Discover how narrative practice and poetry help Maya Sorini, MD, navigate pain, memory, and the moral complexity of medicine in this powerful Mindworks in Conversation episode.
Click here to listen to a conversation with Maya Sorini, an emergency physician and poet whose debut collection, The Boneheap in the Lion's Den, draws from the raw intensity of trauma care.
In this episode of MindWorks in Conversation, Maya shares how poetry became essential to her survival—a way to process pain, honor memory, and reflect on the daily moral complexity of medicine. “Poetry chose me,” she says, describing how verses often arrive unbidden, scribbled between hospital shifts or pulled over on the side of the road.
The conversation explores the blurred boundaries between science and art, joy and sorrow, detachment and deep compassion. Maya reimagines the biblical story of Daniel as a metaphor for life inside a healthcare system that both demands and devours. Yet through it all, her words resonate with fierce tenderness and unflinching presence. This is a conversation about how to stay human while doing the hardest work.
