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Healing People, Not Patients

Healing People, Not Patients

By: Dr. Jonathan Weinkle Doctor Podcast Network
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Welcome to Healing People, Not Patients, hosted by Dr. Jonathan Weinkle, MD, FAAP, FACP. A primary care physician and teacher deeply grounded in Jewish wisdom, Dr. Weinkle invites listeners to explore medicine not as a business transaction but as a sacred calling. This show shines a light on the fractured healthcare system and offers stories, reflections, and conversations that reconnect doctors with the heart of healing—body, mind, and spirit. Through solo episodes, expert interviews, and even original music, you’ll gain inspiration and practical guidance to navigate burnout, rediscover joy, and reclaim purpose in medicine. Whether you’re a physician, healthcare professional, chaplain, or simply someone who longs for a more compassionate and humane approach to care, this podcast will help you find meaning in the practice of healing.©2025 Jonathan Weinkle, MD Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Physical Illness & Disease Spirituality
Episodes
  • Jewish Book Festival | EP25

    Jewish Book Festival | EP25
    27 Oct 2026
    This episode is sponsored by NURPNURP helps busy physicians grow their wealth through AI-powered algorithmic trading designed for demanding careers. No day trading, no guesswork, and no constant market watching required. Ready to put your money to work? Visit start.nurp.com/doctors to learn more. Trading involves risk, and results may vary. This is not financial advice.—--------------------------What does it actually mean to see yourself every generation as if you left Egypt?In this live recording from Congregation Beth Shalom, Dr. Jonathan Weinkle unpacks the central commandment of the Seder and shows how it is designed to do two things at once: build identity with our ancestors and turn that identity into empathy for people still trapped in their own Mitzrayim. He weaves personal stories from medicine, the four types of empathy identified in medical education research, and honest audience conversation about presence, action, and the limits of choice.The talk ultimately asks whether behavioral empathy, showing up and doing the right thing even when the feeling is not fully there can open the door to deeper connection, and whether remembering our own narrow places is enough to keep us from judging the hard choices others make.Top 3 TakeawaysThe Seder’s core text is not only about identity. Seeing ourselves as if we left Egypt is meant to produce empathy for strangers, the oppressed, and anyone still living in a narrow place.There are four kinds of empathy, cognitive, emotive, moral, and behavioral. Medical students often start with strong emotive empathy; experience tends to shift people toward cognitive and behavioral forms.“Fake it till you make it” can be legitimate. Acting with behavioral empathy (presence, listening, concrete help) often comes before the inner feeling fully arrives and that action itself can be healing.About The ShowHealing 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."About the HostDr. 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 The Healing People, Not Patients Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or professional advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your personal or organizational decisions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    51 min
  • How to Rebuild Trust: The Chaplain and the Doctor with Betty Clark and Jessica Zitter | EP24

    How to Rebuild Trust: The Chaplain and the Doctor with Betty Clark and Jessica Zitter | EP24
    13 Oct 2026
    This episode is sponsored by NURPNURP helps busy physicians grow their wealth through AI-powered algorithmic trading designed for demanding careers. No day trading, no guesswork, and no constant market watching required. Ready to put your money to work? Visit start.nurp.com/doctors to learn more. Trading involves risk, and results may vary. This is not financial advice.—-------------------------------What does it take to enter the room of a patient who has already kicked the doctor out?Join Dr. Jonathan Weinkle in this episode of Healing People, Not Patient as he welcomes Chaplain Betty Clark and Dr. Jessica Zitter to unpack a powerful scene with Mr. James Kelly and his brother Bernard. Against a backdrop of post COVID collapse in trust, racial and historical trauma, personal fear, and the sense that “you walk into the hospital and you never walk out,” they show how listening without agenda, naming fear, and simply showing up can begin to reopen the door.The work is not about fixing the entire system in one visit or guaranteeing outcomes. It is about lifting the spirit, finding common ground in hope, refusing to take a patient’s anger personally, and recognizing that presence, especially when a chaplain and physician walk in together can be powerful medicine when trust has been eroded.Top 3 TakeawaysDistrust is rarely personal at first. Patients often arrive already carrying systemic, racial, historical, or prior traumatic experiences with healthcare; clinicians who refuse to take the anger as about them stay available for the next conversation.Presence without agenda builds trust faster than expertise alone. Asking “What are you hoping for?” or “How is your heart?” keeps the focus on the patient’s story and spirit rather than the clinician’s goals.Concordance and partnership matter. Shared identity, a trusted community member, or simply a chaplain and doctor entering the room together can shift the dynamic when one person alone cannot break through.About The ShowHealing 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." About the GuestsChaplain Betty Clark, MDiv, is a longtime hospice and palliative care chaplain who founded Church Without Walls and the East Bay Community End of Life Coalition. Dr. Jessica Zitter is a critical care and palliative physician, author of Extreme Measures, and co-creator of films including Extremis, Caregiver: A Love Story, and The Chaplain and the Doctor.About the Host: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 The Healing People, Not Patients Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or professional advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your personal or organizational decisions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    45 min
  • How Not to Lose Faith in Medicine | Ep23

    How Not to Lose Faith in Medicine | Ep23
    30 Sep 2026
    This episode is sponsored by NURPNURP helps busy physicians grow their wealth through AI-powered algorithmic trading designed for demanding careers. No day trading, no guesswork, and no constant market watching required. Ready to put your money to work? Visit start.nurp.com/doctors to learn more. Trading involves risk, and results may vary. This is not financial advice.—--------------------------What happens when we expect medicine to give us certainty in a world that can never guarantee it? In this solo episode of Healing People, Not Patients, Dr. Jonathan Weinkle draws on Ecclesiastes, Jewish thought, literature, and clinical experience, to examine why medicine can create its own crises of faith when patients and clinicians mistake risk reduction for promises of good health.The conversation explores the limits of prevention, the danger of turning medical recommendations into moral judgments, and how unexpected outcomes can cause patients to lose trust in medicine. From vaccines and chronic illness to treatment side effects and unanswered suffering, the episode challenges healthcare professionals to embrace humility while continuing to make meaningful differences in patients’ lives.Ultimately, medicine is not about immortality. It is about gently nudging life toward better outcomes while recognizing uncertainty. The episode also highlights one of the most powerful tools available to healing professionals: human connection. Being present, building relationships, and helping patients reconnect with their communities may be just as important as the treatments we prescribe.Top 3 TakeawaysMedicine was never about certainty or immortality: Risk factors change odds; they do not guarantee outcomes. Over promising turns recommendations into moral tests and breeds the same loss of faith Acher experienced when the promised long life failed to appear.Hevel is breath fragile, shallow, and all we have: The task is not to eliminate the evil days but to lengthen and enrich the time while they “come not,” gently, without blowing the breath away through over treatment or isolation.Presence and relationship are powerful medicine. “Two are better than one.” Strong, meaningful connections including with clinicians who simply show up may matter more for flourishing than many of the interventions we prescribe. Community is even better.Episode MentionedEpisode 11: Dwelling in the 'Who Knows' - Chaplaincy in Crisis About The ShowHealing 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."About the Host: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 The Healing People, Not Patients Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical, legal, or professional advice. Always consult qualified professionals regarding your personal or organizational decisions. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    24 min
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