Dr. Shanda McManus on Grief, Narrative Medicine, and Embracing the Humanity of Physicians

Shownotes For Podcast Episode 16: Dr. Shanda McManus on Grief, Narrative Medicine, and Embracing the Humanity of Physicians

In this episode of The Holistic Physician Coaching Podcast, Dr. Jessica Singh speaks with Shanda McManus, MD, about how caregiving, profound grief and loss, and storytelling shaped her life, her work in medicine, and her understanding of what physicians need to remain connected to their humanity.

Shanda McManus, MD, is a family medicine physician, speaker, author, and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, where she teaches narrative medicine and humanism. Her writing explores grief, race, Black women’s health, healing, and what medicine costs the people who practice it. Her debut memoir, Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, began as an act of reconnection with her brother Monir, who was murdered while she was a first-year medical student.

In this episode, Dr. McManus reflects on caring for her mother during childhood as she lived with ovarian cancer and witnessing the difference compassionate medical care could make, even when a cure was not possible. She shares how the death of her mother from cancer, the tragic death of her grandmother in a car accident, and the murder of her brother Monir during her first year of medical school shaped the physician, educator, and writer she became.

She describes returning to medical school shortly after her brother’s death and carrying what she calls a “heavy backpack of grief” through her training and medical practice. Believing there was no space to pause, grieve, or show vulnerability, she pushed her grief aside for decades. Dr. McManus discusses how unprocessed loss affected her sense of connection and wholeness and how turning toward her grief allowed her to bring more of herself into every aspect of her life.

Dr. Singh and Dr. McManus explore the ways medical education and healthcare culture can leave little room for physicians and physicians-in-training to process grief. Dr. McManus shares how medical education could better support learners through personal loss, the death of patients, and the emotional demands of caring for others. 

The conversation also examines creativity as a pathway for processing what physicians witness and carry. Dr. McManus shares how writing led her to narrative medicine and helped her bring together two central parts of her life: medicine and storytelling. She reflects on the stories patients share, the stories physicians carry, and the stories they help shape alongside their patients.

Her debut memoir, Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, began as a series of letters to her brother Monir. Through writing, Dr. McManus found a way to revisit their relationship, reconnect with him, and integrate grief that had remained unexamined for many years. 

Throughout the conversation, Dr. McManus encourages physicians to take space for the emotions and pain they carry, seek connection, and acknowledge their own humanity. Her message reminds us that making room for grief does not diminish our ability to care for others; rather, it supports greater wholeness, compassion, and presence in our work and in life.

Instagram: @shandamdwrites

Website: http://shandamcmanus.com/ 

Book: Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, SPLIT/LIP Press, 2016.

Weatherproof on Substack: https://shandamcmanusmd.substack.com/

Bio:

Shanda McManus, MD, is a family medicine physician, speaker, and author. She is an emerging voice on grief, race, and what medicine costs the people who practice it. Dr. McManus was born and raised in Philadelphia. She received her B.A. in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania and her M.D. from Thomas Jefferson Medical College.

Dr. McManus was a 2021 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow in Creative Nonfiction and a 2023 Baldwin For The Arts Fellow.  Her writing has appeared in Bellevue Literary Review and other literary journals. She is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, where she teaches narrative medicine and humanism. She publishes Weatherproof, a Substack newsletter on Black women's health and healing.

Her debut memoir, Brother Epistles: A Sister's Memoir, published with Split/Lip Press, June 2026, began not as a book but as an act of reconnection with brother Monir, who was murdered in 1992, when she was a first-year medical student. Dr. McManus believes storytelling is its own kind of medicine. 

Timestamps:

0 - Introduction 

2:17 - How Caregiving & Loss Shaped Dr. McManus as a Physician

5:09 - Carrying Unprocessed Grief Through Medical Training and Practice

12:08 - Bridging Gaps: Creating Space to Process Grief in Medical Education

20:13 - Narrative Medicine, Storytelling, and the Healing Power of Writing

30:05 - Takeaways

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