Bill Frist, M.D.

Chair, The Nature Conservancy, Fmr U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Heart Transplant Surgeon, NashvilleHealth @nashhealthorg, Builder of Healthcare Companies

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Myth: Downpours have always happened. Rainfall isn’t changing.

Truth: Warmer air holds more moisture — about 4% more per 1°F of warming.

When storms form in warmer air, they can produce heavier rainfall.

A nationwide analysis of 1,700 U.S. weather stations shows a clear shift toward heavier rain in recent decades.

When it rains, it pours — more than it used to.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Extreme weather is becoming the next major workforce disruption. For employers, it is now a workforce, health, productivity, and business continuity issue.

Through @healthaction, employers are moving from concern to preparedness.

The employers who prepare will lead. The ones who wait will react crisis by crisis.

Read more: https://t.co/D1Vwlo6Z3i

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Heat, floods, wildfire smoke, hurricanes, and severe storms are already shaping whether people can get to work safely, stay healthy through a shift, care for their families, and keep businesses running.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Employers do not need another abstract warning. They need practical tools, clear policies, and a plan before the next disruption arrives.

The employers who prepare will lead. The ones who wait will react crisis by crisis.

Read more in Forbes: https://t.co/xxNchHmMrn

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Planetary health and human health are inseparable. Thank you to Georgiana Vines and @knoxnews for highlighting the conservation and health work Tracy and I care deeply about.

Tennessee and Appalachia have an extraordinary role to play.

Read it here: https://t.co/m1yFo3plYz

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Biodiversity is not abstract. It is underfoot, overhead, in the streams, in the soil, in the trees, and in the quiet places we too often walk past without noticing.

More to come from Sinking Creek.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Before we can protect a place, we have to know what lives there.

This weekend at our farm in SW Virginia, Tracy and I hosted a BioBlitz with the @austinpeay Southeastern Grasslands Institute. Scientists, students, educators, and naturalists documented 1,000+ species across the farm.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

This BioBlitz helped give scientific definition to what Tracy has been building for decades: a farm that is productive, protected, studied, shared, and preserved for the next generations.

[𝘽𝙧𝙮𝙖𝙣 𝙁 𝘾𝙤𝙠𝙚𝙧 @bcoker]

Faculty colleagues & I had a super day, joining #BioBlitz at Farm at Sinking Creek with Tracy Frist, @bfrist & @segrasslands. Explored possibilities for “Tracy & Bill Frist Center for Appalachian Wellness & the Outdoors” & “Alexander Institute” at @MaryvilleC. #conservation 🌱 🍃

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Instinct. Training. Patience. Trust. Bonnie showed students what it all looks like on a working farm.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Meet Bonnie. A Border Collie herding demo in 7 slides ⬇️

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Speed, angle, distance. All calculated. She moves the flock with precision.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Boulder was a powerful classroom this week.
From the Flatirons to the boardroom, two days with @nature_org’s Global Board, Trustee Council, leadership team, and @nature_colorado offered a chance to learn from Colorado and look ahead with purpose.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

I wrote more in my latest Substack reflection: https://t.co/WO2B4qmjtQ

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

Medicine taught me to look upstream.
As a surgeon, I spent much of my life responding to disease at its most urgent point. But over time, I came to understand that health is shaped long before someone reaches the hospital.

[Bill Frist, M.D. @bfrist]

That realization changed how I think about medicine, prevention, and nature. The health of the body and the health of the world around us were never truly separate.