The Nocturnists

An improv workshop transforms the way psychiatrist David Elkin approaches a patient on the psych consult service, and catalyzes a philosophical shift in his approach to patient care.

The Nocturnists …

Alzheimer's disease used to be a rare diagnosis. But today, more than 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's and this number is projected to triple to 14 million over the next forty years.

The emergency room is a place of intensity—a place of noise and colors and human drama. This is the setting of Dr. Michele Harper's memoir, The Beauty in Breaking, which explores how the healing jour…

Do no harm. Thou shalt not kill. Life is sacred and should be protected at all costs, right? But when is life no longer worth living? Who decides? And what do we do about it?

In this episode, Emily d…

In the last few years, the medical profession has been grappling with the problem of gender bias in medicine, with how the symptoms of women are seen as atypical, or worse, are minimized, dismissed o…

It’s been over a year since the first case of COVID-19 appeared in Seattle, and it’s been a long cold lonely winter. But in our series finale, we wanted to hear about a bright spot in all the darknes…

Where did the pandemic become real for you? This has been the most significant global public health crisis in a generation, but we each experienced it through a different set of eyes.

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The acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is over, but some things are here to stay. How have N-95s, face shields, gowns, gloves and ventilators inserted themselves into our everyday lives?

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The COVID-19 global health crisis shed light on the immense value of doctors, nurses, public health workers, and research scientists. At the same time, the pandemic has all but obliterated the arts: …

We know the pandemic has affected the waking lives of healthcare workers. But what happens after we fall asleep? Does the pandemic haunt us in the shadows too?

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One of the hardest things about being healthcare workers going through this pandemic is that we've both experienced and borne witness to moments that nobody should have to go through alone. Who do we…

To some, the pandemic is a distant thing. The deaths of hundreds of thousands can feel unreal and even impossible to comprehend. That is, until COVID hits home.

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The Nocturnists is back with the second installment of “Stories from a Pandemic”. How have healthcare workers been holding up over the past year? In this episode we hear stories from healthcare worke…

The Nocturnists is proud to announce the second installment of Stories from a Pandemic, which explores what the murky, middle part of the pandemic has been like for healthcare workers.

Tune in Tuesda…

Emily talks to Dr. Suzanne Koven, author of Letter to a Young Female Physician: Notes from a Medical Life. Dr. Koven graduated from medical school in the 80s at a time when there were so few women in…

As much as our culture delights in talking about sex, we do not relish discussing the sexually transmitted diseases which sometimes follow. But STDs are not just a fact of life, they are a subject th…

All of us have experienced physical pain at some point in our lives. Yet many of us are unaware of how essential context is to the pain experience. Even today, there is much about pain that remains p…

Many of us have had to imagine dreaded scenarios for the death of a loved one with dementia. But few have done so with as much cinematic ingenuity and depth of affection as our next guest. In this ep…

More and more Americans are choosing to die at home in the care of a loved one. But who takes care of the caregiver? In today's episode, Emily talks to Dr. Jessica Zitter, a critical care and palliat…

Emily sits down with Danielle Spencer to discuss her book Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity which, in identifying and naming the concept of "metagnosis," brings the study of he…