October 13, 2025

Ep. 523 Humanizing Healthcare: The Good Listening Project with Jenny Hegland

1 hour 15 minutes

Learn how deep listening and poetry are helping transform healthcare and provide an antidote to burnout.

My guest Jenny Hegland is the Executive Director of The Good Listening Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to humanizing healthcare through the healing power of poetry and compassionate presence. We discuss the work of TGLP and the power of sharing our stories and having them reflected back to us in the form of poetry. Learn more at the website:

goodlistening.org

Read the poem The House Medicine Built here

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This episode includes:

The origin story of The Good Listening Project

The power of poetry to reflect our deep stories

Why being heard by someone else is deep medicine

The synergy between the storyteller and the listener poet

How TGLP works

Why grief is the number one concern of healthcare providers served by TGLP

You don’t have to be skilled at poetry to become a “listener poet”

The crafts of listening to and writing poems for others can both be taught

The quality of listening can actually affect the quality of sharing that happens

How both community and mystery support us when we hold space for others

What it involves to become a “listener poet”

How “Caregiver Haven” supports caregivers

We give the gift of staying with; there is nothing to fix. -The Good Listening Project

Links mentioned in this episode:

Kickstarter campaign for Wild and Holy

Latest post on Substack: Grief, Creativity, and Growing the Soul

What Really Matters Podcast

Explore the poetry anthologies created by TGLP

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