Join us in our conversation with Lauren Small, writer, novelist, and academic here at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In this episode, we discuss the roles, purposes, and benefits of narrative medicine, particularly in relation to the AfterWards program that Lauren runs. Our discussion of Lauren’s own historical fiction works takes us from an influenza-stricken Baltimore of the early twentieth century, to a massacre in nineteenth-century Colorado, to stories about the First Crusade in the eleventh century. In addition to her own books, Lauren helps us build a fantastic reading list of novels touching on many of the themes of this podcast. Thank you for listening, and happy reading!

PEOPLE AND WORKS MENTIONED  

Division of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University 

Kendrick Lamar “i” Music Video  

Loren Ludwig 

Lauren Small, The Eye Begins to See (2023) 

Lauren Small, The Hanging of Ruben Ashford (2022) 

Lauren Small, Wolf Constellation (2018) 

Samuel K. Roberts, Infectious Fear (2009) 

Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) 

Lauren Small, Choke Creek (2009) 

American Association for the History of Medicine 2024 Conference 

Rita Charon 

Pat Barker’s Regeneration Trilogy (1990s) 

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall (2009) 

Barry Unsworth 

Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders (2001) 

Lauren Groff, Matrix (2021) 

Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet (2020) 

Philip Roth, Nemesis (2010) 

Pat Barker, Toby’s Room (2012) 

John Singer Sargent, The Four Doctors (1906) 

Anton Chekhov