The Nocturnists

Anne Basting, a scholar, writer, and advocate for creative aging, speaks about her groundbreaking work transforming dementia care through creativity and storytelling. As the founder of TimeSlips and author of "Creative Care," Basting shares how she discovered the power of improvisation to spark imagination, dignity, and joy in people with dementia. Together, we explore the “beautiful question,” the principles of “yes, and,” and “pr...

Dr. Susan Nathan, a palliative care physician at the Boston VA, and Thor Ringler, a therapist and poet at the Madison VA, share the story of My Life, My Story — a groundbreaking program that brings veterans’ voices into their medical charts through first-person narratives. Born from a desire to foster empathy and human connection in clinical care, the program has now spread to over 80 VA hospitals nationwide. Susan and Thor reflect...

Corey Feist, co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation, shares the story of his sister-in-law, Dr. Lorna Breen, a dedicated New York City emergency physician who died by suicide in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Corey reflects on her passion for medicine, the shock and grief that followed her death, and the flood of messages from healthcare workers that exposed deep stigma and barriers to seeking mental health c...

Dr. Wendy Dean, psychiatrist, writer, and co-founder of Moral Injury of Healthcare, reveals how a profit-driven healthcare system is wounding the very clinicians sworn to care for patients. Drawing from her book If I Betray These Words, Dean explains the concept of moral injury—how systemic betrayal, not personal weakness, often drives physician distress—and shares harrowing true stories of doctors punished, silenced, or even destr...

Today, we're releasing a special bonus episode featuring Emily and our "uncertainty correspondent" Alexa Miller, in conversation with the ABIM Foundation. Together, they reflect on the key insights from creating the Uncertainty in Medicine series.

Thank you to the ABIM Foundation for hosting and recording this webinar. To sign up for a webinar in the future, visit buildingtrust.org/webinars.

Find show notes, transcript...

In the series finale, we explore a different type of uncertainty—the uncertainty that arises around the healthcare system itself. This episode follows Ed Stratton, a stage IV cancer patient who beat his cancer, only to be denied a life-saving liver transplant by his insurance provider. His daughter Erin, armed with industry knowledge and unshakable determination, teams up with a healthcare whistleblower and an AI-power...

What does it mean to live well in a world where nothing is certain — not in medicine, not in life? In this episode, we follow a high school teacher who asks his students to examine “the good life” through philosophy, Buddhism, and existential inquiry. We meet two women — a Buddhist monk and a disability rights advocate — who bring spiritual wisdom to the messy realities of illness, caregiving, and embodiment. Their sto...

Today, we explore the paradox of mortality: something both certain and utterly unknowable. Through a haunting parable from Ursula K. Le Guin and stories from doctors and loved ones, we hear what happens when people try to plan for death—or avoid it. A daughter processes her mother’s calm decision to pursue assisted dying. A physician grapples with an ambiguous advance directive. A neurointensivist weighs the line between hope and f...

Today, we step inside the studio of visual artist Leila Simon Hayes, whose bold, shape-driven designs are born from a process rooted in imperfection, intuition, and trust. Through her story, we explore how Leila’s creative practice helped her navigate decades of chronic pain and medical dismissal, eventually leading her to healing not through certainty, but through listening—both to her art and her body. Her journey in...

Today, we explore the hidden layers of communication in medicine—what gets said, what doesn’t, and how uncertainty lives not just in the clinical data, but in the space between people. From a telemedicine encounter with a stubbornly independent patient in the Santa Cruz mountains, to a deeply personal story of navigating breast cancer risk, and finally to the ICU, where one physician is trying to revolutionize how teams talk about ...

Today, we step into the dance studio with improvisational dance artist Chris Aiken, whose work lives at the intersection of uncertainty, movement, and presence. With insights that resonate far beyond the dance studio, Chris explores how attention, poetic instinct, and even failure are essential tools for responding creatively under pressure—much like an ER doctor at a moment of crisis.

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This week, we explore how time and uncertainty are intertwined in the practice of medicine. A toxicologist faces a split-second decision in the ER that could mean life or death for a young patient. A woman with chronic ankle pain spends years searching for answers as dozens of doctors offer snap diagnoses and failed treatments. A rheumatologist navigates the slow, murky waters of autoimmune disease, where diagnosis and...

When a 7.6 magnitude earthquake leveled entire villages in Pakistan, retired U.S. Navy Admiral Mike LeFever was thrust into the heart of the disaster with no playbook and a simple directive: provide humanitarian aid and strengthen U.S.-Pakistan relations. In this episode, LeFever recounts what it was like to lead a massive relief effort in the chaotic aftermath—coordinating aid, rebuilding schools, and navigating diplomacy in a cou...

What happens when doctors have to make life-or-death decisions in an evidence-free zone — and patients are left to navigate the unknown? In episode 5 of “Uncertainty in Medicine", we bring you three gripping, real-life stories: a neurosurgeon weighing impossible risks in the operating room, a palliative care doctor facing a young man’s quiet resolve to die, and a patient whose long-awaited kidney transplant vanishes in a single pho...

What does uncertainty in medicine have to do with Chernobyl? According to patient safety officer Dr. Ron Wyatt, more than we might think. In the fourth episode of our "Uncertainty in Medicine" series, he draws a chilling connection between one of history’s worst nuclear disasters and the quiet, preventable tragedies that unfold in hospitals every day. In both cases, the warning signs were there. People sensed something...

In episode 3 of the "Uncertainty in Medicine" series, patient Dana undergoes a routine knee replacement and expects a straightforward recovery. Instead, she’s plunged into a baffling and relentless illness—one that defies diagnosis and leaves her life in limbo. As her symptoms intensify and specialists write her off, Dana finds an unwavering ally in her primary care doctor, the one person who refuses to let her fall th...

On this episode of Conversations, Emily sits down with the creative team behind The Pitt—a gripping new medical drama on HBO Max that’s making waves in the healthcare world and beyond. Joining her are showrunner R. Scott Gemmill (ER, NCIS: LA), physician-writer Dr. Joe Sachs (ER), and emergency medicine educator and EM:RAP founder Dr. Mel Herbert. Together, they go behind the scenes of the show, discussing characters, medical cases...

Step inside Alexa Miller’s classroom, where paintings become portals and doctors learn to see like patients. In this episode, Alexa leads a powerful exercise called the “image circle,” where clinicians reflect on their own experiences of medical uncertainty and choose artworks that speak to those moments. What follows is anything but abstract—through close looking and deep conversation, participants begin to feel what it’s like to ...

In the premiere of the "Uncertainty in Medicine" series, The Nocturnists explore medicine’s uneasy relationship with not knowing. From the clean resolutions of medical dramas to the structured rituals of case conferences, the culture of medicine often treats uncertainty as something to be avoided, resolved, or explained away. But what happens when uncertainty is not just a temporary gap in knowledge—but a constant, liv...