they are, what race they are, what gender they are. Some of them scream at me as they see me running, because I run with the American flag and the Israeli flag. They scream at me free Palestine.

Speaker 3 21:28

I say God bless you. You know the point is let's bring some goodness into the world. Why, if we will, it will come eventually back to us. Jesus said it beautifully. But when he said here's my other cheek, he didn't mean I'm not going to defend myself. He simply mean say good. If someone tells you bad stuff doesn't mean that you need to retaliate with bad stuff, bad words, and if we can hold us back and lead with a positive um, with a positive mental state, we will get positive energy boomeranged back at us.

Episode Closing and Call to Action

Speaker 2 22:13

Yes, that is so true. Thank you so much. I love that.

Speaker 3 22:18

Thank you. Thank you, Candice.

Speaker 2 22:19

Oh my gosh and to all of our listeners make sure you go and check out Ayal I'm going to be posting all of his information on our social media and make sure that you pass it on to as many friends and family as possible. Also, make sure that you check out all of our other podcasts, our hosts on the Divas that Care Network and support them in the best way you can. Please like, share and comment on this podcast on all the different platforms that it will be at. Remember to do something kind. You know this world needs kindness. It needs people like you listening to the Remember to do something kind. You know this world needs kindness. It needs people like you listening to the podcast to do something kind. It's that ripple effect, guys, so make sure you pay it forward. Thanks again to my amazing guests and I hope that all of you have a beautiful day. Take care everyone.

Speaker 1 23:02

Thanks for listening. This show was brought to you by Divas that Care. Connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram and, of course, on divasthatcarecom, where you can subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss a thing.