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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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's Divas that Care Radio Stories, strategies and
ideas to inspire positive change.
Welcome to Divas that Care, anetwork of women committed to
making our world a better placefor everyone.
This is a global movement forwomen, by women engaged in a
collaborative effort to create abetter world for future
generations.
To find out more about themovement, visit DivasThatCarecom

(00:24):
after the show.
Right now, though, stay tunedfor another jolt of inspiration.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, hello everyone and welcome back to the Divas
that Care.
My name is Candice Gish.
If this is your very first timetuning in, a huge welcome to
you.
We are listened to in over 30countries around the world.
We have a huge amount ofamazing hosts and guests that
have come onto our platform, andI really do hope that you are
able to go and check them out.
There's always so many amazingstories and we really want to

(00:54):
support these amazingindividuals.
Today, I have a great guest.
I'm going to be welcoming himas a new diva to our family.
His name is Ayel Levit.
Ayel, I'm so excited to bewelcoming you to the Divas.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
Thank you very much, candice, and thank you to the
Divas that Care, because care isreally the most important thing
that should drive us to makethe world a better place.
So I love the name.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Oh, thank you so much .
Would you mind kind ofintroducing yourself to us today
and telling us a little bitabout yourself?

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Of course.
So I'm a 54 years old physician, I'm a dermatologist board
certified professor at Columbiaand associate professor at Mount
Sinai and some other locations.
But really what?
What probably forged mypersonality is being forced to

(01:46):
travel the world, and I was bornin Ukraine.
At the age of eight months old,my family moved to Israel.
I lived in Africa for aboutseven years, on and off between
Israel and Africa, differentcountries, but mostly Nigeria.
I had the experience of beingthe minority, the only white boy
in a non-school, and was calledby names like Mbakara.

(02:12):
Mbakara in Igbo that's one ofthe languages in Nigeria means
banana peel, peeled skin becauseI'm white.
So they figured you know, whenyou wound yourself, you see
underneath the skin is whiter,and so that's what they said and
that you know is sometimes usedas a derogatory term, but I

(02:34):
never really accepted it as that.
And then, from Israel, moved tothe United States at the age of
16 to join my parents.
So every time I went fromcountry to country I had to make
new friends.
It was scary, but it was alsoliberating.
One of the things that I foundwas a universal language, was

(02:54):
humanity, was what actuallythere is, more that puts us
together, that unites us thandivides us together.
That unites us then divides us,and sports was the way to break
the ice.
And so, uh, from a young age Istarted playing sports, uh,

(03:15):
basketball running.
At the age of 14, I was, umsorry, 15.
I got the second place inisrael in the triathlon, which
is 1000 meter shark foot andlong distance jump.
The person who got first placewas a friend of mine and he was
sharing with me.
At that time I didn't realize1985, that his parents'
physicians were giving himsteroids and I was like, well,

(03:37):
whatever steroids are not, butlet the best man win.
And he won by a lot of pointsahead of me, and then the third
place.
And then I moved to the UnitedStates.
Here, where I also sports, Iwas doing specifically martial
arts.
A few months after I arrived, Iwas invited to go to the junior

(03:58):
olympics in Taekwondo, and thereason I'm sharing it, it will
lead perhaps to the story thatwe will talk about later, but
that was basically what I wantedto do.
Actually, I wanted to be anathlete, I wanted to represent
Israel in the Olympics.
I wanted to make those who, in1972, were trying to come in for

(04:23):
a peaceful opportunity tocompete in the Olympics in
Munich.
I wanted to make their nameimmortalized because they were
murdered in cold blood by peoplewho tried to make the Black
September, who tried to make apoint out of the Olympics, out

(04:43):
of a peaceful event, even inGreek times.
All wars would stop during thattime, and it was very painful,
to me, very dear, and so Iwanted to kind of.
It was something that motivatedme to excel so that one day I
will.
That dream never happenedbecause my parents said why
don't you go first to medicalschool and then you'll go to the
Olympics, first to medicalschool and then you'll go to the

(05:07):
olympics?
And I had the opportunity to berepresentative of the us team
actually in in the olympics inseoul in taekwondo 1992, but I
went to med school 91 instead.
And, as they say, the rest ishistory.
And so I just followed theadvice of my parents, who told
me become a physician.
Sometimes people wonder whyphysicians, why specifically

(05:31):
Jews, go into these professionsas medicine or law, and the
answer is that because Jews inthe past were constantly
persecuted, they found that inorder to survive they had to

(05:52):
have a profession that theycould move around with.
Medicine was one and the otherthing is it's a profession that
really is needed, because whenyou were a king you wanted to
have the best health, like weall wish.
Health and happiness, right,you can't have happiness without
being healthy.
So this way it kind of openeddoors for you and that's

(06:13):
basically the idea, even thoughnow, thank God, in the United
States, we are all equal.
I mean, you know, there areunfortunately people who try to
change that, but I pray, hopeand it doesn't look like it
would change.
Still, that is so ingrained inthe psychology and fear that it

(06:34):
propels a lot of the families tosuggest for their children to
be specifically in thoseprofessions, not for the money,
because it's not the mostmonetary rewarding, but because
it is more of a security, nomatter whether there is war or
whether there is, you know,attack on certain minorities.

(06:56):
Sorry, did I say too much?

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Not even a little bit .
I'll be honest with you.
That's probably one of the mostinspirational introductions
I've ever heard on the Divas atCare.
So thank you so much that wow,that's all I can say is that was
so beautiful, thank you thankyou.
Thank you for the thank you weare so happy that you are part
of the Divas at Care and you aredefinitely an honorary diva,

(07:19):
and so thank you for that.
I really want to know why youdecided, with everything that
you've done in your life, whyyou decided to become an author.
You did this amazing bookcalled the King's Race.
Why did you decide to write it?

Speaker 3 (07:33):
So one of the things that we wish the world is health
and happiness.
As a physician, I can do itone-on-one with a patient, but
there is only so many patientsthat I can take care of.
I can teach other futurephysicians and they will spread
that, but a more effective wayis, in fact, what you are doing

(07:57):
with your audience me to dosimilarly, I have to have
exposure of the ideas that I'mtrying to share in a larger
audience, and for that I had towrite a book, and hopefully the
book will be read by parents totheir children, by children

(08:20):
themselves, and discussed.
And that is really what I want.
I want to open discussion, Iwant to open imagination, I want
to bring us back to the rootsof family, of what brought us
together and kept us together.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Tell me what this book is all about.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
The book is about love, about hopes, about
believing in yourself even Ifothers don't believe in you,
including your own family, whichis truly the most difficult
thing, because when your ownfamily believes that you are

(09:03):
incapable of achieving yourgoals, you truly feel it very
painful.
It's very painful because it'sthe closest people.
If somebody from the outsideyou don't know says something
like OK, it's very painfulbecause it's the closest people.
If somebody from the outsideyou don't know says something
it's like okay.
But if someone who you love andyou give a positive energy to
and in return you're getting anegative energy, then you're

(09:25):
starting believing in that andthe idea is breaking that cycle
believing in yourself, believingin your dream, dreaming high.
So those are obviouslygeneralized terms, but in order
for it to be resonating withchildren and with adults, I
found that the best way is touse a metaphor and the best way
to share that metaphor isthrough animals, because with

(09:52):
animals you don't feel rightaway.
Because with animals you don'tfeel right away, there's no
prejudice to begin with.
Right, if you say that theperson 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, likewith animal farm, you are able

(10:17):
to bypass that and allow thereader to identify and recognize
in the animals, perhaps eventhemselves, in the animals that
they want or situations thatthey had gone through.

(10:37):
And so, in order for us to beable to unite around it, there's
got to be some form of mission,and the mission is a race, a
competition.
Preparing for that competitionand how to win is one of the
ideas that we have in life,because life, in a way, is

(11:00):
survival, and what helps ussurvive is our resolve and our
ability to get up even when wefall.
And, of course, beingsurrounded by a team is very,
very important.
But what kind of team?
And so over there I describe thestory of fall of a young male

(11:24):
horse that is born to a famousrace horse in a kingdom that
reveres horses because they arethe most important animal in the
entire kingdom.
And every five years there is acompetition.
And in order to compete, youhave to meet three criteria you

(11:46):
have to have uniform color black, white, brown you can't have
spots.
You have to be large, you haveto be big, strong, that is and
you have to not cry from thepoint of birth.
Like the Spartans, they used toactually, you know, throw away
the babies that cried when theywere born.
Nowadays we know we hit them onthe buttock so that they will

(12:10):
cry, so to open their lungs andmake them active.
So we realize how small-mindedthat idea was.
And yet throughout our historywe have allowed small-mindedness
, prejudice to destroy beauty.
And so through that I'm showinghow you're having the mother

(12:32):
giving birth and all the horses,all the other animals of the
kingdom and other kingdoms arecoming over to see that birth of
Atlas' son.
And as he's born, their firstthing 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 theylook at him.

(12:53):
He's like he's tiny, he's likeweak.
And then, wait a second, whenthe, 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 whitespots there, and the mom is is
feverishly trying to rub off thespots, thinking it's maybe some

(13:15):
dirt and stuff, but it doesn't.
And so they kind of turn theirhead away from him and all he
wants to do is he wants the loveof his father and recognition.
And you see that situation asit progresses, as he tries to
deal with his fears and thenhe's being sold to a farmer and

(13:37):
that's the only human in theentire story that is named by
name, and the farmer's name isLevitt, and a little secret why
his name is Levitt is.
My last name is Levitt and Iwrote it as a story for my son
when he was in kindergarten.
For my son when he was inkindergarten and I was asked, as

(14:00):
all the parents were, to havethe opportunity to read to them
some story, some book in class.
And I went the day beforebecause we're all busy, you know
, procrastinating.
So I went the day before intohis bedroom looking through all
the books and I couldn't findany book that really resonated
with me, that spoke to me, thatI felt like this age would get

(14:21):
them excited and I wanted towrite something on the level of
what my mom used to read to me.
And I think you know for allthe divas that cared we're
talking about care.
This is such a special moment.
Take that opportunity, spendtime and read to your child,
because you know what, one daythey fly off the cuckoo's nest.

(14:42):
And that special time when theygo to bed, when they're not
distracted by phones, when theywant that safety and they hear
your voice, that's the mostbeautiful thing.
That is your lullaby.
Read them a story, a story thatwill inspire them because, as
they go to bed, it's the mostprotective, most beautiful
moment that you get to sharewith them, and they'll remember

(15:03):
it for life.
Look at me, 54.
I still remember when my momused to read to me, and the
books she used to read to me wasactually in Russian.
It was Alexander SergeyevichPushkin who truly revolutionized
the language, the Russianlanguage, kind of like
Shakespeare did, but not tooffend Shakespeare, it's a very
difficult language.
The Russian of SergeyevichPushkin, who has his own amazing

(15:25):
story.
For those who don't know, hewas the great grandson of a
slave.
He was from Ethiopia, some sayhe was a Jewish slave, some say
he was a Jewish slave.
He was bought by the friends ofKing Peter the Great, tsar
Peter the Great, from the Frenchmonarch and he ended up

(15:49):
becoming the.
He really loved him and heended up becoming the head of
his navy.
And this is his great grandson,alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin,
who revolutionized the Russianlanguage, and the language and
the imagery was so special and Icouldn't find anything like
that.
And you know, the Little Princeis a good book, but it's too
adult for that age and so I Idecided to write this book and I
stayed up all night until I hadto, kind of you know, read it

(16:14):
to them around 12 o'clock and I,as I was reading to them, and I
saw their smiles and their wideopen eyes, their, their
laughter, as I was making thevoices for the different animals
.
Having lived in africa, youknow I can make the different,
you know, sounds of, you know,like you know, so I could use

(16:36):
the different animals that werein that and they were just
loving it, and so it was.
I realized I have to finish thebook and so that's why there is
that one.
It was for a present from myson, isidore.
The name left there, but that'sbasically the idea.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Sorry, no, my gosh, that is just wonderful.
I love it and it really doesresonate with the Divas that
Care.
You know, that's kind of why wehad started our program.
Like you, using those metaphors, is we started this because we
were looking for a tribe of ourstuff 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 aboutcats, it's about dogs, it's
about the connections you know,we even have like an anthology

(17:14):
with amazing women that havewrote about these animals.
Honestly, I'm just smilinglistening to you describe this,
because this is everything thatwe have we've done the last 15
years, and the reason why I hadstarted this podcast is because
of my four daughters.
It is because I wanted toinspire them and to have amazing

(17:35):
individuals like yourself onour podcast.
I've dedicated my entire lifeto inspiring other people to be
the best that they can be andjust want to say thank you and
applaud you for everything thatyou'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 wouldlove to have you back on.
I've had a pleasure justchatting with you.
It always goes by so quicklythese podcasts.
Pleasure just chatting with you.
It always goes by so quicklythese podcasts.
And if you don't mind, wouldyou come back onto the Divas at
Care and share more things withour 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 Ialways ask our amazing guests is
not only I would love you toleave your social media, all the
links and places where they canpurchase your book, how they
can get a hold of you, but alsocould you leave us with some
tips and tools to inspire ustoday?

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Wow, wow.
So I will Gosh.
There's a lot, but I would dotwo.
I would say first one wonderfulgame that you should play with
your kids.
Try to do that as you're goingon those long drives.

(19:00):
To make a connection, let thephones be off and, as you're
driving, play a game that weplay.
And that's how this storyactually was born, way back when
.
Have each one choose a word, onesingle word.
So, like for this they chosehorse, carriage and race, and

(19:27):
then make a story right away andeach of you use those three
words to make a story andinteract and talk and then
choose which story you like themost and why you like those
stories.
I think it's beautiful.
The other way is you can justsit around the table and make
the same game and then tell them.
You know what, if those storiesare good, perhaps you can make
a book out of it.
So that's about writinginspiration and the idea is just

(19:49):
to play it.
Forget about the spelling,forget about the punctuation.
I'm the worst speller, theworst punctuator.
Thank God now there is systemsyou know grammarly can correct
it.
But concentrate on the ideas,because those are really the
ones that you want to discusswith them and that matter and
you bond through them, so theyhear what you find are the key,

(20:09):
important values that you wantto pass on to them without
telling them you should do that.
You should do that because noneof us like to be lectured to.
The other thing that I wouldlike to share at the end is
something that I close withevery post on my instagram and
facebook, which, by the way, Ihave two.
It's Levitt DermatologyL-E-V-I-T-T Dermatology, and my

(20:34):
first and last name is LevittMD,where I do more exercise
routine and health showing them.
And that is I close with thesentence be good, do good, say
good and may good come your way,because often we forget about
the importance of saying a goodthing.

(20:54):
So in the morning, as I runevery morning on the boardwalk I
run anywhere from three to fivemiles I pass by different
people and I always smile atthem and I wish them good
morning, have a beautiful day,and you can see the smiles that
it generates back.
It doesn't matter.

(21:15):
You know how old they are, whatrace they are, what gender they
are.
Some of them scream at me asthey see me running, because I
run with the American flag andthe Israeli flag.
They scream at me freePalestine.
I say God bless you.
You know the point is let'sbring some goodness into the
world.
Why, if we will, it will comeeventually back to us.

(21:41):
Jesus said it beautifully.
But when he said here's myother cheek, he didn't mean I'm
not going to defend myself.
He simply mean say good.
If someone tells you bad stuffdoesn't mean that you need to
retaliate with bad stuff, badwords, and if we can hold us
back and lead with a positive um, with a positive mental state,

(22:05):
we will get positive energyboomeranged back at us.

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 goingto be posting all of his
information on our social mediaand make sure that you pass it
on to as many friends and familyas possible.
Also, make sure that you checkout all of our other podcasts,
our hosts on the Divas that CareNetwork and support them in the

(22:39):
best way you can.
Please like, share and commenton this podcast on all the
different platforms that it willbe at.
Remember to do something kind.
You know this world needskindness.
It needs people like youlistening to the Remember to do
something kind.
You know this world needskindness.
It needs people like youlistening to the podcast to do
something kind.
It's that ripple effect, guys,so make sure you pay it forward.
Thanks again to my amazingguests and I hope that all of
you have a beautiful day.

(23:00):
Take care everyone.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Thanks for listening.
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