The patient-doctor relationship is complicated and fraught. Patients often feel confused and talked down to, in part because doctors feel like they need to project authority. As a physician and a poet, Laura Kolbe is trying to make room for uncertainty and humility from both sides in the exam room. Kolbe’s new collection of poetry, Little Pharma, explores the messy and human side of doctoring. And: The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed so many vulnerabilities in our healthcare system, from racial inequities to provider burnout. Irène Mathieu is a writer, pediatrician, and medical teacher. She argues that poetry can be a small part of fixing those vulnerabilities.

Later in the show: What if the difference between the right diagnosis and the wrong diagnosis is whether or not a doctor thinks you’re believable? Cathryn Molloy shares why education, socio-economic status, and especially gender influence how doctors listen to and treat their patients. Plus: What happens when we empower on-the-ground healthcare workers like nurses with the ability to solve problems and make real changes in their workplace? Nursing and design thinking expert Erica Lewis says the lives of both healthcare workers and patients are transformed.