To open our midseason series, Joan is sharing something quietly meaningful: a video of her singing Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens.
If you’ve listened to Season 2, you know how much we’ve explored the body in the presence of death—not just in theory, but in practice, in relationship, in ritual, and in memory. This song lives inside all of those dimensions.
Joan first connected with Casimir Pulaski Day during a time of spiritual unraveling—when she was moving away from Christianity and trying to make sense of what remained. Making music, especially in community (she’s part of a choir full of doctors!), has become one of the most grounding ways she returns to her full self—not just as a doctor, not just as a podcast host, but as a person learning to hold grief, beauty, and complexity.
Sufjan’s lyrics trace the story of a young person grappling with the death of a friend from cancer, framed within the intimate, sometimes aching rituals of Evangelical Christianity. The song dwells in the subtle transformation that unfolds as presence gives way to absence—prayers unanswered, hospital visits endured, and sunlight that insists on showing up after our darkest moments.
Tuesday night at the bible study
We lift our hands and pray over your body
But nothing ever happens...
This song was a balm for Joan when she first heard it, and it continues to be a companion in her evolving relationship with death and meaning-making.
Watch the video here— and if it stirs something in you, we’d love to hear what songs, poems, or practices have helped you metabolize grief.
Throughout the rest of the summer, we’ll be sharing audience Q+As, chats between Joan and Jamie (on everything from pop culture to politics to the Law of Attraction), and embodied practices for healthcare humans—all ways of staying with the questions Season 2 stirred up.
Some posts will be free to read, and others will be available to paid subscribers—so if you’d like to keep close and go deeper with us, now’s a great time to subscribe.
Stay Connected
Dr. Joan Chan
→ Website: joanchanmd.com
→ Instagram: @joanchanmd
→ Podcast: The Other Human in the Room is now part of the Hippocratic Collective—a collaborative home for physician-led podcasts and creators who are reimagining what care can look like across systems and relationships.
Jamie Lee Finch
→ Website: jamieleefinch.com
→ Instagram: @jamieleefinch
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