Zorba Paster

Family physician Dr. Zorba Paster has a down-to-earth style and irrepressible enthusiasm that have made him a favorite with health and fitness-conscious public radio listeners for well over a decade.

Dr. Paster first appeared as a guest expert on Wisconsin Public Radio's newsmagazine, Morning People, with Tom Clark. The two clicked, and Dr. Paster became a regular guest on Clark's statewide, morning drive-time call-in, "Conversations With Tom Clark," and later, "Clark & Company." The programs were so well received, Wisconsin Public Radio teamed the two for a weekly, national talk show "Zorba Paster On Your Health"

A Chicago native, Dr. Paster has traveled and studied extensively in Asia and India, where he volunteered medical expertise and services for the Tibetan refugee population in Northern India's Himalayas. He credits his mentor, the late patient advocate Dr. Robert Mendelsohn (author of "Diary of a Medical Heretic, MALEpractice: The Medical Abuse of Women" and "How to Raise a Healthy Child, in Spite of Your Doctor") with fostering his respect for the patients' rights.

These days, he mentors medical students as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition, Dr. Paster maintains a busy clinical practice in Oregon, WI; chairs the Dean Medical Center Family Practice Department; is past president of the Southcentral Chapter of the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians; is a member of the Institutional Review Board of St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, Wisc.; is active in clinical medical research, and presents workshops on using radio and TV for patient education.

In fall 1992, Dr. Paster was voted Madison, Wisc.'s, "Favorite Self-Help Guru" in "Isthmus" newspaper's annual Native Guide Poll. He also has been featured in newspapers and magazines, including the "Milwaukee Journal" and "Madison Magazine" and wrote the forward to the popular fitness book, "Stretch and Strengthen," by Judy Alter.

In his free time, Dr. Paster enjoys cooking and baking and spending time with his family. He admits to indulging in junk food but says he makes up for it by biking with his family in the summers and, in the winter, downhill skiing with his children in Northern Wisconsin and Colorado. He makes his home in rural Oregon, Wisc., where he lives with his wife, Penny, and their four children.