Healthcare is Human

About Healthcare is Human

Since 2020, Healthcare is Human (HIH) has been telling authentic healthcare stories. Dr. Ryan McCarthy created HIH in Martinsburg, WV, to give voice to individuals who were under-represented as the Covid-19 pandemic began. Since then, HIH has grown exponentially and is now a complex narrative medicine initiative. Writer, poet, and narrative medicine expert Renée K. Nicholson co-hosts the podcast. Molly Humphreys, native of Shepherdstown, WV, photographer on the project, has captured hundred of images of healthcare workers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Visit HIH on Facebook and Instagram to see these incredible photos . Molly's world class portfolio can be found by searching for Piccadilly Posh. Kym Mattioli produces the podcast. HIH is supported by grants from the West Virginia Humanities Council, WVU Foundation, and generous donors across West Virginia. Our first exhibit "Wild, Wonderful and Brave: Fighting the Pandemic in the Eastern Panhandle" ran at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, VA, from June 2022-June 2023. Our most recent exhibit was in the Pylons Commons at the Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center in Morgantown, WV, feom September 2023 through June 2024. Dozens of the best photographs were featured alongside poetry by Marc Harshman, Torli Bush, Renée K. Nicholson, and Randi Ward. Our companion film, HEALTHCARE IS HUMAN, directed by Corwyn “Cory” Garman, can be viewed inside the William A. Neal Museum. Original music for our films and museum exhibitions is composed by Robert Sears and Jared Sims. Isaac McCarthy plays the banjo on the podcast. Healthcare is Human has been featured in 100 Days in Appalachia, West Virginia Public Radio, Synapsis, INSider, KevinMD, and the Gold Foundation. A book is in development as is HIH curricula at the West Virginia University School of Medicine. HIH is a signature program of the WVU Internal Medicine Residency at the Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg, WV. Find us on TED.com to hear our origin story.

Publisher

Healthcare is Human

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Jan 2022

Latest episode

14 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

75 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Sept 2026

   The Making of a Program Director

   Send us Fan Mail In this episode hosts Renée K. Nicholson and Ryan McCarthy explore Ryan’s journey into internal medicine and then the program director of a residency program in his hometown, Martinsburg, West Virginia (WV). “I got viral meningitis when I was a junior in high school and, while I was in the hospital, I found a group of young doctors at the foot of my bed who were residents. Intellectually, I saw some of myself there. I had never thought about medicine before I got sick a...

2. 

   26 Jul 2026

   The Making of a Poet

   Send us Fan Mail In this episode hosts Ryan McCarthy and Renée K. Nicholson explore Renée’s creative journey, one that began as a professional ballet dancer and changed course into creative writing and humanities after a devastating illness. “When I couldn’t dance anymore, I wanted to figure out what was next for me. While I was at Butler University, I went to hear the Irish poet Seamus Heaney and I didn’t so much hear poetry as experience it as a full-body moment. When he read his poet...

3. 

   9 May 2026

   Dr. Urooj Fatima - Making Biryani in West Virginia

   Send us Fan Mail In this episode we meet Dr. Urooj Fatima, a native of Pakistan and first-year internal medicine resident at the Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia. During her first month of residency, Fatima participated in a cooking class on the Eastern Campus of the West Virginia University School of Medicine as a part of the Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine Track. Working alongside medical students and family medicine residents, she helped prepare meals appropriate for p...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 35 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

45

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60

Contact Healthcare is Human

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.