Shows
The NocturnistsBONUS - Managing Uncertainty: A Path to Better Patient CareToday, 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, transcripts, and more at thenocturnists.org, and subscribe to our substack. The "Uncertainty in Medicine" series is generously funded by the ABIM Foundation, by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, and the ...2025-07-0355 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Denial and AcceptanceIn 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-powered startup to wage an extraordinary battle for his life. We end with a quiet reflection on uncertainty, and what it means to keep going. Find show notes, transcripts, and more at thenocturnists.or...2025-06-2644 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: The Good LifeWhat 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 stories, woven with reflections on impermanence, suffering, and compassion, offer a new way of thinking about uncertainty: not as something to fix, but as something to live with. Find sh...2025-06-1938 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Trusting the Process with Leila Simon HayesToday, 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 invites us to reconsider our own relationship with uncertainty, and to ask: what happens when we stop demanding answers and start embracing the unknown? Find show notes, transcripts, and more at t...2025-06-0521 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Off ScriptToday, 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 the unknown, this episode invites listeners into the gray zones of uncertainty and the doctor-patient relationship. Find show notes, transcripts, and more at thenocturnists.org, and s...2025-05-2936 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Precision in Motion with Chris AikenToday, 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. Find show notes, transcripts, and more at thenocturnists.org, and subscribe to our substack. The "Uncertainty in Medicine" series is generously funded by the ABIM Foundation, by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, and the Gordon & Betty...2025-05-2229 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: A Matter of TimeThis 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 treatment often unfold over months or years. And a couple reckons with the long-term implications of a rare and unpredictable heart condition. Through these stories, we see how uncertainty can stretch...2025-05-1533 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Navigating Uncertainty with Admiral Mike LeFeverWhen 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 country where his presence was politically charged. As his mission evolved from emergency response to long-term relationship-building, including during the fallout of the Bin Laden raid, LeFever shares hard-won lessons on le...2025-05-0818 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Leaps of FaithWhat 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 phone call. These are high-stakes moments where instinct takes over, control slips away, and the only way forward is a leap of faith. Find show notes, transcripts, and more at thenoc...2025-05-0128 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Root Causes with Ronald Wyatt, MDWhat 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 was wrong. But no one spoke up—or if they did, no one listened. Through his work at the Joint Commission, Dr. Wyatt has spent decades investigating sentinel events, the...2025-04-2421 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Through Thick and ThinIn 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 through the cracks. This episode traces their year-long search for answers, revealing the emotional cost of medical uncertainty and the rare power of a clinician who stays the course. Alon...2025-04-1732 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: Looking with Uncertainty with Alexa MillerStep 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 sit on the other side of the exam table. Alexa, a trailblazer at the crossroads of art and medicine, shares frameworks for understanding uncertainty and introduces her BOLD framework for navigating uncertainty...2025-04-1020 min
The NocturnistsUncertainty in Medicine: The Art of Not KnowingIn 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, lived reality? Through story and reflection, this episode invites listeners to reconsider the role of uncertainty in clinical care. What if the goal isn’t to eliminate it, but to navigate it skillfu...2025-04-0328 min
The NocturnistsTrailer: Uncertainty in MedicineMedicine is full of uncertainty—from ambiguous diagnoses to unpredictable outcomes and the complex emotions of not knowing. Uncertainty in Medicine is a new documentary podcast series, created in collaboration with Alexa Miller of ArtsPractica, that examines how both healthcare workers and patients navigate the unknown. Through powerful personal stories and in-depth conversations with professionals whose work depends on making decisions amid uncertainty, the series explores what it means to embrace the gray areas of medicine—and life. The first episode of Uncertainty in Medicine drops Thursday, April 3. Find show notes, transcripts, and more at thenocturnists.org 2025-03-2101 min
The NocturnistsTrailer: Uncertainty in MedicineMedicine is full of uncertainty—from ambiguous diagnoses to unpredictable outcomes and the complex emotions of not knowing. Uncertainty in Medicine is a new documentary podcast series, created in collaboration with Alexa Miller of ArtsPractica, that examines how both healthcare workers and patients navigate the unknown. Through powerful personal stories and in-depth conversations with professionals whose work depends on making decisions amid uncertainty, the series explores what it means to embrace the gray areas of medicine—and life. The first episode of Uncertainty in Medicine drops Thursday, April 3.Find show notes, transcripts, and more at thenocturnists.org2025-03-2001 min