The Nocturnists Podcast

 
 

The Nocturnists is an award-winning medical storytelling podcast, hosted by physician Emily Silverman. We feature personal stories from frontline clinicians, conversations with healthcare-related authors and art-makers, and special podcast documentary series such as Post-Roe America, Shame in Medicine, Black Voices in Healthcare, and Stories from a Pandemic. In 2024, we’ll be bringing you Season 6 of our Stories from the World of Medicine and more Conversations, as well as commencing production on a new series, Uncertainty in Medicine.

Our mission is to humanize healthcare and foster joy, wonder, and curiosity among clinicians and patients alike.

**Anthem Award winner, two-time Webby Award nominee, and Ambie Award finalist for Best Indie Podcast in 2023.**

 

Latest Episode


Ongoing Series

Conversations

Emily in conversation with artist and thinkers whose work examines the moral and cultural issues besetting healthcare today. Guests include Pulitzer Prize nominee Louise Aronson, MD, New York Times bestselling authors Janice Nimura and Michele Harper, MD, and Oscar-nominated filmmaker David France.

Emily speaks with Dr. Wesley Ely about the harms of deep sedation and immobilization in the ICU, and how he's transforming critical care, one patient at a time.

Stories from the World of Medicine

The Nocturnists original stories from our sold-out live performances, followed by discussions between Emily and the storytellers.

Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5

Pediatric critical care physician Cathy Humikowski tells the story of having a cardiac arrest the day she gave birth to her daughter. Told at The Nocturnists’ Transitions show in San Francisco on January 16, 2020.

  • WINNER - Quill Podcast Award 2022 - Best Health Podcast


Special Series

Post-Roe America (2023)

An audio documentary series exploring the impact of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision on the lives and practices of healthcare workers.

When the Supreme Court hands down the Dobbs decision, clinicians rush to decipher its implications.

Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest (2022)

An award-winning documentary podcast series created in partnership with the Shame and Medicine project at the University of Exeter.

The Nocturnists teams up with shame experts Will Bynum and Luna Dolezal to investigate the nature of shame, and its role in the culture of medicine.

Black Voices in Healthcare (2020)

A documentary podcast series from the summer of 2020, featuring the voices of Black people in healthcare, hosted by Ashley McMullen, MD and executive produced by Kimberly Manning, MD.

In our first episode of Black Voices in Healthcare, we sit with the grief of the event that set this project into motion: the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.


Stories from a Pandemic (2020-2021)

A documentary podcast series featuring the voices of healthcare workers confronting the pandemic in the spring of 2020 (Part I) and 2021 (Part II). No Words is a short animated video memorializing those we’ve lost. The complete audio diary archive has been acquired for historic preservation by the U.S. Library of Congress.

In the first episode of our Stories from a Pandemic series, you share stories of bracing for disaster.