Join host Dr. Jonathan Weinkle and guest Dr. Elisha Waldman on this debut episode of Healing People, Not Patients as they explore medicine as a modern religion, complete with rituals, hierarchies, and sacred spaces. Discover how embracing spirituality and human connection can transform healthcare and help physicians rediscover purpose in their practice.
What if medicine has become a religion, and what does that mean for physicians and patients?
In the premiere episode of Healing People, Not Patients, Dr. Elisha Waldman, joins Dr. Jonathan Weinkle to discuss how medicine mirrors religious systems with its temples, hierarchies, and rituals. Drawing from his book This Narrow Space and his diverse experiences in the US, Israel, and the UK, Dr. Waldman unpacks the values and pitfalls of this structure. He shares how rituals like handwashing or structured diagnoses can ground providers but also risk disconnecting them from patients’ deeper hopes, fears, and values. Through stories of his palliative care work, he offers a path to expand the “narrow space” of illness, fostering connection and meaning.
This episode is a must-listen for physicians seeking to bring soul back into their practice.
Dr. Elisha Waldman is a pediatric palliative care doctor and oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. With a BA in religious studies, he sees medicine as a religion with rituals and hierarchies. Author of This Narrow Space (2019), he draws from experiences in the US, Israel, and UK to explore healthcare’s human side. As faculty for the George Washington Institute’s Interprofessional Spiritual Care Education Curriculum, he trains clinicians to engage patients’ hopes, fears, and values, fostering meaningful care.
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Healing People, Not Patients explores ways to enhance medical practice by infusing it with compassion, humanity, and a deeper sense of purpose, aiming to help healthcare professionals rediscover the "soul" of their work. Framed around the four questions of the Passover Seder, it probes how to transform medicine for the better, promoting an empathetic and supportive approach that empowers patients to create meaningful, sober lives, while drawing on Jewish teachings about community and friendship.
Our theme song, "Room for the Soul," is available on Bandcamp at https://jonathanweinkle.bandcamp.com/track/room-for-the-soul.
Dr. Jonathan Weinkle is an internist and pediatrician who practices primary care at a community health center in Pittsburgh. He strives to be a "nice Jewish doctor" focused on patient-centered healthcare, emphasizing effective communication and holistic well-being.
He teaches the courses, “Death and the Healthcare Professions” and “Healing and Humanity” at the University of Pittsburgh, authored the books Healing People, Not Patients and Illness to Exodus, and runs ‘Healers Who Listen’, where he blogs on healing and Jewish tradition. Once an aspiring rabbi, he now integrates faith and medicine to support other physicians and his own patients.
🌐 Website: healerswholisten.com
🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jonathan-weinkle-3440032a
📸 Instagram: @HealersWhoListen
📘 Facebook: @JonathanWeinkle