Dr. Oz will see you on his own show

The Columbia University professor and coauthor of the best-selling “You’’ series will tackle newsy medical topics and field audience questions. Last month, we sat down with Dr. Oz and got the vitals on the program, which he described as a “listening show’’ that will actually “star’’ the audience. “They’re going to keep me honest and do what [Winfrey] was so great at doing,’’ he explains, “which was to make sure that I was answering the real questions of America.’’

Q. By my count you have at least a half-dozen jobs. How will you manage all of this? Don’t you advocate stress reduction?

A. The big reason for us being in New York is I practice in New York. You take a show like mine, we tape three days a week, three weeks a month. That leaves two free days a week and one of those is going to be pure clinical, where I go and teach, and the last week of the month I’ll just operate.

Q. Can you walk down the street without people asking you to examine moles or ask about prescriptions?

A. No, but that’s a much better question to ask than “Can you give me an autograph?’’

Q. When a celebrity dies, like Michael Jackson say, you and other medical people in the media get called on to break down what happened without necessarily having firsthand information. Does that make you uncomfortable?

A. I was out of the country when he died so I actually haven’t done any media on Michael Jackson’s death. But a loss like his is one you have to put in context on a much broader scale. What can we learn from it? If we do talk about Michael Jackson I want to talk about him in the context of the pain he felt in his life that many of us feel in our lives, and why abusing medication to numb ourselves is a very understandable human response to the pain we feel.

Q. What’s one thing that people can do right now that will make their lives healthier?

A. The number one most important thing that keeps people alive, if you look around the world, is walking. I’m not talking about a walk in the park. I’m talking about getting out there and putting your sneakers on and really walking.

Q. What do you think medical professionals need to be careful of when dispensing advice on TV?

A. On our show we have a whole medical unit. It’s a bunch of people, senior medical students and great senior producers from “20/20’’ and elsewhere, that have come together to create this great nuclear arsenal for us that helps keep track of all the medical information coming down the pike. But I will tell you without question that we will say things that are controversial because my litmus test for talking about stuff is not whether it’s peer-reviewed and every doctor agrees with it, it’s whether or not I would tell my family it. If it’s advice I’d give my family, that, to me, is enough.

Sarah Rodman can be reached at srodman@globe.com