A multi award-winning podcast and a series of 11 beautifully emotive artworks explore shame in the medical profession, as part of a new interactive display at the University of Exeter's Streatham Campus.
The display brings together artwork and some of the audio from the ten-part documentary podcast series 'Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest'. The series was produced by The Nocturnists, an award-winning independent medical storytelling podcast hosted by physician Emily Silverman, and in collaboration with the Shame and Medicine project which is being led by researchers at the University of Exeter's Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health with funding from the Wellcome Trust.
The aim of the Shame and Medicine project is to explore the role of shame in various aspects of health and medicine, including clinical practice, patient experience, and medical student education.
The new display features 11 artworks by Italian illustrator and visual designer Beppe Conti, each artwork representing a different part of the 10-part episode podcast and the overall podcast series. Conti's work takes the form of digital collage often exploring complex issues through surreal compositions. In 2022, the main banner image for the series (pictured above) won the silver medal in the 'Educational and Scientific' category at Autori di Immagini, a significant annual art competition in Italy.
Viewers to the display are encouraged to follow a QR code to listen to clips from the podcast. 'Shame in Medicine: The Lost Forest' brings together voices and stories from healthcare workers across the UK and USA, each episode exploring a different story of shame within the medical profession. The stories come from healthcare workers at different points in their career, working in different parts of the medical profession.
