The Nocturnists

OB/GYN Jackie Howitt and pediatrician Gretchen Volk bring us into the deserted airport where they first met in April 2020 on their way to offer COVID-19 relief in NYC. Though their friendship began a…

In today’s episode, Emily speaks with author Dolen Perkins-Valdez about her recent novel Take My Hand, based on the 1973 case of the Relf sisters who were forcibly sterilized at a federally-funded he…

In this live panel at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, Emily sits down with playwright Jake Broder, actor Lucy Davenport, and neurologist Bruce Miller to discuss Broder’s play UnRavelled, which expl…

In this episode, Emily speaks with psychiatrist-philosopher Iain McGilchrist about his seminal book The Master and His Emissary, which explores the relationship between our brain’s right and left hem…

In this episode, Emily speaks with physician-painter Matthew Wetschler about pushing limits, the tension between presence and absence, and how he’s remained curious in the aftermath of crisis.

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Emily speaks with physician and author, Dr. Gabor Maté about his latest book, The Myth of Normal, which explores the connections between our environment, psychological wounds, and medical disease.

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In this episode, Emily speaks with physician, artist, and author, Shirlene Obuobi about fiction as escapism, and the stories behind her debut novel, On Rotation.

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Hi Listeners! Today is Giving Tuesday, and we wanted to take this time to express our gratitude and let you know what’s coming up on The Nocturnists podcast. Thank you for supporting our work in tran…

Over the last nine episodes, we’ve listened to dozens upon dozens of clinicians tell their stories about shame. What have we learned? What can we take away from all of this? And where do we go from h…

According to medical culture, a clinician should “fix” illness, not have one – especially not a mental illness. But in reality, mental illness is incredibly common, and a huge source of shame, which …

When healthcare workers put on their uniforms to go to work, what other roles, masks, or disguises do they put on as well? The norms and standards of our workplace culture are often more implicit tha…

1 in 10 physicians will get sued at some point in their career – but physicians rarely discuss this, much less prepare for it. How do we bring litigation, and all the stress and shame associated with…

For most clinicians, the idea of harming a patient is a worst nightmare. But in a high-stakes profession, practiced by humans in a dysfunctional system, errors are nearly inevitable. So how do we dea…

In medical culture, shame is often wielded as a teaching tool. We shame learners for not knowing, for forgetting, for making mistakes. When does this serve us? When is it harmful? Is there a better w…

On the path to medicine, we’re constantly taking tests: MCAT, shelf exams, step exams, boards, and more. What are these numbers good for? What are they not good for? What is the emotional impact of t…

We all arrive at the gateway to medicine carrying baggage from our past. We’ve had different hopes, hurts, and childhood arcs. How do these early life experiences guide us toward our careers? And onc…

Medical culture is filled with impossible ideals: the resident expected to work a 28-hour shift without complaint or error; the surgeon with the steel bladder; the doctor with perfect bedside manner;…

What is shame? And how does it manifest in medical culture? In this episode, The Nocturnists teams up with two shame experts to investigate these questions. From a pool of over 200 stories submitted …

A 10-part audio documentary series on The Nocturnists podcast, “Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest” explores how shame manifests in medical culture.

Shame is ubiquitous in healthcare. Shame experienc…